Oceanus. Oceanus, also known as Ogenus or Ogen, was a divine figure in classical antiquity, believed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to be the divine personification of the ocean, which the Ancient Greeks perceived as an enormous river encircling the world. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form *-kay-an-. Janda furthermore points to early depictions of Okeanos with a snake's body, which seem to confirm the mythological parallel with the Vedic dragon Vá¹›tra. Another parallel naming can be found in Greek and Old English fæðm embrace, envelopment, fathom which is notably attested in the Old English poem Helena as dracan fæðme embrace of the dragon and is furthermore related to Old Norse Faðmir or Fáfnir the well-known name of a dragon in the 13th century Völsunga saga; all three words derive from PIE *poth 2 mos spreading, expansion and thus bind together the Greek word for a broad river, stream with the Germanic expressions connected to the dragon's embrace. According to Homer, Oceanus was the ocean-stream at the margin of the habitable world, the father of everything, limiting it from the underworld and flowing around the Elysium. Hence Odysseus has to traverse it in order to arrive in the realm of the dead. Also the other stars bathe in the stream of Ocean. Therein he set also the great might of the river Oceanus, around the uttermost rim of the strongly-wrought shield. In Greek mythology, this ocean-stream was personified as a Titan, the eldest son of Uranus and Gaia. Oceanus' consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also referred to as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world, fountains, and lakes. In most variations of the war between the Titans and the Olympians, or Titanomachy, Oceanus, along with Prometheus and Themis, did not take the side of his fellow Titans against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the conflict. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the latter's revolt against their father, Uranus. He is, it appears, some sort of an outlaw to the society of Gods, as he also does not, and unlike all the other river gods, his sons, take part in the convention of gods on Mount Olympus. Besides, Oceanus appears as a representative of the archaic world that Heracles constantly threatened and bested. As such, the Suda identifies Oceanus and Tethys as the parents of the two Kerkopes, whom Heracles also bested. Heracles forced Helios to lend him his golden bowl, in order to cross the wide expanse of the Ocean on his trip to the Hesperides. When Oceanus tossed the bowl about, Heracles threatened him and stilled his waves. The journey of Heracles in the sun-bowl upon Oceanus became a favored theme among painters of Attic pottery. In Hellenistic and Roman mosaics, this Titan was often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns and the lower body of a serpent. On a fragmentary archaic vessel of circa 580 BC, among the gods arriving at the wedding of Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis, is a fish-tailed Oceanus, with a fish in one hand and a serpent in the other, gifts of bounty and prophecy.