Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

x] Okeanos as Sky- God 457
Homer 1 is loud and instant to tell us that no river might rank
with Zeus.
Not even King Acheloios is match, nor yet the great strength of deepflowing
Ocean, from whom all rivers flow and every sea, and all springs and
deep wells : yet even he hath fear of the lightning of great Zeus and his dread
thunder, when it pealeth out of heaven.
Homer here, as often, doth protest too much. Okeanos fears
no Zeus and will not attend his councils—and why? Because he
himself is not Ocean but the stream of Ouranos, high heaven itself,
an earlier unhumanized Zeus. Okeanos, says the Etymologicum
Magnum 2 ', is a title of Ouranos.
As a potency of the old order he is the enemy of Zeus, the
friend of Prometheus. And he comes, not like a sea-god mounted
on a dolphin but on a four-legged bird with winnowing wings.
The bird comes in so clumsily that he must be integral. It beats
the air with its pinions eager to be back in its heavenly home.
And again, the Okeanids come, not swimming and floating
through the waves but borne on the breeze, for they too are
daimones of the upper air
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