Nereus and the Oceanid Doris produced fifty daughters, the Nereids. Among them, Thetis became Achilles's mother, Amphitrite married Poseidon as queen of the sea, Galatea was courted by the Cyclops Polyphemus, and Psamathe bore Phocus to Aeacus.
Peleus and Thetis's wedding was the grandest event in divine history, attended by all the Olympians. Their son Achilles was fated to be greater than his father but doomed to die young at Troy.
Thetis summoned the Hecatoncheires (Briareus) to free Zeus when Hera, Athena, and Poseidon conspired to bind him in chains, saving his throne on Olympus.
The Nereids were fifty sea nymphs born to the Old Man of the Sea Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, dwelling in their father's golden palace beneath the Aegean and attending Poseidon's marine court.
Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite quarrelled over Eris's golden apple at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Their dispute led to the Judgment of Paris and ultimately the Trojan War.
Thetis dipped the infant Achilles in the River Styx to grant him invulnerability, the dark waters burning away his mortality everywhere they touched, leaving only the heel she gripped as his single fatal weakness.
Thetis and the Nereids guided the Argo safely between Scylla and Charybdis during the Argonauts' return voyage, steering the ship through the twin perils without losing a single crew member.
The uninvited Eris cast the golden Apple of Discord at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, sparking the divine quarrel among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that led to the Judgment of Paris and the Trojan War.
The Moirai attended the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion, where they joined other deities in celebrating the union that would produce Achilles.
The Muses sang at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on Mount Pelion, one of the great divine gatherings of Greek myth where gods and mortals feasted together.
Peleus's survival of Acastus's betrayal on Mount Pelion led to his marriage to Thetis, as Chiron arranged the match after rescuing Peleus. Acastus's treachery thus indirectly set the stage for Achilles' birth.
Thetis intervened repeatedly for Achilles during the Trojan War — persuading Zeus to favor the Trojans, and commissioning Hephaestus to forge his divine armor after Patroclus's death.
After Agamemnon seized Briseis, Achilles's mother Thetis rose from the sea and petitioned Zeus to turn the war against the Greeks until her son's honor was restored.
Thetis entrusted her son Achilles to Chiron on Mount Pelion. The centaur fed the boy on the marrow of lions and taught him the arts of war, medicine, and music.
Thetis sheltered the young Dionysus in the depths of the sea when he fled from King Lycurgus of Thrace, who had driven him and his nurses from the land.
Thetis was Doris's most famous daughter. As a Nereid, Thetis inherited her mother's connection to the sea, and Doris's lineage carried the prophecy that Thetis's son would surpass his father.
After Hera cast the infant Hephaestus from Olympus, Thetis and the sea nymph Eurynome rescued him and raised him in an underwater cave for nine years, where he first learned his craft.
When Lycurgus attacked Dionysus on Mount Nysa, the young god leapt into the sea where the Nereid Thetis sheltered him in her underwater grotto. Homer's Iliad (6.135-137) records Thetis's protection of the frightened god.
Thetis and Eos both pleaded with Zeus before the duel between their sons Achilles and Memnon. The two goddesses watched as Zeus weighed the heroes' fates on his golden scales.
Thetis was the most famous daughter of Nereus. He foretold that her son would surpass his father in greatness, a prophecy that led Zeus and Poseidon to marry her to the mortal Peleus instead.
Prometheus knew the prophecy that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. He used this secret as leverage against Zeus, who eventually freed him in exchange for the revelation that saved Olympus.
In some traditions, Proteus advised Peleus on how to capture the shape-shifting sea nymph Thetis by holding her fast through her transformations, a feat that mirrored the method others used to capture Proteus himself.
Thetis, Psamathe's fellow Nereid, intervened when Psamathe sent a wolf to ravage Peleus's flocks. Thetis persuaded Psamathe to relent, and the wolf was turned to stone, sparing Peleus further harm.
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