Who is tethys

For reasons that remain unclear, Tethys sided with the Olympians during this conflict. Translated by Hugh Evelyn-White. Internet Sacred Text Archive. Accessed on March 11, Each and every single one of their children would watch over and care for a particular spring, river, lake, or even a pond or pasture, or cloud. In time, there were as many as 3, of these guardians. Oceanus and Tethys were pleased with what they had brought into the world, and knew that these new children would help offset the chaos that mortals and creatures unknowingly created when they attempted to control the waters.

She would care for all living creatures within water as well: fishes, seals, dolphins, whales, and sea monsters. Not all of the uncounted years of the gods were as happy as the time the Oceanids and Titans were brought into the world.

The gods, like mortals, were petty and would grapple for power and even betray each other and break oaths. By now, Tethys had become the nursemaid of the world through her divine gift, and she had plenty of guardians to make sure that there would be enough pure water for all. Then, the great battle of Totanomachy began, and earthquakes divided the seas into basins as Zeus fought the Gigantes , shaking the whole Earth, seas, and heavens as the Hecantonchires hurled enormous boulders.

Thetys felt the terrible earthquake and kept the daughter of Rhea, Hera, safe from the battle and became her foster parent along with Oceanus. However, even the mutual caring for Hera could not keep Tethys and Oceanus from first growing angry at each other, and they ultimately stopped bringing children into the world.

The estrangement that was the ultimate result of their arguments separated the upper and lower waters. The children of Tethys, the Oceanids, would go on to create nymphs, some of whom were handmaidens to the daughter of Leto. Oceanus would keep a never-sleeping current within the oceans, while Tethys would be a loving nursemaid to the world through her gentle ebb and flow.

This is why the constellation never sets below the horizon, and can always be viewed above the oceans. Tethys is sometimes thought of in the form of a diving bird, for she transformed Aesacus into a bird with long legs and neck to protect him from his terrible fall into the ocean.

Hera then seduced Zeus and made love with him until exhaustion which gave a window of opportunity for other gods to interfere in the battlefield and consequently for the Greeks to regain an upper hand in the war.

As mentioned above Tethys was a mother of three thousand Potamoi or river gods and three thousand Oceanids or water nymphs. Here is a list of the most known Oceanids and Potamoi:. Feel free to share with your friends:. Tethys continues to appear in contexts outside the Classical. For one, she gives her name to one of the major moons of Saturn. The moon in question is, interestingly enough, composed of water and ice. Various measurements that have been taken of the moon suggest that it is composed largely of fresh water, making the name a fortunate one.

Tethys also gives her name to a primordial ocean, the Tethys Ocean or Tethys Sea. Geological records suggest that it was an equatorial water to the west of the supercontinents Laurasia and Gondwana. Those same records suggest that the former Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea—both fresh-water seas—are remnants of the Tethys.

Even in geology, then, Tethys is the parent of bodies of fresh water, a legacy that has endured in fact longer than any real concept of the goddess has existed. The Perseus Project has quite a bit of material on the subject. So, too, do GreekGods. If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

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