Oceanus
Oceanus, the great sea, outer sea, ocean
- the great sea that encompasses the land, the ocean: omnis terra parva quaedam insula est, circumfusa illo mari, quod Atlanticum, quod magnum, quem Oceanum appellatis in terris, Cic. Rep. 6, 20, 21: Oceanum rubra obruit aethra, Enn. ap. Macr. S. 6, 4 (Ann. p. 418 Vahl.): Oceani ostium, Cic. Imp. Pomp. 12, 33; cf. id. Verr. 2, 3, 89, § 207: Oceani freta, i. e. the Strait of Gades, Strait of Gibraltar, id. Tusc. 1, 20, 45; cf. id. N. D. 3, 10, 24: quae sunt maritimae civitates Oceanumque attingunt, Caes. B. G. 2, 34: circumvagus, circumfluent, Hor. Epod. 16, 41; cf. circumfusus, Rutil. 1, 56: dissociabilis, Hor. C. 1, 3, 22: beluosus, id. ib. 4, 14, 48: ruber, id. ib. 1, 35, 32.—The form Oceanum, n., is found only in apposition with mare: quam (insulam) mare Oceanum circumluit, Tac. H. 4, 12.—In acc.: proximus mare Oceanum, Caes. B. G. 3, 7, 2; cf.: se in nostrum et Oceanum mare extendit, Mel. 2, 6, 2.—In dat.: mari Oceano, Amm.23, 6, 12.—In abl.: mari Oceano aut amnibus longinquis saeptum imperium, Tac. A. 1, 9.—(Supposed examples of the adjectival use of Oceanus, as Oceano fluctu and litore, in Juv. 11, 94 and 113 Jan; Oceanas aquas, Ven. Carm. 3, 9, 4; Oceanis aquis, id. ib. 7, 12, 56, are dub.; several edd. read in Juv., Oceani; and in Ven., in the first passage, Oceanus, and in the second, Oceani.)—
- 2 Personified, as a deity, the son of Caelus and Terra, the husband of Tethys, and the father of the rivers and nymphs, Cic. Univ. 11; id. N. D. 3, 19, 48; Hyg. Fab. praef.; Cat. 88, 6.—The ancient philosophers regard water as the primary element of all things; hence: Oceanumque patrem rerum, Verg. G. 4, 382.—
- B Transf.
- 1 A large bathing-tub (postclass.), Lampr. Alex. Sev. 25, 5.—
- 2 A Roman surname, Mart. 3, 95, 10; 5, 27, 4; 6, 9, 2; Inscr. Murat. 1453.—
- II Hence, ‡
- A Ōcĕănensis, e, adj., of or belonging to the ocean, situated by the sea-side, Eckhel. D. N. 8, p. 110.—
- B Ōcĕănītis, ĭdis, f., a daughter of Ocean: Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae, Verg. G. 4, 341; Hyg. Fab. praef.
- 1. de Oceaan, volgens de voorstelling in de Oudheid de rond de platte aarde stromende wereldzee, voorgesteld als rivier; ➤ -i ostium de Straat v. Gibraltar;
- 2. personificatie v.d. wereldzee, echtgenoot v. Tethys, vader v.d. rivieren en Oceaniden (zeenimfen); — patron. Ōceanītis, idis f zeenimf.
- , Ὠκεανός, the great sea, outer sea, ocean: mare, quem Oceanum appellatis: Oceani freta, i. e. the Strait of Gibraltar: quae civitates Oceanum attingunt, Cs.: circumvagus, circumflu ent, H.: pater rerum, i. e. primary element, V.— Person., son of Caelum and Terra, husband of Tethys, father of the rivers and nymphs, C., V.
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…miserat ad Venetos, Venellos, Osismos, Coriosolitas, Esuvios, Aulercos, Redones, quae sunt maritimae civitates Oceanumque attingunt, certior factus est omnes eas civitates in dicionem potestatemque populi Romani esse redactas. His rebus gestis omni…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…una, pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano, continetur Garumna flumine, Oceano, finibus Belgarum, attingit etiam ab Sequanis et Helvetiis flumen Rhenum, vergit ad septentriones. Belgae ab extremis…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…fluminis Rheni, spectant in septentrionem et orientem solem. Aquitania a Garumna flumine ad Pyrenaeos montes et eam partem Oceani quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet ; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones. Apud Helvetios longe nobilissimus fuit et ditissimus…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…reliquit ; qui rex sibi aliquot annis sumptis ad confirmandas rationes et copias belli tantum spe conatuque valuit ut se Oceanum cum Ponto, Sertori copias cum suis coniuncturum putaret. ad quod bellum duobus consulibus ita missis ut alter Mithridatem…
Cicero, pro Murena
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…a feris barbaris nationibus incolitur, ex quibus sunt qui piscibus atque ovis avium vivere existimantur, multis capitibus in Oceanum influit. Caesar cum ab hoste non amplius passuum XII milibus abesset, ut erat constitutum, ad eum legati…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…Celeriter sibi Senones, Parisios, Pictones, Cadurcos, Turonos, Aulercos, Lemovices, Andos reliquosque omnes qui Oceanum attingunt adiungit omnium consensu ad eum defertur imperium. Qua oblata potestate omnibus his civitatibus obsides imperat, certum numerum…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…facultate navium non modo disiunctus sed etiam clausus est, ut illis quibus Siciliam propinquam fuisse dicis facilius fuerit ad Oceanum pervenire quam ad Peloridem accedere. contagio autem ista servilis belli cur abs te potius quam ab iis omnibus qui…
Cicero, in Verrem
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…nuntiis sibi quemque consulere iussit. Quorum pars in Arduennam silvam, pars in continentes paludes profugit ; qui proximi Oceano fuerunt, his insulis sese occultaverunt, quas aestus efficere consuerunt ; multi ex suis finibus egressi se suaque omnia…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…; Veliocassis, Lexoviis et Aulercis Eburovicibus terna ; Rauracis et Boiis bina ; XXX milia universis civitatibus, quae Oceanum attingunt quaeque eorum consuetudine Armoricae appellantur, quo sunt in numero Curiosolites, Redones, Ambibarii, Caletes, Osismi…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
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…coortum est. Eius belli haec fuit causa. P. ; Crassus adulescens cum legione VII. proximus mare Oceanum in Andibus hiemabat. Is, quod in his locis inopia frumenti erat, praefectos tribunosque militum complures in finitimas…
Julius Caesar, Gallic War
OCE´ANUS[ATLANTICUMMARE.]
(Ὠκεανός). (1) The god of the stream Oceanus, earlier than Poseidon. He was the firstborn of the Titans, the offspring of Uranus and Gaea, or Heaven and Earth. Oceanus espoused his sister Tethys, and their children were the rivers of the earth and the three thousand Oceanides or Nymphs of Ocean (Hesiod, Theog. 337 foll.). This is all the account of Oceanus that is given in the Theogony. Homer speaks of him and Tethys as the father even of the gods (Il. xiv. 201, 246, 302). When Zeus placed his sire in Tartarus, Rhea committed her daughter Heré to the charge of Oceanus and Tethys, by whom she was carefully nurtured. The abode of Oceanus was in the West (Il. xiv. 200, 301). He dwelt, according to Aeschylus, in a grotto place, beneath his stream, as it would appear (Prom. Vinct. 300). In the Prometheus Vinctus of this poet, Oceanus comes borne through the air on a hippogriff, to console and advise the heroic sufferer; and from the account given of his journey, it is manifest that he came from the West. When Heracles was crossing his stream in the cup of the Sun-god to procure the oxen of Geryon, Oceanus rose, and, by agitating his waters, tried to terrify him; but, on the hero's bending a bow at him, he retired.
(2) Besides being the name of a deity, the term Oceanus (Ὠκεανός) occurs in Homer in another sense also. It is made to signify an immense stream, which, according to the rude ideas of that early age, circulated around the terraqueous plain, and from which the different seas ran out in the manner of bays. This opinion, which is also that of Eratosthenes, was prevalent even in the time of Herodotus (iv. 36). Homer terms the ocean ἀψόρροος, because it thus flowed back into itself. This same river Oceanus was supposed to ebb and flow thrice in the course of a single day, and the heavenly bodies were believed to descend into it at their setting and emerge from it at their rising. Hence the term ὠκεανός is sometimes put for the horizon. In Homer, therefore, ὠκεανός and θάλασσα always mean different things, the latter merely denoting the sea in the more modern acceptation of the term. On the shield of Achilles the poet represents Oceanus as encircling the rim or extreme border of the shield, in full accordance with the popular belief of the day, whereas in Vergil's time, when this primitive meaning of the term was obsolete, and more correct geographical views had come in, we find the sea (the idea being borrowed, probably, from the position of the Mediterranean) occupying in the poet's description the centre of the shield of Aeneas. Herodotus (ii. 23; iv. 8) rejects the notion that Oceanus is a stream. See geographia.
It is remarkable that one of the oldest names of the Nile among the Greeks was ὠκεανός.