Peleus

Peleus was a Greek hero, the son of Aeacus, king of Aegina, and of Endeis. He became king in Phthia in Thessaly, married the sea-nymph Thetis, whom Zeus and Poseidon had given up because of a prophecy, and was the father of Achilles. Homer calls him the old man left behind in his halls while his only son fought at Troy (Iliad 24.534–542).

Family

Aeacus married Endeis, daughter of Sciron, and they had two sons, Peleus and Telamon, who was later the father of Ajax (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.6–7). Aeacus had a third son, Phocus, by the Nereid Psamathe. Peleus’ wife Thetis was the daughter of Nereus; their only child was Achilles (Iliad 24.540). Peleus also had a daughter, Polydora, who bore the Myrmidon captain Menesthius to the river Spercheius, though the child was publicly reckoned the son of her human husband Borus (Iliad 16.173–178). Apollodorus names her mother as Antigone, daughter of Eurytion (Library 3.13.1).

Exile from Aegina

Peleus and Telamon killed their half-brother Phocus, who excelled at athletics. In Apollodorus the brothers plotted against him; the lot fell to Telamon, who struck Phocus with a quoit, and Peleus helped to hide the body (Library 3.12.6). Pausanias says that it was Peleus who threw the quoit and hit Phocus on purpose, to please their mother (Description of Greece 2.29.9). Aeacus drove both sons from the island.

Peleus went to Phthia, where Eurytion, son of Actor, purified him and gave him his daughter Antigone and a third of his land (Library 3.13.1). During the Calydonian Boar hunt, however, Peleus threw a javelin at the boar and struck Eurytion by mistake, and had to flee again (Library 1.8.2; 3.13.2). He went to Acastus at Iolcus, who purified him. Peleus was also one of the Argonauts (Library 1.9.16), and at the funeral games of Pelias he wrestled with Atalanta (Library 3.13.3).

Astydamia and the Capture of Iolcus

In Apollodorus, Acastus’ wife Astydamia fell in love with Peleus. When he refused her, she told Peleus’ wife that he was about to marry Acastus’ daughter Sterope, and Peleus’ wife hanged herself. Astydamia then falsely told Acastus that Peleus had tried to seduce her. Because he had purified Peleus, Acastus would not kill him himself; he took him hunting on Mount Pelion, left him asleep, and hid his sword in cow dung. The centaurs would have killed Peleus, but Chiron saved him and returned the sword (Library 3.13.3). Pindar knew the story under another name for the queen, Hippolyta; in his version Acastus plotted Peleus’ death with the knife of Daedalus, Chiron saved him, and Peleus later turned against Iolcus (Nemean 4.54–61). In Hesiod the weapon hidden was a knife made by Hephaestus (Catalogue of Women, fragment quoted by the scholiast on Pindar, Nemean 4). Pindar also says that Peleus took Iolcus by himself, without an army (Nemean 3.34), but in Apollodorus he sacked the city with Jason and the Dioscuri and killed Astydamia (Library 3.13.7).

Marriage to Thetis

Zeus and Poseidon both wished to marry Thetis, but the goddess Themis revealed that she was fated to bear a son stronger than his father, and so the gods gave her to a mortal (Pindar, Isthmian 8.26–47; Apollodorus, Library 3.13.5). In another version Thetis, who had been raised by Hera, refused Zeus, and he angrily decided to marry her to a mortal (Library 3.13.5). Chiron told Peleus to seize her and hold on while she changed shape; she turned into fire, water and an animal, but he did not let go until she took her own form again (Library 3.13.5; Pindar, Nemean 4.62–65).

The gods attended the wedding on Mount Pelion (Library 3.13.5; Iliad 24.62). Chiron gave Peleus an ashen spear from Pelion that no other Greek could wield except Achilles (Iliad 16.140–144), and the gods gave him splendid arms (Iliad 18.84–85). In Apollodorus, Poseidon gave him the immortal horses Balius and Xanthus (Library 3.13.5). According to the Cypria, Strife (Eris) came to the feast at the wedding and began the quarrel that led to the Judgement of Paris; Paris was not a guest, but was called later to Mount Ida by Hermes (Proclus’ summary of the Cypria; Apollodorus, Epitome 3.2).

Achilles

Thetis wanted to make her child immortal. In Apollonius and Apollodorus, she hid the baby in the fire by night to burn away the mortal part he inherited from his father, and anointed him with ambrosia by day. Peleus saw the baby writhing in the flames and cried out, and Thetis left the child and went back to the Nereids (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.869–879; Library 3.13.6). Peleus took the boy to Chiron, who raised him. Neither source mentions the River Styx. The mortal heel appears in Hyginus: Apollo, taking the form of Paris, shot Achilles in the ankle, “which he is said to have had mortal” (Fabulae 107). Peleus had made Phoenix king of the Dolopians (Iliad 9.480–484), and Phoenix went with Achilles to Troy (Library 3.13.8). He urged Achilles always to be the best (Iliad 11.783–784).

Old Age and Death

In the Iliad, Thetis says that Peleus lies in his halls worn down by old age (Iliad 18.434–435), and Achilles remembers that he vowed to the river Spercheius his son’s hair, a hecatomb and fifty rams if Achilles returned home (Iliad 23.144–148). After the war, the sons of Acastus drove Peleus from Phthia (Apollodorus, Epitome 6.13). In Euripides’ Andromache, Thetis tells Peleus to wait in a cave on the shore at Sepias until she comes with the Nereids; she will make him an immortal god living with her in the sea and reunite him with Achilles on the White Island (Andromache 1253–1269).

Peleus Sources

Homer, Iliad 9.480–484; 11.783–784; 16.140–144; 16.173–178; 18.84–85; 18.429–435; 23.144–148; 24.59–63; 24.534–542. Hesiod, Catalogue of Women (fragments, Evelyn-White). Cypria (Proclus, Chrestomathia 1). Pindar, Nemean 3.32–36; 4.54–63; Isthmian 8.26–47. Euripides, Andromache 1253–1269. Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.869–879. Apollodorus, Library 1.8.2; 1.9.16; 3.12.6–7; 3.13.1–8; Epitome 3.2; 6.13. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.29.9. Hyginus, Fabulae 107.

See Also: Aeacus, Endeis, Thetis, Achilles, Telamon, Phocus, Chiron, Jason, Argonauts, Eris, The Judgement of Paris, Calydonian Boar