Oceanus, one of the Titans,
the son of Uranus and Gaea. With his wife, the Titan Tethys, he ruled over
Ocean, a great river encircling the earth, which was believed to be a flat
circle. The nymphs of this great river, the Oceanids, were their daughters,
and the gods of all the streams on earth were their sons. In later legends,
when Zeus, chief of the Olympian gods, and his brothers, Poseidon and Hades,
overthrew the Titans and assumed their power, Poseidon and his wife, Amphitrite,
succeeded Oceanus and Tethys as rulers of the waters.
Odysseus, in Greek legend,
a Greek hero, ruler of the island of Ithaca and one of the leaders of the
Greek army during the Trojan War. Homer's Odyssey recounts Odysseus's adventures
and ultimate return home ten years after the fall of Troy. Initially, Odysseus
was mentioned as the son of Laertes, king of Ithaca, although in later
tradition Sisyphus, king of Corinth, was considered his real father, his
mother having later married Laertes. At first Odysseus refused to accompany
the Greeks to Troy, feigning madness by sowing his fields with salt, but
the Greeks placed his son Telemachus in front of the plow, and Odysseus
was compelled to admit his ruse and join the invading army. Throughout
the Iliad of Homer, he is portrayed as a brave, sagacious, cunning warrior,
and he is awarded the famous armor of the Greek warrior Achilles on the
latter's death. Odysseus was responsible for bringing the Greek heroes
Neoptolemus and Philoctetes to Troy for the final stage of the conflict.
In the Odyssey it is said that he proposed the strategem of the Trojan
Horse, the means by which Troy was conquered. In the works of later classical
writers, particularly those of the Greek poet Pindar, the Greek playwright
Euripides, and the Roman poet Vergil, Odysseus is characterized as a cowardly
and scheming politician. In Latin his name is rendered as Ulysses.
Oedipus, king of Thebes,
the son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. Laius was warned
by an oracle that he would be killed by his own son. Determined to avert
his fate, he bound together the feet of his newborn child and left him
to die on a lonely mountain. The infant was rescued by a shepherd, however,
and given to Polybus, king of Corinth, who named the child Oedipus ("Swollen-foot")
and raised him as his own son. The boy did not know that he was adopted,
and when an oracle proclaimed that he would kill his father, he left Corinth.
In the course of his wanderings he met and killed Laius, believing that
the king and his followers were a band of robbers, and thus unwittingly
fulfilled the prophecy. Lonely and homeless, Oedipus arrived at Thebes,
which was beset by a dreadful monster called the Sphinx. The frightful
creature frequented the roads to the city, killing and devouring all travelers
who could not answer the riddle that she put to them. When Oedipus successfully
solved her riddle, the Sphinx killed herself. Believing that King Laius
had been slain by unknown robbers, and grateful to Oedipus for ridding
them of the Sphinx, the Thebans rewarded Oedipus by making him their king
and giving him Queen Jocasta as his wife. For many years the couple lived
in happiness, not knowing that they were really mother and son. Then a
terrible plague descended on the land, and the oracle proclaimed that Laius's
murderer must be punished. Oedipus soon discovered that he had unknowingly
killed his father. In grief and despair at her incestuous life, Jocasta
killed herself, and when Oedipus realized that she was dead and that their
children were accursed, he put out his eyes and resigned the throne. He
lived in Thebes for several years, but was finally banished. Accompanied
by his daughter Antigone, he wandered for many years. He finally arrived
at Colonus, a shrine near Athens sacred to the powerful goddesses called
the Eumenides. At this shrine for supplicants Oedipus died, after the god
Apollo had promised him that the place of his death would remain sacred
and would bring great benefit to the city of Athens, which had given shelter
to the wanderer.
Oreads, nymphs of grottoes
and mountains. One of the most famous Oreads was Echo, who was deprived
by the goddess Hera of the power of speech and could only repeat the last
words that were said to her.
Orestes, son of Agamemnon,
king of Mycenae, and Clytemnestra. He was still a boy when his mother and
her lover, Aegisthus, murdered Agamemnon. Orestes' older sister Electra,
fearing for the boy's life, sent him to live with their uncle Strophius,
king of Phocis. There he grew up with Pylades, son of Strophius, who became
his lifelong companion. When he reached maturity, Orestes realized that
he had a sacred duty to avenge the death of his father, but the crime of
matricide was abhorrent to him. He consulted the oracle at Delphi and was
advised to kill the two who had murdered his father. With Pylades he returned
to Mycenae and avenged Agamemnon's death. Pursued by the avenging goddesses
the Erinyes, Orestes wandered through many lands. Finally, at the command
of the god Apollo, he went to Athens to plead his cause before the goddess
Athena and a council of nobles, the Areopagus. Orestes declared himself
guilty of matricide, but stated that he had been cleansed of guilt through
suffering. The court, accepting the plea, acquitted Orestes. According
to the dramas of the Greek playwright Euripides, some of the Erinyes refused
to accept the verdict and continued to pursue Orestes. In despair he again
consulted the Delphic oracle. He was advised to go to the land of the Taurians
(modern Crimea) and steal the sacred image of Artemis from the temple of
the goddess. With Pylades he went to the temple and discovered that the
priestess was his sister Iphigenia, whom he had thought to be dead. With
her help they stole the sacred statue and returned with it to Mycenae.
Thereafter the Erinyes let Orestes live in peace.
Orion , handsome giant
and mighty hunter, the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Euryale,
the Gorgon. Orion fell in love with Metrope, the daughter of Oenopion,
king of Chios, and sought her in marriage. Oenopion, however, constantly
deferred his consent to the marriage, and Orion attempted to gain possession
of the maiden by violence. Incensed at his behavior, her father, with the
aid of the god Dionysus, threw him into a deep sleep and blinded him. Orion
then consulted an oracle, who told him he could regain his sight by going
to the east and letting the rays of the rising sun fall on his eyes. His
sight restored, he lived on Crete as the huntsman of the goddess Artemis.
The goddess eventually killed him, however, because she was jealous of
his affection for Aurora, goddess of the dawn. After Orion's death, Artemis
placed him in the heavens as a constellation.
Orpheus, poet and musician,
the son of the muse Calliope (see Muses) and Apollo, god of music, or Oeagrus,
king of Thrace. He was given the lyre by Apollo and became such an excellent
musician that he had no rival among mortals. When Orpheus played and sang,
he moved everything animate and inanimate. His music enchanted the trees
and rocks and tamed wild beats, and even the rivers turned in their course
to follow him. Orpheus is best known for his ill-fated marriage to the
lovely nymph Eurydice. Soon after the wedding the bride was stung by a
viper and died. Overwhelmed with grief, Orpheus determined to go to the
underworld and try to bring her back, something no mortal had ever done.
Hades, the ruler of the underworld, was so moved by his playing that he
gave Eurydice back to Orpheus on the one condition that he not look back
until they reached the upperworld. Orpheus could not control his eagerness,
however, and as he gained the light of day he looked back a moment too
soon, and Eurydice vanished. In his despair, Orpheus forsook human company
and wandered in the wilds, playing for the rocks and trees and rivers.
Finally a fierce band of Thracian women, who were followers of the god
Dionysus, came upon the gentle musician and killed him. When they threw
his severed head in the river Hebrus, it continued to call for Eurydice,
and was finally carried to the shore of Lesbos, where the Muses buried
it. After Orpheus's death his lyre became the constellation Lyra. For the
importance of Orpheus in Greek religious history, see Orphism.
Orphism, in classical
religion, mystic cult of ancient Greece, believed to have been drawn from
the writings of the legendary poet and musician Orpheus. Fragmentary poetic
passages, including inscriptions on gold tablets found in the graves of
Orphic followers from the 6th century BC, indicate that Orphism was based
on a cosmogony that centered on the myth of the god Dionysus Zagreus, the
son of the deities Zeus and Persephone. Furious because Zeus wished to
make his son ruler of the universe, the jealous Titans dismembered and
devoured the young god. Athena, goddess of wisdom, was able to rescue his
heart, which she brought to Zeus, who swallowed it and gave birth to a
new Dionysus. Zeus then punished the Titans by destroying them with his
lightning and from their ashes created the human race. As a result, humans
had a dual nature: the earthly body was the heritage of the earth-born
Titans; the soul came from the divinity of Dionysus, whose remains had
been mingled with that of the Titans. According to the tenets of Orphism,
people should endeavor to rid themselves of the Titanic or evil element
in their nature and should seek to preserve the Dionysiac or divine nature
of their being. The triumph of the Dionysiac element would be assured by
following the Orphic rites of purification and asceticism. Through a long
series of reincarnated lives, people would prepare for the afterlife. If
they had lived in evil, they would be punished, but if they had lived in
holiness, after death their souls would be completely liberated from Titanic
elements and reunited with the divinity.
