Oceans

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OCEANS

OCEANS . It is natural to begin a survey of the mythology of oceans with their eponymous deity, the Greek god Okeanos (etymology unknown). All evidence testifies that Okeanos was originally conceived as a river god, rather than a god of the salt sea. This illustrates a characteristic difficulty: To treat rivers, springs, and fountains, or the symbolic and religious associations of water in general, exceeds the compass of this article, but such distinctions are not always rigorous in the mythological traditions.

In the pantheon defined by Hesiod's Theogony, Okeanos is the offspring of Ouranos (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and thus of the race of Titans that included Kronos, the father of Zeus. With his sister Tethys as consort, Okeanos produced the vast brood of Okeanids, spirits of rivers and streams. Parallel to Okeanos is Pontos (Sea): Born of Gaia alone, he unites with her to engender Nereus, whence the Nereids, a species of sea nymphs corresponding to the Okeanids. While Pontos remains a bare abstraction, Okeanos is imagined as dwelling with Tethys at the edge of the world, which he encircles. In descriptions of the shields of Achilles (Homer) and Herakles (attributed to Hesiod), Okeanos occupies the rim.

References in Homer (Iliad 14.200f., 244ff., 301f.), as well as in Plato, Vergil, Orphic texts, and elsewhere, identify Okeanos and Tethys as the source (genesis ) of gods or of the universe. Details of this cosmogony are obscure; according to one version, the primordial waters brought forth an egg that initiated the process of creation (Orphic fragments 54, 57). Okeanos was related to underworld rivers such as the Styx, which was his daughter, according to Hesiod (Theogony 361; cf. Plato, Phaedo 112e). The Isle of the Blessed, where souls of heroes dwelled, was in Okeanos's waters (Odyssey 4.562–568). The relationship between the cosmogonic role of Okeanos and water as the fundamental element in Thales's philosophy is moot.

Okeanos was occasionally represented in sculptures and sarcophagus reliefs, but does not appear to have had a specific cult. The sea was worshiped and appeased in the name of Poseidon, later identified with the Roman Neptune. The primitive evolution of Poseidon is obscure (he is conspicuously associated with the horse). In the Olympian scheme, Poseidon received the waters as his province from Zeus. He was responsible for maritime calm and turbulence, and for earthquakes. As consort of the Okeanid (or Nereid) Amphitrite, he was father of the gigantic Triton, whose torso terminated in a serpent's tail. Various pre-Olympian deities abided in the sea, notably Proteus, who shared with Nereus and with the Nereid Thetis (mother of Achilles) the power to metamorphose and to foretell the future.

The idea of encompassing waters survived into medieval geography, as in the map attached to Ibn Khaldūn's Muqaddimah (the name Ūqyānūs in one manuscript renders "Okeanos"). The earth is said by Islamic writers to float on the sea like a grape or an egg.

In the cultures of the ancient Near East, oceanic waters figured largely in cosmogonic myths. According to Sumerian tradition, in the beginning was Nammu (Sea), whence arose a mountain representing heaven and earth, later separated by the air god Enlil. In the Babylonian creation story, recited at the New Year, the primordial gods are two: the masculine Apsu, representing sweet waters, and the feminine Tiamat, the salt-water ocean, from whose union come the gods. Apsu is vanquished by younger gods, but Tiamat continues the battle with the help of Kingu and other monstrous offspring; she is defeated by the storm god Marduk and divided in two, one part of her being raised to contain the upper waters. From the Epic of Gilgamesh, it appears that the land of the dead was reached by crossing a body of water. The same narrative incorporates the Sumerian tradition of a great flood, perhaps representing a return to the primordial state.

In Canaanite myth, the senior deity El favors Yam (Sea) against his own son, Baal (associated with fertility and rain). Yam surrenders to Baal and is spared; also vanquished is the serpent Lotan, related to the Hebrew Leviathan (cf. also the defeats of Rahab and Tannin: Ps. 74:13, 89:11; Is. 51:9; etc.). The biblical sea waters seem to retain a threatening aspect, as though not entirely submissive to creation; certain passages indicate the sea as the site of God's throne (e.g., Ps. 104:3; Ez. 28:2).

In Egyptian sources, the waters of Nun, on which the earth rests, are sometimes identified as the origin of life. At the parting of the waters appears the primal hill. Nun was also conceived as surrounding the earth (like Okeanos), so that the sun emerged each day from his waters in the east. The route to the afterworld is the river Nile, host also to aquatic deities such as the crocodile, but because the Nile was believed to have its source in the netherworld (Pyramid Texts 1551a, 1557b), the distinction between river and primal waters is not absolute.

The Ṛgveda (10.121) alludes to a cosmic egg (Prajāpati) that emerged from water, an idea elaborated in later commentaries (Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 11.1.6) that also record a flood. The identification of Varuṇa as god of the sea is post-Vedic. The ocean is the source of amṛta, the liquor of immortality (analogously, the Greek ambrosia is sometimes connected with the ocean). In Hindu mythology, the cobralike sea demons called nāga s (feminine dragons are called nāginis ) have their kingdom in the west or alternatively are imagined as dwelling in the underworld. In Cambodia, the first Khmer dynasty is said to have sprung from the union of the daughter of a nāga king with a Hindu prince.

In Chinese myth, where nature deities play a relatively unimportant part, the four seas that surround the earth are associated each with a dragon king. In one legend the king of all the dragons arose from the sea and prevented the first emperor of Qin from voyaging to the islands of the immortals. The antiquity of such stories is in doubt, as they appear to have been influenced by Hindu myth. Undeniably ancient (dating from the Zhou dynasty) is the story of the flood, which was dammed, channeled, and drained by the god Yu with the help of a dragon, Yu then became the founder of China's first dynasty.

The Ainu (the aborigines of Japan) tell of a small bird that dispersed the primal waters by the motion of its wings. In the Kojiki, the main compendium of ancient Japanese myth, the original chaos is compared to oily water, but the sea's major role appears in the tale of the sons of Ninigi, the divine ancestor of Japan's emperors. The younger son, Po-wori, a hunter, borrows and loses the fishhook of his brother Po-deri. A sea deity constructs a boat and advises Po-wori to sail to the palace of Watatsumi, god of the sea, and his daughter Tōyōtama. Po-wori marries Tōyōtama but later desires to return home. Watatsumi recovers the lost hook and gives his son-in-law two jewels to control the tides. Coming home on a crocodile, Po-wori subdues his elder brother. Tōyōtama, assuming the form of a crocodile, bears her husband a child and then returns to the sea, ashamed that he has observed her thus. Her younger sister tends and marries the son, and from this union is born the first Japanese emperor. Shrines are devoted to Watatsumi and other sea divinities.

Meander patterns on Paleolithic vessels of Europe, often in association with maternal figures, eggs, snakes, and waterfowl, suggest water as a fertility symbol. In the Finnish epic Kalevala (old version), which preserves Finno-Ugric traditions, the world is created out of eggs laid by an eagle on the knee that the hero Väinämöinen lifts from the sea (Väinä means "still water"). Väinämöinen subsequently sails to death's domain and escapes meshes laid to trap him by metamorphosing into various forms. The Saami (Lapp) god Cacce Olmai (Water Man), a deity of fishing, is said to assume various shapes; also reported is a mermaidlike creature called Akkruva, similar to the Inuit (Eskimo) Inue, a kind of merman.

In Celtic myths, there is a paradisiacal island called Brittia located in the ocean. This ancient account is transmitted by the Byzantine historian Procopius (cf. the Arthurian Avalon, the Irish Tir-na-nogue). Islands are the object of voyages by various heroes or demigods. Bran, a sea giant, encounters an isle of women, an isle of laughter and joy, and other fantastical places on his journey. Similarly, Brendan, in search of the Land of Promise, encounters enchanted islands and monsters; one island proves to be the back of a gigantic sea creature (cf. Sindbad's first voyage). The Roman general Sertorius is said by Plutarch to have attempted such a journey from Spain, which suggests a possible syncretism of Greek and Iberian traditions. The inspiration of Brendan's legend is evident in Dante's version of Odysseus's last voyage.

The province of the sea fell on the Celtic god or hero Ler, and more especially to his son, Manannán mac Lir, patron of sailors and merchants and the eponymous deity of the Isle of Man. Manannán rode the steed Enbarr, which could traverse water as easily as land (cf. the kelpie or sea horse in Scottish folklore).

In the Eddas, the god of the sea is Ægir (cognate with aqua ), a member of the race of giants who is friendly to the gods. His wife is Ran, and a kenning (metaphorical phrase) speaks of the waves of Ægir's daughters. Ægir is the gods' ale-brewer and a giver of banquets. Norse myth tells of various sea monsters such as the huge fishlike creature called the kraken, as well as mermen and mermaids (see the thirteenth-century King's Mirror ), the belief in which has persisted into modern times among fishermen of New England and elsewhere.

In the Americas, the creation myths of the Chorti, Maya Indians of Guatemala, mention four seas that are distinguished by color surrounding and beneath the world, with monstrous creatures (angels in Christianized versions) beyond the waters. Among the people of Santa Elena, there is a story of a race of giants who came from across the sea. There is a hint of a primal sea in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiché Maya of Guatemala.

A widespread North American variant involves the creation of land upon the primordial ocean by means of a diver, whether divine, human, or animal, who brings mud or earth up from the sea bottom. In the Salinan version (California), a dove fetches the substance after a flood produced by the Old Woman of the Sea; a turtle is the agent in Maidu (California) and Blackfeet myth. In a Huron creation account, a toad is successful; in a Mandan (North Dakota) version, it is a duck, while other stories feature the muskrat (Assiniboine, Great Plains), the water beetle (Cherokee), and the crawfish (Yuchi). There are also versions in which the waters simply recede. The Navajo emergence myth, which like the Hopi myth describes four worlds associated with four directions and four colors, has four seas as well. The Winnebago Indians (Great Plains) distinguish two classes of water powers; streams are masculine, while the subterranean waters that uphold the earth are feminine.

Altaic myth (Siberia) also exhibits versions of the diver tale, with the diver as swallow, loon, goose, or other waterfowl. Elsewhere the diver is a man or devil, often in the guise of a bird; a Christian Romanian version casts Satan as the diver. In a Samoyed flood story, a bird discovers land in a manner reminiscent of the bird in the narrative of Noah's ark. The theme of the ark occurs also in Buriat myth. Mention may also be made of a Khanty (Yenisei River) creation story, according to which the earth rests on three great fish, the sinking of which generates floods.

In a Polynesian account, Māui or another deity brings land up from the sea bottom. A Maori tale tells of a conflict between Ta-whiri-ma-tea, the god of storms or winds, and his brother Tangaroa, here the father creator of the world. Ta-whiri-ma-tea attacks Tangaroa, who takes refuge in the ocean. One of Tangaroa's two children, representing fish, retreats to the water. The other child, representing reptiles, hides in the forest, whence the antagonism between the sea and humans, who are descended from the forest deity. The Polynesian practice of burying the dead in canoe-shaped dugouts may reflect a custom of setting bodies adrift to reach the ancestral home or land of the dead. It was believed that souls were carried to Bulotu, the Tongan land of the dead, in an invisible canoe presided over by Hikuleo, the Tongan god of the dead and half-brother of Tangaroa. Near his house, in one account, were the waters of life that could confer immortality. The land of the dead, usually located to the west, was the special destination of chiefs and other notables. Legends tell of parties sailing, usually by mistake, to Bulotu.

Marine myths are not widespread in Africa, but mention may be made of a Yao (Mozambique) story in which human beings are fished out of the sea by a chameleon.

From the foregoing survey, certain broad themes may be identified. The ocean is often conceived as the primordial element, from which land and sometimes living creatures emerge. It surrounds the earth and lies under it, and beyond its waters reside the departed or the blessed, who are sometimes visited by the intrepid voyager. Now and then flood waters challenge creation. The ocean is inhabited by various monsters, often serpentine and capable of metamorphosis. Marine deities are sometimes the ancestors of imperial dynasties. Finally, in some accounts the waters of the deep are life-giving, or the source of life-giving brews.

Bibliography

On the Greek Okeanos, the best study is Jean Rudhardt's Le thème de l'eau primordiale dans la mythologie grecque (Bern, 1971). For the Old Testament, there is a useful survey of oceanic themes in Phillipe Reymond's L'eau, sa vie, et sa signification dans l'ancien testament (Leiden, 1958). The ancient Near Eastern materials may be consulted in the collection edited by J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, 3d ed. (Princeton, N.J., 1969). A good sampling of creation myths, in which primordial waters play a prominent role, is Barbara C. Sproul's Primal Myths: Creating the World (San Francisco, 1979). The encyclopedic Mythology of All Races, 13 vols., edited by Louis H. Gray and George Foot Moore (Boston, 1916–1932), is uneven and often out of date in method and content, but it contains much firsthand material and is the most extensive compendium. Robert W. Williamson's Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia, 2 vols. (1933; New York, 1977), presents the numerous variant versions. The volume Asiatic Mythology, edited by Joseph Hackin et al. (New York, 1932), is especially good on modern myths, as in the contribution on China by Henri Maspero.

The Japanese Kojiki is available in a new translation by Donald L. Philippi (Tokyo and Princeton, N.J., 1969). Sources of Celtic mythology are widely scattered, but there is a readable summary by Charles Squire, The Mythology of the British Islands: Celtic Myth and Legend, Poetry and Romance (1909; Fulcroft, Pa., 1975), though it is inconsistent in citing sources and not always reliable in interpretation; see also Marie-Louise Sjoestedt's Gods and Heroes of the Celts (London, 1949). There is some information relevant to oceans in Martin Ninck's Die Bedeutung des Wassers im Kult und Leben der Alten: Eine symbolgeschichtliche Untersuchung (Leipzig, 1921), along with rich if speculative interpretative suggestions. For works cited in the text, see The King's Mirror, translated by Laurence Marcellus Larson (New York, 1917); The Old Kalevala of Elias Lönnrot, translated by Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr. (Cambridge, Mass., 1969); and Pyramid Texts, edited by Samuel A. B. Mercer (New York, 1952), in which excursuses 14 and 15 are particularly relevant. For Ibn Khaldun, see Franz Rosenthal's translation of the Muquddimah, 3 vols., 2d ed. (Princeton, N.J., 1967); the map is the frontispiece to volume 1. A readable book on modern folklore is Horace Beck's Folklore and the Sea (Middletown, Conn., 1973). For Maya traditions, see John G. Foughts Chorti (Mayan) Texts (Philadelphia, 1972).