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.
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.
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