Observations placeholder
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6. 155 ff
Identifier
020596
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Tells in allegorical form, the effects of some cataclysmic and probably very real event
A description of the experience
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6. 155 ff
This excerpt tells of the role of Oceanus in the Titanomachy:
After the first Dionysus [Zagreus] had been slaughtered, Father Zeus ... attacked the mother of the Titanes [Gaia] with avenging brand, and shut up the murderers of horned Dionysus [the Titans dismembered the godling Zagreus] within the gate of Tartarus [after a long war]: the trees blazed, the hair of suffering Gaea was scorched with heat . . . Now Okeanos poured rivers of tears from his watery eyes, a libation of suppliant prayer. Then Zeus claimed his wrath at the sight of the scorched earth; he pitied her, and wished to wash with water the ashes of ruin and the fiery wounds of the land. Then Rainy Zeus covered the whole sky with clouds and flooded all the earth [in the Great Deluge of Deukalion].