Thetis- Greek GodDeity · Nymph"Silver-Footed"

Daughter of Nereus

Thetis was a Nereid, one of the fifty daughters of the sea god Nereus and the Oceanid Doris. She moved between the ocean floor and the halls of Olympus and could shift her shape at will.

Both Zeus and Poseidon desired her. Then Prometheus revealed a prophecy: Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. Both gods withdrew. If either fathered her child, that child could overthrow the ruler of heaven as Zeus had overthrown Kronos. The gods decided Thetis must marry a mortal instead. A mortal's son, however mighty, would pose no threat to Olympus.

The Wrestling on the Shore

Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, was chosen. Thetis did not consent. The centaur Chiron advised Peleus: find her sleeping in her sea cave on the coast of Magnesia, seize her, and hold on no matter what she becomes. Like her father Nereus, Thetis could change shape, and she would use every form to break free.

Peleus found her and grasped her. She became fire. He held on. She became a serpent. He held on through every shape she tried until, exhausted, she returned to her own form and agreed to the marriage.

The Wedding on Pelion

The wedding was held on Mount Pelion. The gods of Olympus attended. The Muses sang and Apollo played his lyre. Chiron gave Peleus the great ash-wood spear that Achilles would one day carry. Poseidon gave the immortal horses Balius and Xanthus.

One goddess was not invited: Eris, the spirit of discord. She appeared anyway and threw a golden apple among the guests, inscribed "For the Fairest." Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each claimed it. The quarrel led to the Judgment of Paris and the Trojan War.

The Styx and the Heel

When Achilles was born, Thetis tried to make him immortal. She carried the infant to the River Styx and held him by the heel as she lowered him into the water. Every part the Styx touched became impervious to weapons. The heel stayed dry. It was an arrow to that heel, guided by Apollo and shot by Paris, that killed Achilles at Troy.

Apollodorus preserves an older version. Thetis anointed her son with ambrosia by day and held him in fire at night to burn away his mortality. Peleus discovered her and cried out in alarm. The ritual was ruined. Thetis, furious at the loss of her work, abandoned husband and child and returned to the sea. The boy, half-finished, was left to Chiron on Mount Pelion.

She made one more attempt. She knew the prophecy: if Achilles went to Troy, he would win undying fame but die young. She disguised him as a girl and hid him among the daughters of King Lycomedes on Scyros. Odysseus came to the island with gifts for the princesses: fine cloth and jewelry, and among them a sword. Achilles reached for the weapon. The disguise was over.

Saviour of Zeus

When Hera, Athena, and Poseidon conspired to overthrow Zeus and bound him in chains, Thetis saved him. She went to Tartarus and summoned Briareus, one of the Hundred-Handed giants who had fought for Zeus against the Titans. Briareus came to Olympus, and the conspirators released their prisoner.

Thetis called in the debt years later. When Agamemnon seized Briseis and dishonored Achilles, Thetis rose from the sea and climbed to Olympus. She begged Zeus to turn the battle against the Greeks until Agamemnon recognized how badly he needed her son. Zeus agreed. The Greeks suffered defeat after defeat until Agamemnon sent an embassy begging Achilles to return.

Protector of the Fallen

Thetis sheltered other gods in their need. When Hera hurled the infant Hephaestus from Olympus in disgust at his lameness, Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome caught him. They raised him in an underwater cave for nine years. The young god learned his craft as a smith there, making jewelry for his foster mothers. Years later, when Achilles needed new armor after Patroclus fell wearing his old set, Hephaestus forged the Shield of Achilles for the goddess who had saved him.

When the young Dionysus was driven into the sea by the Thracian king Lycurgus, Thetis gave him refuge beneath the waves.

A Mother's Grief

Thetis knew her son would die young. When she brought Achilles his new armor from Hephaestus, she wept. When she begged Zeus for help, she spoke as a mother watching her child's death approach.

After Achilles killed Hector, the end was near. The prophecy held that Achilles would follow Hector shortly. Thetis and the Nereids rose from the sea to mourn. Their keening was so terrible that the Greek soldiers reached for their weapons. They thought the camp was under attack. After Achilles fell, Thetis and the Nereids led seventeen days of funeral lament. Pausanias records that she brought his body to Leuke, the White Island in the Black Sea, where he was worshipped as a hero.

Thetis and the Argo

When Jason and the Argonauts needed to pass the Wandering Rocks and the straits of Scylla and Charybdis, Hera asked Thetis for help. Thetis and the Nereids guided the Argo through. Apollonius of Rhodes describes the scene: the sea nymphs passed the ship from hand to hand like young women playing ball. They lifted it over the waves and steered it clear of the clashing rocks.