Wedding of Thetis and Peleus
Hendrik da Klerk
The nymph tried everything to make the children immortal: secretly from her husband, she put them on fire to burn out everything mortal, wiped them with ambrosia, dipped them into the waters of the Styx, but they all died, except for Achilles. One day, Peley caught his wife doing this and, seeing Achilles writhing in the fire, screamed. Unable to complete what she started, the indignant Thetis left her husband and son and returned to her father and sisters of the Nerean ladies. Achilles became invulnerable, except for the heel by which his mother held him. Peleus gave his son to be raised by the centaur Chiron. Hendrik da Klerk (c. 1570-1629) Oil on copper The wedding of Thetis and Peleus Bartolomeo di Giovanni (from 1465) Tree (fragment) 90 Achilles' mother Knowing the fate of her son, Thetis tried to save him from death, hid on the island of Skyros among the daughters of Lycomedes, so that he would not go to the Trojan War, prevented him from setting foot on the coast of Troy first, gave him a weapon forged for him by Hephaestus, tried to dissuade him from killing Hector. All in vain - fate was destined for Achilles to die. The most unfortunate of the goddesses "could give her son only glory
