Irlandos at 18:15, April 9, 2006

2006-04-09T18:15:19Z

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In [[Greek mythology]], silver-footed '''Thetis''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] Θέτις) is a sea [[nymph]], one of the fifty [[Nereid]]s, daughters of "the ancient one of the seas," [[Nereus]], and [[Doris]] ([[Hesiod]], ''Theogony''), a grand-daughter of [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]].

==Thetis as goddess==
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 where Thetis played a far more central role in the religious practices and imagination of certain Greeks. She is frequently described as having silver feet.

The etymology of her name (from ''tithemi'' (τίθημι), "to set up, establish") suggests an early political role.

In one fragmentary hymn by the [[7th century BC]] [[Sparta|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.

==Thetis and the other gods==
[[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. [[Quintus of Smyrna]] writes that Thetis once released Zeus from chains, perhaps at the hands of [[Typhon]].

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, Achilles and the Trojan War==
Thetis is the mother of [[Achilles]] by [[Peleus]], king of the [[Myrmidon]]s. [[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.

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 dressesed as a merchant, and set up a table of vanity items and jewelry 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. Thetis then had [[Hephaestus]] make a shield and armor but then refused to pay him the favors she promised for the armor.

When Achilles was killed by Paris, 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.

==References==
[[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' makes many references to Thetis; [[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' IV, 770-879, [[Apollodorus]], ''[[The Library]]'' 3.13.5

==External links==

*[http://www.theoi.com/Pontos/Thetis.html Thetis]: very full classical references
*[http://24.24.31.212/literature/POL-HS-Peleus-Thetis.htm Peleus and Thetis]

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[[Category:Nymphs]]

Thetis - Revision history

Irlandos at 18:15, April 9, 2006