Note 175 — THE THEOGONY.

Old Nilus’ fountains.] Ωκεανου περι πηγας. Le Clerc remarks that “this derivation is absurd: as we do not talk of the fountains of the sea, but of rivers.” He adds, however, that “Hesiod more than once calls the ocean the river:” and this should have led him to perceive that it is in fact a river of which Hesiod speaks. The oceanic river was the Nile, which in very ancient times was called the Oceanus.