Timeless Myths Logo
Aphrodite Apollo Ares Artemis Athena Atlas Coeus Crius Cronus Demeter Dionysus Gaia Hades Hephaestus Hera Hermes Hestia Hyperion Iapetus Mnemosyne Oceanus Phobos Phoebe Poseidon Prometheus Rhea Tethys Themis Uranus Zeus
Bacchus Ceres Diana Juno Jupiter Mars Mercury Minerva Neptune Pluto Venus Vesta Vulcan
Amun Anubis Aten Atum Babi Bastet Bes Geb Hapi hathor heqet Horus Isis Khepri Khnum Khonsu Maat Nephthys Nut Osiris Ptah Ra Seshat Seth Shu Sobek Thoth
Alfheim Baldur Freya Freyr Frigg Heimdallr Helheim Idun Jotunheim Loki Nerthus Njord Odin Thor Tyr
Aengus Arawn Badb Brigid Cailleach Ceridwen Cernunnos Cu Chulainn Dagda Danu Gwydion Herne the Hunter Lugh Medb Morrigan Neit Nuada Taliesin Taranis
Chalchiuhtlicue Coatlicue Huitzilopochtli Mictlantecuhtli Mixcoatl Ometeotl Quetzalcoatl Tezcatlipoca Tlaloc Tonatiuh Xipe Totec Xochiquetzal Xolotl
Amaterasu Ame no Uzume Benzaiten Bishamonten Daikokuten Ebisu Fujin Fukurokuju Inari Izanagi Kagutsuchi Raijin Susanoo Tsukuyomi
Caishen Cangjie Dragon King Eight Immortals Erlang Shen Fuxi Guanyin Hou Yi Huxian Jade Emperor King Yama Leizi Lu-ban Mazu Nezha Nuwa Pangu Shennong Sun Wukong Xiwangmu Yue Lao Zhong Kui
Norse Classical Celtic Arthurian
Literature Stories Names
Aphrodite Apollo Ares Artemis Athena Atlas Coeus Crius Cronus Demeter Dionysus Gaia Hades Hephaestus Hera Hermes Hestia Hyperion Iapetus Mnemosyne Oceanus Phobos Phoebe Poseidon Prometheus Rhea Tethys Themis Uranus Zeus
Bacchus Ceres Diana Juno Jupiter Mars Mercury Minerva Neptune Pluto Venus Vesta Vulcan
Amun Anubis Aten Atum Babi Bastet Bes Geb Hapi hathor heqet Horus Isis Khepri Khnum Khonsu Maat Nephthys Nut Osiris Ptah Ra Seshat Seth Shu Sobek Thoth
Alfheim Baldur Freya Freyr Frigg Heimdallr Helheim Idun Jotunheim Loki Nerthus Njord Odin Thor Tyr
Aengus Arawn Badb Brigid Cailleach Ceridwen Cernunnos Cu Chulainn Dagda Danu Gwydion Herne the Hunter Lugh Medb Morrigan Neit Nuada Taliesin Taranis
Chalchiuhtlicue Coatlicue Huitzilopochtli Mictlantecuhtli Mixcoatl Ometeotl Quetzalcoatl Tezcatlipoca Tlaloc Tonatiuh Xipe Totec Xochiquetzal Xolotl
Amaterasu Ame no Uzume Benzaiten Bishamonten Daikokuten Ebisu Fujin Fukurokuju Inari Izanagi Kagutsuchi Raijin Susanoo Tsukuyomi
Caishen Cangjie Dragon King Eight Immortals Erlang Shen Fuxi Guanyin Hou Yi Huxian Jade Emperor King Yama Leizi Lu-ban Mazu Nezha Nuwa Pangu Shennong Sun Wukong Xiwangmu Yue Lao Zhong Kui
Norse Classical Celtic Arthurian
Literature Stories Names
  1. Mythology Gods
    Aztec Gods Egyptian Gods Japanese Gods Chinese Gods Roman Gods Celtic Gods Greek Gods Norse Gods
  2. Greek Gods
    Aphrodite Apollo Ares Artemis Athena Atlas Coeus Crius Cronus Demeter Dionysus Gaia Hades Hephaestus Hera Hermes Hestia Hyperion Iapetus Mnemosyne Oceanus Phobos Phoebe Poseidon Prometheus Rhea Tethys Themis Uranus Zeus
  3. Tethys

Tethys

Tethys: Spirit of Water and Mother of Thousands

Tethys, Titan of flowing water, was one of the more obscure first-generation Titans in Greek mythology. She didn’t play much of an active role in many myths, but she is remembered for her impressive number of children.

Statue of the goddess Tethys in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Who Was Tethys in Greek Mythology?

Tethys was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia. Like the rest of the first-generation Titans, she represented a concept more than an actual object or location. She is often misconstrued as the Titan goddess of the oceans, but actually, she was the personification of all fresh, flowing waters. Water held the power of life, death, and renewal. It was her responsibility to ensure that this divine element moved and flowed freely about the world.

Tethys’ name is likely related to the Ancient Greek tethē, meaning grandmother. This would align with her copious fertility and her famous grandchildren. Tethē is also similar to another Indo-European word meaning to suck or to suckle. Some sources suggest that this is related to an obscure alternate myth about Tethys serving as nursemaid to Hera. Both definitions seem to adequately fit Tethys’s maternal nature.

She was seldom mentioned in Greek literature, and those mentions were usually references to her children or grandchildren. Still, those infrequent appearances in myth support her nurturing, motherly attributes. This is not surprising since water is such a vital foundation of life.

Like several other Titans, Tethys gave her name to one of the moons that orbit Saturn. In an interesting coincidence, modern scientists have discovered that the moon Tethys is composed only of water and ice.

The Creation Myth: Tethys’ Birth and Family

Like many of the first-generation Titans, not much is known about the story of Tethys.

In the beginning, there was only Chaos. From Chaos came the first primordial deities, such as Gaia (Earth), Erebus (Darkness), and Nyx (Night). Gaia gave birth to Uranus (Sky). Their marital union created the original twelve giants known as the Titans. Some sources reported that these siblings were actually six sets of twins:

  • Oceanus, the river encircling the Earth – Tethys, goddess of the ocean

  • Iapetus, god of mortality and violent death – Themis, goddess of justice

  • Coeus, god of curiosity and inquisitiveness – Phoebe, goddess of intelligence and foresight

  • Hyperion, god of the light of the heavens – Theia, goddess of vision

  • Crius, god of the constellations – Mnemosyne, goddess of memory

  • Cronus, god of time – Rhea, goddess of fertility and motherhood

Uranus and Gaia were also the parents of other races of giants. Most easily recognized were the one-eyed Cyclops, who were master artisans. Less well-known were the Hecatonchires, who had 50 heads and one hundred hands each. This made them mighty fighters.

Oceanus and Tethys: Siblings and Lovers

The twins Oceanus and Tethys were well suited to each other. While Tethys was the personification of fresh waters, Oceanus represented Okeanos, the oceans that surrounded the entire Earth.

Together, they had an incredible number of children. Most notable of these were the 3,000 female Oceanids, nymphs of the oceans. Usually, this number is understood as a metaphor, indicating that the number was too high to count.

Several of the Oceanids made favorable matches with other first- or second-generation Titans and bore children that figured more prominently in Greek myths. These fortunate unions made Tethys the grandmother of many prominent gods and heroes, such as Athena, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Achilles, and the Pleiades.

In addition to the Oceanids, Oceanus and Tethys also served as parents to the 3,000 male river spirits called the Potamoi. These rivers included the Nile and the fabled Styx, among others. The Potamoi were also the fathers of the Naiads, freshwater nymphs who would assist their fathers in protecting the rivers and streams.

Despite their parents remaining neutral in warfare, the Potamoi were known for being hotheaded warriors. They sided with the Giants when they rebelled against Zeus, and they picked fights with heroes such as Achilles and Heracles.

The Titanomachy: Foundations of the Conflict

Tethys and Oceanos mosaic

Tethys played no active role in the events before or during the Titanomachy. Still, she was indirectly involved simply because of her Titan blood.

Uranus was a jealous, tyrannical ruler. He imprisoned the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires in the abyss of Tartarus, deep within the Earth. Sources suggested he was offended by their ugliness, or more likely, apprehensive of their great strength. The Titans, being a smaller, more attractive race, escaped this fate. However, it was eventually the Titans who rose up against him.

Gaia was upset at the treatment of her children, and their imprisonment in Tartarus caused her physical pain. She gathered the Titans and convinced them to rise up against their father. They agreed, but only Cronus was willing to wield a weapon against him.

The Titan brothers that served as the Four Pillars of Heaven volunteered to assist Cronus. Coeus, Crius, Iapetus, and Hyperion ambushed him and pinned each of his limbs at the corners of the earth. Cronus took an adamantine sickle and castrated his father, flinging his testicles into the sea. In disgrace and pain, Uranus fled back into the cosmos.

The Titanomachy: The Rise and Fall of the Golden Age

Cronus assumed his father’s throne and ruled over what was known as the Golden Age. However, he eventually proved to be a tyrant as well. Cronus became obsessed with a prophecy that said his children would rise up to defeat him as he had deposed his own father. In his madness, he decided to eat his children as soon as they were born.

Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon were swallowed whole just after their birth. Rhea saved her sixth child, Zeus, by tricking Cronus into eating a stone wrapped in cloth instead.

At this point in the tale, an alternative myth about Tethys came into play. An obscure fragment of The Iliad suggested that Hera, too, was spared this intestinal torture. While Zeus grew to manhood on the Island of Crete, Hera was hidden in the castle of Oceanus, Tethys’s husband. This fragment related that Tethys served as Hera’s wet nurse while she was an infant:

“For I am faring to visit the limits of the all-nurturing earth,

And Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung,

And mother Tethys, even them that lovingly nursed

And cherished me in their halls,

When they had taken me from Rhea,

What time Zeus, whose voice is borne afar,

Thrust Cronos down to dwell beneath Earth

And the unresting sea.”

-Homer, The Iliad

Despite this passage in such a famous work, it is still generally accepted that Hera was one of Cronus’s culinary victims.

The Titanomachy: Victory to the New Olympians

When Zeus was grown, he returned and disguised himself as Cronus’ cupbearer. He slipped an emetic into Cronus’ wine, which caused Cronus to vomit up Zeus’s siblings, full-grown. These were the first six Olympian gods, and they did indeed rise up against their father.

At this point, war was inevitable. While most of the Titans and their children fought for Cronus, a few sided with Zeus and the new Olympians. Tethys and most of the female Titans took no active part in the battle. In fact, Tethys and Oceanus offered refuge to the female Titans while the conflict raged. Likely, Hera sheltered there as well, which might have led to the confusing poem fragment.

The battle raged for 10 years, and eventually the Olympians were triumphant. Those male Titans who sided with Cronus were condemned to suffer in the abyss of Tartarus. Since they took no part in the battle, the female Titans were spared.

One Final Myth Involving Tethys

After the conclusion of the war, Tethys and several of the other Titans faded into obscurity. Only one later myth mentioned Tethys in passing, and it again involved her relationship with Hera.

Zeus seduced the nymph Callisto and impregnated her. The jealous Hera turned Callisto into a bear, and Artemis hunted and killed her. Zeus set the bear in the sky, becoming the constellation Ursa Major.

Tethys was sympathetic to Hera’s insult. She decreed that no part of the constellation could set into the waters as other constellations do. This is the origin story of why Ursa Major is located at the celestial pole and remains in the visible sky in the northern hemisphere.

Conclusion

Oceanos and Tethys mosaic

The Greeks tended to name a deity for almost all elements, locations, and concepts, even if the god rarely came into play. Here’s what we learned about the minor goddess Tethys.

  • Tethys was 1 of the 12 first-generation Titans.

  • She was the goddess of the oceans and of all sources of flowing water.

  • She married her brother Oceanus and had 6,000 children called the Oceanids and the Potamoi.

  • Her famous grandchildren included Athena, Achilles, and the Pleiades.

  • She may have nursed the infant Hera, spared from the carnivorous Cronos.

  • She remained neutral during the Titanomachy.

  • She caused the constellation Ursa Major to remain perpetually visible.

Though her persona has passed into insignificance in modern society, Tethys lingered in the memories of the Ancient Greeks. Her children and grandchildren cemented her place in Greek Mythology.

By Timeless Myths

Greek Gods:

  • • Aphrodite
  • • Apollo
  • • Ares
  • • Artemis
  • • Athena
  • • Atlas
  • • Coeus
  • • Crius
  • • Cronus
  • • Demeter
  • • Dionysus
  • • Gaia
  • • Hades
  • • Hephaestus
  • • Hera
  • • Hermes
  • • Hestia
  • • Hyperion
  • • Iapetus
  • • Mnemosyne
  • • Oceanus
  • • Phobos
  • • Phoebe
  • • Poseidon
  • • Prometheus
  • • Rhea
  • • Tethys
  • • Themis
  • • Uranus
  • • Zeus
Tethys

Tethys

Titaness of the sea. Tethys was the daughter of Uranus and Gaea . She married her brother Oceanus . She became the mother of all the river gods. She is said to have borne three thousand daughters, known as the Oceanids . The eldest daughter was St...

April 19th, 1999 • Jimmy Joe
Oceanus

Oceanus

Oceanus: The Procreating Pacifist Titan God of Water Oceanus ,Titan god of the sea, existed long before Poseidon. During the great war between the new Olympian gods and the Titans, he remained neutral, so he wasn’t punished with imprisonment. Stil...

April 2nd, 2002 • Timeless Myths
Oceanus

Oceanus

Titan and god of the river Oceanus (Ocean). Oceanus was the eldest son of Uranus and Gaea . The river Oceanus was said to flow in a circular stream around the earth, which was conceived of as a flat disk. Oceanus married his sister Tethys . All of...

April 19th, 1999 • Jimmy Joe
Oceanids

Oceanids

The Oceanids were daughters of Oceanus and Tethys . There were three thousand daughters of the Titans. Oceanus also had an equal number of sons who were all river gods. Being an Oceanid didn't necessarily mean that the nymph was a water deity. The...

August 31st, 2002 • Jimmy Joe
Gaia

Gaia

Gaia: Beautiful Mother Earth Goddess and Bearer of Greek Gods Gaia, Titan of the first generation, was mother earth in Greek mythology. She was there at the beginning of all things. Along with her son Uranus, she was the start of all life. But rea...

April 2nd, 2002 • Timeless Myths
Eurynome

Eurynome

Eurynome (Εὐρυνόμη) was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys ; she was one of the 3000 Oceanids. By Zeus, Eurynome was the mother of the Graces , and possibly of Asopus, the river god in Sicyon. However, Asopus was usually referred to as her brother...

August 31st, 2002 • Jimmy Joe
Oceanus

Oceanus

According to Homer and Apollonius of Rhodes, Oceanus wasn't a Titan like in Hesiod's Theogony . Rather, he was primeval Ocean. See also the Titans, Oceanus . According to Homer, the gods arose from Oceanus and Tethys . Like Hesiod, the river Ocean...

April 19th, 1999 • Jimmy Joe
Gaea and her Daughters

Gaea and her Daughters

In Greek mythology, Gaea and her daughters – Rhea , Themis and Dione – were the earliest earth and mother goddesses. These goddesses played decisive roles in Hesiod's Theogony , where they made or removed rulers. Gaea Gaea (Γαἳα) was seen as the e...

June 22nd, 2003 • Jimmy Joe
Gaea (Earth)

Gaea (Earth)

The personification of earth and the goddess of the earth. Gaea was also known as Gaia or Ge, but to the Romans she was known as Terra Mater and Tellus . According to Diodorus Siculus, her name was also Titaea. Gaea was born together with Nyx ("Ni...

April 19th, 1999 • Jimmy Joe
Rhea

Rhea

Rhea: Mother of the Olympian Gods Rhea, Titan goddess of fertility and motherhood, may have played only a supporting role in the famous stories of Greek mythology. Still, the classic Greek pantheon wouldn’t even exist without her. Of all the godde...

April 2nd, 2002 • Timeless Myths

Explore Myths

All Stories

Characters

All Articles

Search

Site Map

Mythologies

Norse Mythology

Classical Mythology

Celtic Mythology

Arthurian Legends

Mythology Gods

Ancient Literature

About Us

Introduction

About Jimmy

Bibliography

FAQs

Retro Version

Resources

Timeless Myths

All Stories

All Articles

Characters

Copyright Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Contact

© 1999-2025

Timeless Myths

© 2025 Timeless Myths