Peleus

The old horseman Peleus, counselor and orator among the Myrmidons, loved when I was in his house to question me concerning the race and lineage of all the Argives.

If the gods spare me to return home, Peleus will find me a wife;

I then fled through Hellas till I came to fertile Phthia, mother of sheep, and to King Peleus, who made me welcome and treated me as a father treats an only son who will be heir to all his wealth.

For I do not consider you inferior to Peleus, nor would I call Macedonia weaker than Phthia, nor Olympus less renowned than Mount Pelion;

but even then perhaps they admired certain athletes, Zetes and Calais and Peleus and other such runners and wrestlers;

Orpheus in the lyre, Heracles in the all-in fight, Polydeuces in boxing, Peleus in wrestling, Telamon in the discus, Theseus in the armed contest.

Peleus:

Peleus:

Peleus:

Agamemnon:

Agamemnon:

Did Thetis or his father train Achilles?

A sword?

And Peleus married Thetis, too, through his modesty.

Peleus, at any rate, received his sword on account of it.

But I was modestly looking out through a fine veil, and did not take up my brother in my arms—and now he is dead—did not kiss my sister, because I was going to the house of Peleus;

To Peleus.

Whom Peleus drove in days foregone.

Tamed them, men say, and gave them for his gift

for Neoptolemus is already out at sea, having heard that new calamities have befallen Peleus, for Acastus, son of Pelias, has banished him from the realm.

And the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men.

"‘I have heard nothing,’ I answered, ‘of Peleus, but I can tell you the truth [ alêtheia] about your son Neoptolemos, for I took him in my own ship from Skyros with the Achaeans.

Tell me also if you have heard anything about my father Peleus - does he still rule among the Myrmidons, or do they show him no respect throughout Hellas and Phthia now that he is old and his limbs fail him?

To each of these two were born sons—to Telamon Ajax and Teucer, and to Peleus Achilles, and these heroes gave proof of their valour in the clearest and most convincing way:

Telamon won the meed of valor in an expedition with Heracles against Laomedon, and Peleus, having distinguished himself in the battle with the Centaurs and having won glory in many other hazardous enterprises, wedded Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, he a mortal winning an immortal bride.

My counsel is to bestow this god-granted honor of marriage on Peleus son of Aeacus, who is said to be the most pious man living on the plain of Iolcus.

There is no city so barbarous or so strange in its speech that it does not know the fame of the hero Peleus, the fortunate in-law of gods, or of Aias and his father Telamon.

that Peleus had made an attempt on her in Acastus’ own bed.

And the Muses began with a prelude to Zeus, then sang first of divine Thetis and of Peleus;

Peleus turned a warlike hand against Iolcus and gave it in subjection to the Haemones after encountering the crafty arts of Acastus’ wife Hippolyte.

Peleus and Cadmus are counted among them, and Achilles who was brought there by his mother, when she had persuaded the heart of Zeus with her prayers—

And the gods held feasts for both of them, and they saw the royal sons of Cronus on their golden seats, and they received wedding gifts.

And Peleus’ son, the only child whom immortal Thetis bore in Phthia, had his life taken in battle by the bow, and roused the wailing of the Danaans while his body was burning on the pyre.

yet they are said to have attained the highest prosperity of all mortal men, since they heard the Muses of the golden headbands singing on the mountain and in seven-gated Thebes, when Cadmus married ox-eyed Harmonia, and Peleus married the famous daughter of wise Nereus.

And again the trailings of Hector’s body round the grave of Patroclus and the slaughter of the living captives upon his pyre, all these we will affirm to be lies, nor will we suffer our youth to believe that Achilles, the son of a goddess and of Peleus the most chaste of men, grandson of Zeus, and himself bred under the care of the most sage Cheiron, was of so perturbed a spirit as to be affected …

Well now, did not Peleus, son of Aeacus, govern these same people in Phthia?

Strife arrives while the gods are feasting at the wedding of Peleus and stirs up a quarrel about beauty among Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite;