Peleus

A killing and an exile

Peleus is a mortal hero who marries a goddess. His father is Aeacus and his mother is Endeis, and the family lives on the island of Aegina. He has a brother, Telamon, and a half-brother, Phocus.

Phocus is the best of the three at athletic contests, and the two brothers plot to kill him. In the version of Apollodorus, an ancient writer who retold the Greek myths, Telamon strikes Phocus with a discus and Peleus helps hide the body. Aeacus finds out about the killing and drives both sons out of Aegina.

Peleus goes to Phthia. There a ruler named Eurytion gives him a share of the kingdom and purifies him, which means he performs a rite that cleanses Peleus of the bloodshed.

Exile again

The new home does not last. Peleus joins the hunt for a wild boar known as the Calydonian boar. During the hunt he kills Eurytion with a spear by accident, and he has to leave once more.

He goes next to Acastus, another ruler, who purifies him in turn. This household is dangerous too. The wife of Acastus wants Peleus, and when he turns her down she makes a false accusation against him.

Again and again, Peleus depends on another ruler to take him in and cleanse him. The poet Apollonius, who wrote an epic of the voyage of the Argo, names Peleus among the Argonauts, the crew who sail with the hero Jason. The voyage does not remove the deaths that follow him.

Holding Thetis

Thetis is a goddess of the sea, and she does not want a mortal husband. In the account of Apollodorus, Chiron, a centaur of Mount Pelion, gives Peleus advice. He tells him to seize Thetis and to keep hold of her whatever shape she takes.

Thetis turns into fire, then water, then a wild beast. Peleus does not let go. In the end she stops changing and accepts the marriage.

The marriage does not make Peleus a god. Thetis is still a goddess, with powers and plans beyond his. He can hold her long enough to become her husband. He cannot control what she later chooses to do.

The wedding on Pelion

The wedding takes place on Pelion, and the gods come to it. The poet Pindar pictures the goddesses called the Muses singing there as the gods gather.

Apollodorus lists the wedding gifts. Chiron gives Peleus a spear made of ash wood. The god Poseidon gives him two immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus. These gifts later go to the war at Troy. At the wedding they first show how far above him the company is that the mortal bridegroom has joined.

Achilles goes to Chiron

After their son Achilles is born, Thetis tries to burn away the part of him that is mortal. Apollodorus says that she rubs him with ambrosia, the food of the gods, by day and lays him in fire by night. Peleus sees the baby in the flames and cries out. Thetis is interrupted. She leaves the house and goes back to the sea.

Peleus then carries Achilles to Chiron. The mountain where his parents married becomes the place where the boy grows up, apart from both of them. In Apollodorus, Chiron feeds the child and gives him his name. The care of the centaur gives the boy what his parents’ broken marriage no longer can.

Achilles will inherit the ash spear from Pelion and the immortal horses from his father’s wedding. He also inherits the gap between his parents. His mother, a goddess, can tell him what his fate will be. His mortal father waits at home for a son who will not come back from Troy.

Peleus stands at the start of that story. He is welcome at the feast of the gods, and he still meets a mortal end.