Metis

METIS was one of the elder Okeanides and the Titan-goddess of good counsel, planning, cunning and wisdom. She was a counsellor of Zeus during the Titan War and hatched the plan through which Kronos (Cronus) was forced to regurgitate his devoured children. In an odd reversal of fortune, Zeus swallowed Metis whole when a prophecy was revealed that she was destined to bear a son greater than his father. Metis afterwards bore a daughter, Athena, within the very belly of the god and equipped her with arms and armour before she was rebirthed from the god's head.

It should be noted that most poets and mythographers describe Athena as a "motherless goddess" and no mention is made of Metis. Zeus himself was titled Mêtieta "the Wise Counsellor" in the Homeric poems and in this sense Metis was probably regarded as an aspect of the god rather than a distinct figure. In any case, the Metis myth implies she was wholly subsumed by the devouring god.

THE OKEANIDES (Oceanids) were three thousand goddess-nymphs who presided over the sources of earth's fresh-water--from rain-clouds to subterranean springs and fountains. Their numbers included the Nephelai (Cloud-Nymphs), Aurai (Breeze-Nymphs), Naiades (Spring and Fountain Nymphs), Leimonides (Pasture Nymphs), and Anthousai (Flower Nymphs). They were all daughters of the great, earth-encircling, fresh-water stream Okeanos (Oceanus) and his wife Tethys.

The eldest among them were numbered among the Titanides (female Titans)--Styx, Dione, Neda, Metis, Klymene, Eurynome, Doris, Elektra, and Pleione. These were most likely heavenly goddesses of the clouds.

Some of the Okeanides personified divine blessings such as Metis (Wisdom), Klymene (Fame), Plouto (Wealth), Tykhe (Good Fortune), Telesto (Success), and Peitho (Persuasion). The goddess Nemesis was sometimes also included in their number as one who provided balance by punishing undeserved good fortune as might arise from her sister's gifts. These Good Spirits (Daimones Agathoi) were ephemeral in nature much like the dark children of Nyx (Night), the Spirits of Harm (Daimones Kakoi).

Another group of Okeanides were handmaidens of the Olympian goddesses, the most prominent of these were the sixty Okeanis companions of Artemis, Peitho the handmaiden of Aphrodite, and Klymene the handmaiden of Hera.

The Naias-Okeanides (Naiads) were primarily nymphs of springs, wells and fountains. They were often portrayed as the wives of the Potamoi (River-Gods) and mothers of younger Naiades.

The Okeanides were occasionally described as sea-nymphs. In the late classical era the mythical, earth-encircling, fresh-water river Okeanos was increasingly equated with the briny Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and his nymph-daughters reimagined as marine deities.