Tethys

Mother of Rivers

Tethys is one of the twelve Titans born to Gaia and Uranus. Paired with her brother Oceanus, the great river that encircles the earth, she becomes in Hesiod's Theogony the mother of all rivers (Nile, Alpheus, Scamander, and many more) and of the Oceanids, the three thousand nymphs of springs and streams.

Hera's Foster-Mother

In the Iliad, Hera recalls that when Zeus thrust Cronus beneath the earth, she was taken to the house of Oceanus and Tethys, who reared her. The same passage calls Oceanus the source from which the gods are sprung and Tethys their mother, an alternative to Hesiod's cosmogony that has drawn comparison with Near Eastern pairs such as Apsu and Tiamat.

Little Myth, Little Cult

Tethys has almost no narrative of her own and no known temple cult. She is a genealogical figure whose importance lies in the offspring and fosterlings she gathers around her. Later Roman mosaics show her with small wings on her brow, and Ovid has Juno persuade Tethys and Oceanus to bar the Great Bear from their waters, explaining why the constellation never sets.