Fragment of floor mosaic depicting Tethys and Oceanus
201-300
Scroll
Fragment of floor mosaic depicting Tethys and Oceanus
201-300
Physical Qualities
Stone, glass, and lime mortar, 68 x 90 x 2 1/2 in. (172.7 x 228.6 x 6.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Antioch Subscription Fund
Object Number
1937.126
In Greco-Roman mythology, Oceanus was a Titan who ruled the great ocean that encircled the earth. Tethys, also a Titan, was his wife. Together Oceanus and Tethys had 3,000 sons who became the spirits of the rivers and 3,000 daughters who became spirits of streams and springs.
Oceanus carries an oar over his shoulder. Two lobster claws rise from his hair which resembles wet seaweed. Tethys, with wings at her temples and a sea dragon encircling her neck, looks just as she does in the mosaic panel Bust of Tethys nearby.
"Antioch-on-the Orontes, II, The Excavations, 1932-1936," Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938, no. 46, p. 183, pl. 33 (panel B) and pl. 34 (floor)
Doro Levi, "Antioch Mosaic Pavements," Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947, ppl. 167-169, pl. XXXV-a.
Baltimore Museum of Art. The Baltimore Museum of Art: Celebrating a Museum. Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2014.
Rogers, Dylan K. and Claire J. Wiess, eds. A Quaint & Curious Volume: Essays in Honor of John J. Dobbins. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, 2021
On View at the BMA
