Tethys

TETHYS was the Titan goddess of the primal font of fresh water which nourishes the earth. She was the wife of Okeanos (Oceanus), the earth-encircling, fresh-water stream, and the mother of the Potamoi (Rivers), the Okeanides (Oceanids) (nymphs of springs, streams and fountains), and the Nephelai (Clouds). Tethys, daughter of Gaia (Earth), fed her children's springs with the waters of Okeanos drawn through subterranean acquifers. Her name was derived from the Greek word têthê meaning "nurse" or "grandmother".

In Greek vase painting Tethys appears as an unremarkable woman accompanied by Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, and her fish-tailed husband Okeanos. In mosaic art she was depicted with a small pair of wings on her brow which probably signified her role of mother of rain-couds.

Tethys was perhaps identified with the Titanis Eurynome, one-time Queen of Heaven, who was cast into the Ocean-stream along with her husband Ophion by Kronos (Cronus). She was probably also connected with the Protogenos Thesis (Mother Creation) who appears in the Orphic cosmogony. Tethys was described by late classical poets as the sea personified and was equated with Thalassa.