Thalassa (mythology)

Talasa is defended in the Espo fable, "The Farmer and the Sea".

In Greek mythology, Thalassa, Tálasa or even Talata (in ancient Greek, Θάλασσα Thálassa, Θάλασση Thálassê or Θάλαττη Thalattê, 'sea') was the primordial goddess and personification of the sea, understood as the Mare Nostrum or Mediterranean Sea. Its Latin name was Mare, the Sea, where it is described as the sister of Caelus (Heaven) and Terra (Earth), all born from the union of two primordials, Day and Aether. Thalassa is the Homeric female counterpart of Pontus, god of the primordial sea in Hesiodic texts. Thalassa is already mentioned in very ancient texts where she is described, along with Uranus and Gaia, as one of the three parts of which the world is made up. Thalassa, as a marine personification, was displaced in Homeric texts by Amphitrite, cited only as a metonym for the sea. As a primordial goddess, she was a mother, without union male, of the nine telchins and of the nymph Halia. With her male counterpart, Pontus, she was the mother of the tribes of sea fish, she was also the mother of Aegeon, the personification of the Aegean Sea, in her union with another Aegeon, cited as a marine titan son of Ponto and Gaia. Opiano describes her not in vain as the mother of the marine demons (daimones thalassai ), to refer, as was to be expected from the Telkhine reports. A later version in mythology tells us that Thalassa had mothered Aphrodite with Uranus, but not in a conventional way, as she was born when Cronus castrated Uranus and her genitals fell into the sea. In the same way, Thalassa, already as a metonym, is described as the mother of Aphrodite in the Orphic hymns. Aesop tells us that Thalassa could take human form, and that one day the river gods met to complain about Thalassa, because they offered her sweet water, while she, who had bitter gifts, only contained salt water, sterile for life.

Consorts and offspring

• With Ageon (son of Ponto and Gea):
  • Ageon (like centiman)
• With Ponto:
  • tribes of fish
• With Uranus (contact of the genitals closed with the tide)
  • Aphrodite

• No male union:
  • the Telquines
  • Halia