Oceanus

Oceanus was one of the elder Titans, the son of Gaia and Ouranos who ruled the infinite waters of the young cosmos before Poseidon wrested the seas from him. Known as the great river that girdled the world, he stood with his kin against the Olympians, was diminished but not imprisoned, and rose a final time during the siege of Mount Olympus before Hades cast him down.

The Titan of the Ocean#

Oceanus was one of the elder Titan sons of Gaia and Ouranos, and he ruled the infinite waters within the young cosmos even before his brother Cronos ascended and usurped their father's high throne. With his wife and queen Tethys he fathered thousands of children, aquatic deities called Oceanids, among them Metis and Amphitrite, who would later become wives of Zeus and Poseidon. His many offspring helped him hold his rule against the older sea deities of the previous generation, and he was titled the Titan of Salt Water, of the Sea, and of the Ocean.

The loss of the seas#

When the children of Cronos escaped their father's belly and declared war on the Titans, Oceanus stood by his brothers and his mother Gaia against the usurping gods. Poseidon, the second son of Cronos, laid claim to the waters and challenged the ancient and vast Oceanus over supremacy of his endless domain. By the last stage of the Great War, Poseidon had defeated Oceanus and his vast offspring, summoning all the water in the world to do so and becoming the new Lord of the Oceans.

Though deposed, Oceanus appears to have evaded the imprisonment in Tartarus that claimed most of his kin. Greatly diminished and stripped of his divine rulership, he retreated into himself, into the deepest and most remote waters, and was free enough that he could later rise once more and defy Poseidon's mastery of the sea.

The siege of Olympus#

Oceanus rose a final time during the siege of Mount Olympus, appearing as a vast Titan of water and lightning. An electric current ran through most of his form, and his currents did massive damage to the surrounding mountain as he climbed. He was pulled from Olympus by Hades, who then leapt down after him. Some held that Oceanus had in fact dragged Hades down with him, but in either case the Titan was assumed to have perished in the fall, one more of the old powers swept away as the wars of the gods drew toward their end.