| Peleus | |
|---|---|
King ofPhthia | |
 Peleus consigns Achilles to Chiron's care, white-groundlekythos by the Edinburgh Painter, c. 500 BC (National Archaeological Museum of Athens). | |
| Abode | Phthia |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Aeacus andEndeis |
| Siblings | Telamon,Phocus |
| Consort | Thetis |
| Offspring | Achilles,Polymele[1] |
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InGreek mythology,Peleus (/ˈpiːliəs,ˈpiːljuːs/;Ancient Greek: ΠηλεύςPēleus) was a hero, king ofPhthia, husband ofThetis and the father of their sonAchilles. This myth was already known to the hearers ofHomer in the late 8th century BC.[2]
Peleus was the son ofAeacus,[3] king of the island ofAegina,[4] andEndeïs, theoread ofMount Pelion inThessaly.[5] He married the sea-nymphThetis with whom he fatheredAchilles.
Polymele, a daughter of Peleus, was one of the possible mothers ofPatroclus byMenoetius.[6]
Peleus and his brotherTelamon were friends ofJason and both were counted asArgonauts.[7] Though there were no further kings in Aegina, the kings ofEpirus claimed descent from Peleus in the historic period.[8]
Peleus and his brotherTelamon killed their half-brotherPhocus, perhaps in a hunting accident and certainly in an unthinking moment,[9] and fledAegina to escape punishment. InPhthia, Peleus was purified by the city's ruler,Eurytion, and then married the latter's daughter,Antigone, by whom he had a daughter,Polydora. Eurytion received the barest mention among theArgonauts (both Peleus and Telamon joined the Argonauts themselves, "yet not together, nor from one place, for they dwelt far apart and distant from Aigina"[10]). However, Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion during the hunt for theCalydonian boar and fled from Phthia.
Peleus was purified of the murder of Eurytion inIolcus byAcastus. Acastus's wife,Astydamia, fell in love with Peleus and after he scorned her, she sent a messenger toAntigone to tell her that Peleus was to marry Acastus's daughter. As a result, Antigone hanged herself.
Astydamia then told Acastus that Peleus had tried to rape her. Acastus took Peleus on a hunting trip atop Mount Pelion and once Peleus fell asleep, Acastus hid his sword in cow dung and abandoned him on the mountainside. Peleus woke up and as a group ofcentaurs was about to attack him, the wise centaurChiron, or, according to another source,Hermes, returned his sword to him and Peleus managed to escape.[11] He pillaged Iolcus and dismembered Astydamia, then marched his army between the rended limbs.Acastus and[clarification needed] Astydamia were dead and the kingdom fell toJason's son,Thessalus.
After Antigone's death, Peleus married the sea-nymphThetis. He was able to win her over with the aid ofProteus, who instructed Peleus to hold onto her tightly through all of her physical transformations she used to try to escape.[12] Their wedding feast was attended by many of theOlympian gods. As wedding presents,Poseidon gave Peleus two immortal horses:Balius and Xanthus,Hephaestus gave him a knife,Aphrodite a bowl with an embossedEros,Hera achlamys,Athena a flute,Nereus a basket of the divine salt which has an irresistible virtue for overeating, appetite and digestion andZeus gave Thetis, as present, the wings ofArke.[13][14]
During the feast,Eris, in revenge for not being invited, produced theapple of Discord, which started the quarrel that led to thejudgement of Paris and eventually theTrojan War. The marriage of Peleus and Thetis produced seven sons, six of whom died in infancy. The only surviving son wasAchilles.
Thetis attempted to render her sonAchilles invulnerable. In the well-known version, she dipped him in theRiver Styx, holding him by one heel, which remained vulnerable. In an early and less popular version of the story, Thetis anointed the boy inambrosia and put him on top of a fire to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and she abandoned both father and son in a rage, leaving his heel vulnerable.
A nearly identical story is told byPlutarch, in hisOnIsis andOsiris, of the goddess Isis burning away the mortality of Prince Maneros ofByblos, son of QueenAstarte, and being likewise interrupted before completing the process. Later on in life, Achilles is killed by Paris when he is shot in his vulnerable spot, the heel. This is where the term "Achilles' heel" is derived from.
Peleus gaveAchilles to thecentaurChiron, to raise onMt. Pelion, which took its name from Peleus. In theIliad, Achilles uses Peleus's immortal horses and also wields his father's spear.
Though the tomb of Aeacus remained in a shrine enclosure in the most conspicuous part of the port city, a quadrangular enclosure of white marble sculpted with bas-reliefs, in the form in whichPausanias saw it, with the tumulus ofPhocus nearby,[15] there was notemenos of Peleus at Aegina. Two versions of Peleus's fate account for this; inEuripides'sTroades, Acastus, son ofPelias, has exiled him fromPhthia;[16] and subsequently he dies in exile; in another, he is reunited withThetis and made immortal.
In antiquity, according to a fragment ofCallimachus's lostAitia,[17] there was a tomb of Peleus inIkos (modern Alonissos), an island of the northernSporades; there Peleus was venerated as "king of theMyrmidons" and the"return of the hero" was celebrated annually.[18] And there was his tomb, according to a poem in theGreek Anthology.[19]
The only other reference to veneration of Peleus comes from the ChristianClement of Alexandria, in his polemicalExhortation to the Greeks. Clement attributes his source to a "collection of marvels" by a certain "Monimos" of whom nothing is known, and claims, in pursuit of his thesis thatdaimon-worshipers become as cruel as their gods, that in "Pella ofThessaly human sacrifice is offered to Peleus and Cheiron, the victim being an Achaean".[20] Of this, the continuing association of Peleus and Chiron is the most dependable detail.[21]
APeleus bySophocles is lost. He appears as a character inEuripides'stragedyAndromache (c. 425 BC).
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