Thetis
This article is about the Greek sea nymph. Thetis should not be confused with Themis, the embodiment of the laws of nature. For other uses, see Thetis (disambiguation).
In Greek mythology, silver-footed Thetis (Greek Θέτις) is a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of "the ancient one of the seas," Nereus, and Doris (Hesiod, Theogony''), a grand-daughter of
Tethys.
While most extant material about Thetis concerns her role as mother of
Achilles, and while she is largely a creature of poetic fancy rather than
cult worship in the historical period, a few fragmentary hints and references suggest an older layer of the tradition in which Thetis played a far more central role in the religious practices and imagination of certain Greeks.
The etymology of her name (from
tithemi (τίθημι), "to set up, establish") suggests an early
political role.
In
Iliad I, Achilles recalls to his mother her role in defending, and thus legitimizing, the reign of Zeus against an incipient rebellion by three Olympians, each of whom has pre-Olympian roots::"You alone of all the gods saved Zeus the Darkener of the Skies from an inglorious fate, when some of the other Olympians—
Here,
Poseidon and
Pallas Athene—had plotted to throw him into chains. . You, goddess, went and saved him from that indignity. You quickly summoned to high Olympus the
monster of the hundred arms whom the gods call
Briareus, but mankind
Aegaeon[The "goatish one"], a
giant more powerful even than
his father. He squatted by the
Son of Cronos with such a show of force that the blessed gods slunk off in terror, leaving Zeus free" (
E.V. Rieu translation).
Quintus of Smyrna, recalling this passage, writes that Thetis once released Zeus from chains; there is no other reference to this rebellion among the Olympians.
In one fragmentary hymn by the
7th century BC Spartan poet
Alcman, Thetis appears as a
demiurge, beginning her creation with
poros (πόρος) "path, track" and
tekmor (τέκμωρ) "marker, end-post". Third was
skotos (σκότος) "darkness", and then the sun and moon. This cosmogony is interesting not only because it takes up Near Eastern astronomical and theological speculation, but also because its first principles are the building-blocks of a race-track, reflecting the athletic preoccupations of Spartan society and education. Given that she is the mother of Achilles, the Greek youth par excellence, it may be that Thetis once presided over the all-important realm of aristocratic adolescence.
Apollodorus writes that Thetis was once courted by both
Zeus and
Poseidon " she was given to the mortal
Peleus only because of the prophecy by
Themis or
Prometheus or
Calchas that her son would become a man greater than his father.
When
Hephaestus was thrown from Olympus, whether cast out by Hera for his lameness or evicted by Zeus for taking Hera's side, the Nereids Eurynome and Thetis caught him and cared for him on the volcanic isle of
Lemnos, while he labored for them as a smith, "working there in the hollow of the cave, and the stream of
Okeanos around us went on forever with its foam and its murmur" (
Iliad 18.369).
When Dionysus was expelled by
Lycurgus with the Olympians' aid, he took refuge in the
Erythraean Sea with Thetis in a bed of seaweed.
|
Thetis and attendants bring the armor to Achilles: an Attic black-figure hydria, ca. 575"550 BCE |
Thetis is the mother of
Achilles by
Peleus, king of the
Myrmidons.
Zeus had received a prophecy that Thetis's son would become greater than his father. Therefore, in order to ensure a mortal father for her eventual offspring,
Zeus and his brother
Poseidon made arrangements for her marriage to a man,
Peleus, son of
Aeacus, but she refused him.
Chiron, the wise centaur, who would later be tutor to Peleus' son Achilles, advised Peleus to find the sea nymph when she was asleep and bind her tightly to keep her from escaping by changing form. She did shift shapes, becoming flame and then a raging lion (compare the sea-god
Proteus). But Peleus held fast. She then consented to marry him.
|
Thetis and Zeus, Ingres: "She sank to the ground beside him, put her left arm round his knees, raised her right hand to touch his chin, and so made her petition to the Royal Son of Cronos" (Iliad, I |
The wedding of Thetis and Peleus was celebrated on Mount
Pelion and attended by all the deities: there the gods celebrated the marriage with feasting. Apollo played the lyre, and the
Muses sang,
Pindar claimed. At the wedding Chiron gave Peleus an ashen spear, and Poseidon gave him the immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus. However,
Eris, the goddess of discord, had not been invited. In spite, she threw a golden apple into the midst of the goddesses that was to be awarded only "to the fairest." (The award was effected by the
Judgment of Paris and eventually occasioned the
Trojan War).
Thetis worked her magic on the baby Achilles by night, burning away his mortality in the hall fire and anointing the child with
ambrosia during the day, Apollonius tells. When Peleus caught her searing the baby, he let out a cry.:"Thetis heard him, and catching up the child threw him screaming to the ground, and she like a breath of wind passed swiftly from the hall as a dream and leapt into the sea, exceeding angry, and thereafter returned never again." (A similar myth of immortalizing a child in fire is connected to
Demeter; compare the myth of
Meleager.)Because she had been interuppted by Peleus, Thetis had made her son physically invulnerable, save his heel, which she was about to burn away when her husband stopped her.
In a variant of the myth, Thetis tried to make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the waters of the
Styx (the river of
Hades). However, the heel by which she held him was not protected by the Styx's waters. In the story of Achilles in the
Trojan War in the
Iliad,
Homer does not mention this weakness of Achilles' heel.
Peleus gave the boy to
Chiron to raise.
Prophecy said that the son of Thetis would have either a long but dull life or a glorious but brief life. When the Trojan War broke out, Thetis was anxious and concealed Achilles at the court of
Lycomedes, disguised as a girl. When Odysseus found that one of the girls at court was not a girl, but actually Achilles, he dressed as a merchant, and set up a table of vanity items and jewellery and called to the group. Only Achilles picked up the golden sword that lay to one side, and Odysseus quickly revealed him to be the warrior. Seeing that she could no longer prevent her son from realizing his destiny, Thetis then had
Hephaestus make a shield and armor, but then refused to pay him the sexual favors she promised for the armor.
When Achilles was killed by Paris [
1], Thetis came from the sea with the Nereids to mourn him, and she collected his ashes in a golden urn and raised a monument to his memory and instituted commemorative festivals.
Homer's
Iliad makes many references to Thetis;
Apollonius Rhodius,
Argonautica IV, 770-879,
Apollodorus,
The Library 3.13.5
Thetis appears as a character in the movie,
Clash of the Titans.
*
Thetis: very full classical references
*
Peleus and Thetis
