The orchestral poem The Oceanides, one of very few Sibelius programmatic pieces not based on, or markedly influenced by, Nordic mythology, instead bears witness to another of the composer's lifelong affinities—Greco-Roman lore. The title of the work is drawn from Homer, the oceanides being a race of sea nymphs. Rich in melody and utilizing a broader palette of moods and textures than many of his earlier essays in the genre, the work was composed for the occasion of the composer's 1914 American tour.

The poem is constructed out of two small motivic ideas, with the occasional recurrence of the opening flute theme lending something of a loose rondo form to the proceedings. Remarkably "impressionist" in its aural effect, with harp harmonics and muted string effects, The Oceanides often ventures into a harmonic language more characteristic of Debussy than of the Finnish master. Certainly the frequent doublings (often in parallel fourths) and the striking variety of timbral blends seem quite atypical of Sibelius. Many of these scoring procedures, however, had been exploited by the composer (to a lesser degree) in earlier works—they merely reach their zenith in The Oceanides.

Several of the composer's usual orchestral fingerprints are in evidence: structures built on continual, "organic" development of small melodic fragments; varied and crucial use of the tympani; and a general reluctance to clarify the musical direction until the very end of the piece. The tremendous climax that develops into the conclusion of The Oceanides is a thing that must be witnessed to believe. The apparently uncharacteristic elements of the music vis-à-vis the composer's normal language exist on only the surface levels of textures and tone colors. In actual compositional procedure the work is typically Sibelian.

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