Peleus

“ But Hector his destructive fate fettered to remain there, before Ilium and the Scæan gates. And Phœbus Apollo thus addressed the son of Peleus:
"Why, O son of Peleus, dost thou pursue me, an immortal god, with swift feet, thyself being a mortal? Nor yet hast thou at all discovered that I am a god; but thou incessantly ragest. For certainly the labor of the Trojans is not now a care to thee, whom thou hast routed, and who are now inclosed within their city, while thou art turned aside hither. Neither canst thou slay me, since I am not mortal." ”

“ Ordained it otherwise. Even now rushed on
In terrible anger Peleus' son: he thrust
With sudden spear, and on its shaft impaled
The body of her tempest-footed steed,
Even as a man in haste to sup might pierce
Flesh with the spit, above the glowing hearth
To roast it, or as in a mountain-glade
A hunter sends the shaft of death clear through
The body of a stag with such winged speed
That the fierce dart leaps forth beyond, to plunge
Into the tall stem of an oak or pine.
So that death-ravening spear of Peleus' son
Clear through the goodly steed rushed on, and pierced
Penthesileia. ”

“ No longer, son of Peleus, will I flee from thee, as before I thrice fled around the great city of Priam, nor ever had the heart to abide thy onset; but now again my spirit biddeth me stand and face thee, whether I slay or be slain. But come hither, let us call the gods to witness, for they shall be the best witnesses and guardians of our covenant: I will do unto thee no foul despite, if Zeus grant me strength to outstay thee, and I take thy life; but when I have stripped from thee thy glorious armour, Achilles, I will give thy dead body back to the Achaeans ”

“ Peleus took refuge in Phthia with his uncle Eurytion, who purified him from the guilt of murder, and gave him his daughter Antigone to wife, and a third of the kingdom as her dowry. Having accidentally killed his father-in-law at the Calydonian boar-hunt, Peleus was again obliged to flee, this time to Iolcus, where he was purified by Acastus. The most famous event in the life of Peleus was his marriage with the sea-goddess Thetis, by whom he became the father of Achilles. ”

“ To many. Peleus, at any rate, received his sword on account of it. Unj. A sword? Marry, he got a pretty piece of luck, the poor wretch! While Hyperbolus, he of the lamps, got more than many talents by his villainy, but by Jupiter, no sword! Just. And Peleus married Thetis, too, through his modesty. Unj. And then she went off and left him; for he was not lustful, nor an agreeable bedfellow to spend the night with. Now a woman delights in being wantonly treated. But you are an old dotard. ”

“ Then Peleus was taken with love of Thetis,
Then Thetis did not despise human marriages
Then the father himself realized Peleus must be joined to Thetis.
Oh heroes born in the more joyful of ages,
Greeting, race of gods! Oh good progeny of the mothers
Often I will address you in my song,
And you so increased in importance by fortunate wedding torches
Oh Peleus height of Thessaly, to whom Jupiter himself,
The father of the gods himself concedes the his own love?
Did Thetis, most beautiful daughter of Nereus hold you? ”

“ Enter Peleus, attended.
Peleus.
Women of Phthia, unto that I ask
Make answer, for a rumour have I heard
That Menelaus' child hath left these halls
And fled away. In haste I come to learn ⁠1050
If this be sooth; for we which bide at home
Should bear the burdens of our absent friends.
Chorus.
Peleus, truth hast thou heard: 'twere for my shame
To hide the ills wherein my lot is cast.
O yea, the queen is gone—fled from these halls. ⁠1055
Peleus. ”

“ But now do I wondrously fear the swift-footed son of Peleus; so masterful is his spirit, he will not be minded to abide in the plain, where in the midst both Trojans and Achaeans share in the fury of Ares; but it is for our city that he will fight, and for our wives. ”

“ One day as he was standing near the palace having speech with the king, a herdsman ran to him and cried out: “Peleus, Peleus, a dread thing has happened in the unfurrowed fields.” And when he had got his breath the herdsman told of the thing that had happened.
They had brought the herd down to the sea. Suddenly, from the marshes where the sea and land came together, a monstrous beast rushed out upon the herd; like a wolf this beast was, but with mouth and jaws that were more terrible than a wolf’s even. The beast seized upon the cattle. ”

“ For by now I ween is Peleus either dead and gone, or else, though haply he still liveth feebly, is sore distressed with hateful old age, and with waiting ever for woeful tidings of me, when he shall hear that I am dead. ”

“ Then the son of Peleus brought and set in the place of gathering a far-shadowing spear and a cauldron, that the fire had not yet touched, of an ox's worth, embossed with flowers; and men that were hurlers of javelins arose. Up rose the son of Atreus, wide-ruling Agamemnon and Meriones, the valiant squire of Idomeneus. ”

“ She went to Peleus’s ship and she went to Phthia, his country. And when the hero and the sea goddess were [pg 196] wedded the immortal gods and goddesses came to their hall and brought the bride and the bridegroom wondrous gifts. The three sisters who are called the Fates came also. These wise and ancient women said that the son born of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis would be a man greater than Peleus himself.
III
Now although a son was born to her, and although this son had something of the radiance of the immortals about him, Thetis remained forlorn and estranged. ”

“ In like manner Peleus was subdued by stratagem, and his country Magnesia made subject to the Thessalians, through the treacherous instrumentality of Cretheis, daughter of Hippolytus, and wife to Acastus. The following lines allude to the various shapes of fire, lion, &c., into which Thetis is said to have transformed herself, with the vain hope of avoiding the matrimonial affinity of Peleus. ”

“ Shame and lamentation have come upon us all. Surely the aged Peleus, the goodly king of the Myrmidons, would deeply groan, if he heard that we are all cowering before great Hector; he would pray that his soul might leave his body and go down to Hades. Would to Zeus, and to Athene and Apollo, that I were young, as when the Pylians met the Arcadians in battle, and Ereuthalion, the squire of King Lycurgus of Arcadia, wearing the divine armor of Areïthous, of the iron mace, before the walls of Pheia, by the waters of Iardanus, challenged all our host ”

“ Thereupon they sat to devise some prudent counsel for their voyage, and the maiden came upon them as they pondered, but Peleus spake his word first:
“I now bid you embark while it is still night, and take with your oars the passage opposite to that which the enemy guards, for at dawn when they see their plight I deem that no word urging to further pursuit of us will prevail with them; but as people bereft of their king, they will be scattered in grievous dissension. And easy, when the people are scattered, will this path be for us on our return.” ”

“ Many noble gifts did the gods give to King Peleus, my father; wealth and bliss beyond that of other men, and kingship over the Myrmidons. Ay! and they gave him a goddess to be his wife. But they gave also this evil, that he had no stock of stalwart children in his house, but one son only, and I cannot help him at all in his old age, for I tarry here far away in Troy. Thou, too, old man, hadst wealth and power of old, and lordship over all that lies between Lesbos and Phrygia and the stream of Hellespont. ”

“ And sought her 'custom'd couch. Scarce Peleus seiz'd
Her virgin limbs, when straight a thousand forms
She try'd, till fast she saw her members ty'd;
And her arms fetter'd close in every part:
Then sigh'd, and said; “thou conquerest by some god:”
And the fair form of Thetis was display'd.
The hero clasp'd her, and his wishes gain'd;
And great Achilles straight the nymph conceiv'd.
Now blest was Peleus in his son and bride;
And blest in all which can to man belong ”

“ Ye Trojans, high of heart, fear not the son of Peleus I too with words could fight even the immortals, but with the spear it were hard, for they are mightier far, Neither shall Achilles bring to fulfillment all his words, but a part thereof will he fulfill, and a part leave incomplete. ”

“ Then the son of Peleus uttered a bitter cry, with a look at the broad heaven: "Father Zeus, how is it that no one of the gods taketh it upon him in my pitiless plight to save me from out the River! thereafter let come upon me what may. None other of the heavenly gods do I blame so much, but only my dear mother, that beguiled me with false words, saying that beneath the wall of the mail-clad Trojans I should perish by the swift missiles of Apollo. Would that Hector had slain me, the best of the men bred here; then had a brave man been the slayer, and a brave man had he slain. ”

“ To whom thunder-rejoicing Jove, mingling, may give them, sometimes he falls into evil, but sometimes into good; but to whomsoever he gives of the evil, he makes him exposed to injury; and hungry calamity pursues him over the bounteous earth; and he wanders about, honored neither by gods nor men. So indeed have the gods given illustrious gifts to Peleus from his birth; for he was conspicuous among men, both for riches and wealth, and he ruled over the Myrmidons, and to him, being a mortal, they gave a goddess for a wife. ”

“ And as for his gifts, I scorn them; though he give me tenfold, yea, twentyfold, all that he now hath promised. Yea, verily, though he give me gifts as the sand of the sea for multitude, he shall not persuade me, till he shall have endured bitterness of soul like mine. And his daughter I will not wed—no, not though she be as fair as golden Aphrodite, and match Athene of the flashing eyes in skill of handiwork. Let him choose him from among the Greeks some kinglier son-in-law than I, and for me, if the gods bring me safe to my home, Peleus shall choose a wife. ”

“ And we twain were within, I and goodly Odysseus, and in the halls we heard all things, even as he gave thee charge. For we had come to the well-builded house of Peleus, gathering the host throughout the bounteous land of Achaia. There then we found in the house the warrior Menoetius and thee, and with you Achilles; and the old man Peleus, driver of chariots, was burning the fat thighs of a bull to Zeus that hurleth the thunderbolt, in the enclosure of the court, and he held in his hand a golden cup, pouring forth the flaming wine to accompany the burning offerings. ”

“ Then his clean limbs his weeping squires bedight
In all the mail Hephaistos served his might
Withal, of breastplate shining like the sun
Upon flood-water, three-topped helm whereon
Gleamed the gold basilisk, and goodly greaves.
These bore he without word; but when from sheaves
Of spears they picked the great ash Pelian
Poseidon gave to Peleus, God to a man,
For no man's manège else—than all men's fear:
"Dry and cold fighting for thee this day, my spear,"
Quoth he. ”

“ Cheiron it was who gave to Peleus his great spear. And when Peleus desired to wed an immortal, Zeus, the greatest of the gods, prevailed upon the nymph Thetis to marry him, although marriage with a mortal was against her will. To the wedding of Thetis and Peleus all the gods came. And for wedding gifts Zeus gave such armour as no mortal had ever worn before—armour wonderfully bright and wonderfully strong, and he gave also two immortal horses.
'Achilles was the child of Thetis and Peleus—of an immortal woman married to a mortal hero. He grew up most strong and fleet of foot. ”

“ So tell us, I pray you, yet more about that strange wedding feast in the cavern halls of Pelion."
"There is little more to tell," said the master. "After the feast, King Peleus went down with his bride into Phthia; and there his Myrmidons, who had waited so long for his coming, rallied around him, ready to help him in any undertaking. And they marched upon Iolcos, and entered the gates, carrying all before them; and they slew King Acastus, and set Peleus on his throne. Thus ended this hero's days of exile; and now for seven years he has ruled Iolcos and Phthia both wisely and well ”

“ Andromache and Molossus are kneeling before Menelaus praying for their lives, when Peleus, the aged grandfather of Neoptolemus, appears and stays the execution. Euripides has drawn the character of Peleus with something of the heat and fury of the Sophoclean Teiresias. The old king does not spare Menelaus, but makes his tongue a scourge to flay him with invective. The end of the struggle is that Peleus conveys Andromache and the boy safely away; and during the rest of the drama we hear nothing of them. ”

“ There also was Peleus, who later married Thetis of the silver feet, goddess of the sea foam, and was the father of Achilles. Many others were there whose names it would take too long to tell. They all grew up together in the hills good friends, healthy, and brave, and strong. And they all went out to their own homes at last; but Jason had no home to go to, for his uncle, Pelias, had taken it, and his father was a wanderer. ”

“ Peleus, in love with Thetis, by the assistance of Proteus obtains her favour; but Jupiter interposing, Peleus, in despair, consults Prometheus, famous for his skill in astrology, upon whose prophesy, that the son born of Thetis should prove greater than his father, Jupiter desists. The prophesy was afterwards verified in the birth of Achilles, the son of Peleus. ”