Peleus and Thetis

Ovid: Metamorphoses
Book XI: The Story of Thetis

Old Proteus had told Thetis: "Goddess of the waves,
Conceive: you will be the mother of a son
Who, grown to manhood, will surpass his father,
Be called a greater man." The warning reached
The ears of Jove, who felt hot fires of love
Deep in his heart for Thetis, but wanted nothing
Above himself in all the universe;
Therefore he kept away from her embrace,
Bidding his grandson, the son of Aeacus,
Assume the role of lover, entering
This virgin of the ocean.
                                     There is a bay
On the Thessalian coast, curved like a sickle,
Good harbourage, were the water only deeper.
There sea runs smooth over the sandy shoal,
There shore holds firm, retains no footprint, halts
No traveller, is free from seaweed. Myrtle
Grows near, dense with bi-coloured fruit; a cavern
Lies in the grove, made, possibly, by nature,
By art, more likely. To this cavern often
Came Thetis, naked, riding a bridled dlophin,
And Peleus found her there, and seized her, sleeping,
Pleaded, and had refusal for his answer,
And would have turned to force, but she escaped him
With those old arts she knew: she was a bird,
He held the bird; she was a tree; he clung
Holding the trunk; she was a spotted tigress,
And he let go, and turned and prayed to the sea-gods,
Pouring them wine, offering the smoke of incense,
Entrails of sheep, till the Carpathian sea-god
Rose from his depths with counsel: "You will have her
Some day, O son of Aeacus: you must catch her
Asleep in that deep cave, and bind her, sleeping,
With every kind of noose and snare, and hold her,
Hold her, for all the hundred lies she tells you
With changing form, till she becomes again
What once she was." And Proteus sank beneath
The waves that hid his features, as the waters
Closed over his words.
                                     And the sun set, his car
Down-sloping to the ocean of the west,
As Thetis came, as always, to her rest
In that dark cave. Peleus had scarcely touched her
When she began her changing, but she found
She was held fast, her arms spread wide, and, sighing,
She said: "You must have had a god to help you,"
And so revealed herself, gave way, all Thetis,
And Peleus took her, so, and had his pleasure
And filled her with their son, the great Achilles.

Attic red figure kylix, signed by Peithinos
500 BC

Attic red figure dinos, attributed to the Achilles Painter
450 BC

Woodcut illustration of Ovid's Metamorphoses
Wilhelm Bauer (1600-1642)
Published in Nuremberg 1670, 1687

Attic red figure kylix, attributed to the Niobid Painter
450 BC