Thetis had hoped to immortalize Achilles and, as an infant, placed him in the hearth fire at night in order to burn away his mortal part. Peleus observed this and accused her of trying to kill their son. Thetis, enraged at Peleus’s lack of faith, left and returned to the sea. Unable to raise Achilles alone, Peleus took him to Cheiron, who raised and instructed him in warfare. In the Iliad, an epic poem by Homer (c. ninth-eighth century BCE), Peleus was accompanied on this mission by two exiles then living at his court in Phthia, Phoenix and Patroclus. Patroclus remained with Achilles and Cheiron, while Peleus installed Phoenix as king of the Dolopians, a people who lived in Thessaly.
Peleus was elderly by the time the war broke out, and he stayed in Phthia. Taking advantage of the absence of most Greek warriors, the sons of Acastus attacked Phthia and drove Peleus from power; soon after, according to the version by Apollodorus, he died in exile. According to another version, Achilles’ son Neoptolemus, together with Thetis, intervened to save Peleus.
Many scenes from Peleus’s life featured on ancient Greek vase paintings. The wedding of Peleus and Thetis is the main scene depicted on the Francois Vase (c. 570 BCE) by artist Kleitias, and Peleus is also pictured at the Calydonian boar hunt. Other scenes on black-figure amphorae (two-handled urns) include Peleus wrestling Atalanta and chasing Thetis.
Jim Marks
Bibliography
Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin, 2009.
Howatson, M. C. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
See also: Achilles; Atalanta; Castor and Pollux; Helen; Jason; Paris; Patroclus.
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