Source Verification: Thetis
Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.
What the Sources Attest
Why didn't Zeus or Poseidon marry Thetis themselves?
Because Themis prophesied that any son Thetis bore would grow mightier than his father. Both gods had fought their own way to power over an older generation, and neither was willing to raise a rival capable of doing the same to him, so both withdrew and arranged her marriage to a mortal instead.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.13.5
How did Peleus manage to marry a shape-shifting goddess?
On the centaur Chiron's advice, he caught Thetis and refused to let go no matter what form she took, cycling through fire, water, and wild beasts in an attempt to break free. When she found she could not escape his grip, she gave up the struggle and agreed to the marriage, which the gods themselves attended on Mount Pelion.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.13.5
Did Thetis try to make Achilles immortal?
Yes, according to Apollodorus. She would hide the infant in the household fire by night to burn away the mortal element he inherited from his father, then anoint him with ambrosia by day. Peleus caught her in the act and cried out in alarm, and Thetis, her ritual interrupted, abandoned the child to Peleus and returned to the sea.
Source: Apollodorus, Library 3.13.6
What does Thetis actually do in the Iliad?
She acts as Achilles's active advocate, not a distant mother. When Agamemnon dishonors him early in the poem, Achilles prays to her directly on the seashore, and she goes to Zeus in person to ask him to favor the Trojans until the Greeks recognize her son's worth. Later she visits Hephaestus, a god she once sheltered, to commission the replacement armor Achilles wears for the rest of the war.
Source: Homer, Iliad 1.493-1.510
How is Thetis connected to Hephaestus?
When Hera hurled the infant Hephaestus from Olympus over his lameness, Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome caught him and sheltered him in the depths of the sea for nine years, during which he learned his craft making jewelry for them. Hephaestus explicitly credits this rescue when Thetis later comes to ask him for Achilles's armor.
Source: Homer, Iliad 18.395-18.405
Sources
- Apollodorus, Library 3.13.5
- Apollodorus, Library 3.13.6
- Homer, Iliad 1.493-1.510
- Homer, Iliad 18.395-18.405
- Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth (1993)