Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Thetis.
The gallery
Jupiter and Thetis
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1811
Ingres' monumental Neoclassical canvas illustrates the opening of Homer's Iliad: the sea-nymph Thetis kneels before an enthroned, colossal Jupiter to beg that her son Achilles be honoured. The artist exaggerates the supplicating Thetis with sinuous, elongated limbs and a serpentine throat as her hand reaches up to caress the god's beard, while the impassive father of the gods looms in marmoreal majesty. The dramatic contrast of scale and the tense intimacy of her plea make this one of the most celebrated visions of Achilles' divine mother. Held in the Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence.
Thetis Dipping Achilles into the River Styx
Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1630–1635
In this dynamic Baroque oil sketch Rubens depicts the most famous act of Thetis as a mother: gripping the infant Achilles by the heel, she plunges him into the dark waters of the Styx to render him invulnerable, leaving only the unbathed heel mortal. The boatman Charon and the underworld setting frame the swirling figures, and the composition belongs to a series of designs Rubens prepared for tapestries on the life of Achilles. The work fixes in paint the origin of the proverbial 'Achilles' heel.'
Peleus and Thetis (Attic red-figure kylix)
Attributed to the painter Douris, c. 490 BC
The tondo of this Attic red-figure drinking cup shows the hero Peleus wrestling the shape-shifting Thetis to win her as his bride. As the mortal grasps the struggling sea-goddess, she transforms her body to escape him — here a lion springs from her shoulder and a serpent coils about Peleus's arm — visualising the metamorphic ordeal Peleus must endure before the gods grant him the immortal Nereid. The cup is preserved in the Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
Thetis and Peleus (Boeotian black-figure dish)
Unknown (Boeotian vase painter), c. 500–475 BC
This Boeotian black-figure dish illustrates the courtship of Thetis by the mortal Peleus, the union ordained by the gods because a prophecy warned that the sea-nymph would bear a son greater than his father. The figures are rendered in the bold silhouette and incised detail of the black-figure technique, capturing the marriage that would produce Achilles and to whose famous wedding feast all the gods were invited — the occasion of the golden apple of discord. The vessel is held in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.