Thetis and the other deities Thetis

immortal thetis mortal peleus in foreground, boeotian black-figure dish, c. 500–475 bc - louvre.

pseudo-apollodorus bibliotheke asserts thetis courted both zeus , poseidon, married off mortal peleus because of fears prophecy themis (or prometheus, or calchas, according others) son become greater father. thus, revealed figure of cosmic capacity, quite capable of unsettling divine order. (slatkin 1986:12)

when hephaestus thrown olympus, whether cast out hera lameness or evicted zeus taking hera s side, oceanid eurynome , nereid thetis caught him , cared him on volcanic isle of lemnos, while labored them smith, working there in hollow of cave, , stream of okeanos around went on forever foam , murmur (iliad 18.369).

thetis not successful in role protecting , nurturing hero (the theme of kourotrophos), role in succoring deities emphatically repeated homer, in 3 iliad episodes: rescue of zeus (1.396ff) , hephaestus (18.369), diomedes recalls when dionysus expelled lycurgus olympians aid, took refuge in erythraean sea thetis in bed of seaweed (6.123ff). these accounts associate thetis divine past—uninvolved human events—with level of divine invulnerability extraordinary olympian standards. within framework of iliad ultimate recourse zeus protection, here poem seems point alternative structure of cosmic relations