Tethys

Tethys can refer to:

Tethys fimbria

Tethys fimbria is a species of predatory sea slug, a nudibranch, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Tethydidae.

Tethys fimbria is the only species in the genus Tethys.

ICZN opinion 200 ruled that Tethys fimbria is a valid name and Tethys leporina Linnaeus, 1758 is a synonym.

Distribution

The distribution of Tethys fimbria includes the Mediterranean Sea and the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal in the north, to the Gulf of Guinea in the south.

Description

The length of the body of Tethys fimbria can reach up to 30 cm (12 in).Tethys fimbria is translucent, but it has dark spots on its cerata. It has a broad oral hood in the frontal part of its body.Rhinophores are small.Tethys fimbria has no radula as is the case in all members of the family Tethydidae.

Ecology

The habitat of Tethys fimbria is seas which have sand or mud on the bottom, in depths from 20 to 150 m.

Tethys fimbria captures and feeds on small crustaceans. It uses its broad hood for catching them.

Tethys (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Tethys (/ˈtiːθᵻs, ˈtɛθᵻs/; Greek: Τηθύς), daughter of Uranus and Gaia, was an archaic Titaness and aquatic sea goddess, invoked in classical Greek poetry, but not venerated in cult.

Mythology

Genealogy

Tethys was both sister and wife of Oceanus. Tethys and Oceanus appear as a pair in Callimachus (Hymn 4.17) and in Apollonius (Argonautica 3.244). In Catullus 88, not even Tethys and Oceanus can wash away Gellius’ stain of incest: “o Gelli, quantum non ultima Tethys / nec genitor Nympharum abluit Oceanus.” S. J. Harrison points out the irony of Catullus’ allusion to the sibling couple in this context. She was mother of the chief rivers of the world known to the Greeks, such as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and about three thousand daughters called the Oceanids. Considered as an embodiment of the waters of the world she also may be seen as a counterpart of Thalassa, the embodiment of the sea.

An Akkadian sea goddess?

Although these vestiges imply a strong role in earlier times, Tethys plays virtually no part in recorded Greek literary texts, or historical records of cults. Walter Burkert states that “Tethys is in no way an active figure in Greek mythology” but notes her presence in the episode of Iliad XIV that the Ancients called the “Deception of Zeus”, where Hera, to mislead Zeus, says she wants to go to Oceanus, “origin of the gods” and Tethys “the mother”. Burkert sees in the name a transformation of Akkadian tiamtu or tâmtu, “the sea,” which is recognizable in Tiamat. Alternatively, her name may simply mean “old woman”, derived from Ancient Greek têthe (ἡ τήθη), meaning “grandmother”,and she is often portrayed as being extremely ancient (cf. Callimachus, Iamb 4.52, fr. 194).