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thetis
price: $ 95 catalog # GG12 - The |
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Thetis, Mother of the great warrior Achilles, was the daughter of Nereus, called the Old Man of the Sea. She and her forty-nine sisters were the beautiful nymphs of the Sea, also known as Nereids, after their father. To protect her son Achilles, she dipped him in the river Styx when he was a baby to make him invulnerable. But the water did not cover the heel by which she held onto him and Achilles' heel would be the one spot that he could be harmed. In The Iliad, she goes to Zeus to beg him to allow the Trojans to be victorious, after her son Achilles was wronged by his Greek companions and withdrew from the war. |
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This Thetis is a dainty nymph, painted in a sea-colored palette, her face framed by soft white shells. The design on her cheek and eye are variations of actual Mycenaean designs.
"Nor did Thetis forget the entreaties of her son, but she emerged from the sea's waves early in the morning and went up to the tall sky and Olympos. She found Kronos' broad-browed son apart from the others sitting upon the highest peak of rugged Olympos. She came and sat beside him with her left hand embracing his knees, but took him underneath the chin with her right hand and spoke in supplication to lord Zeus son of Kronos..." -- The Iliad, Book I
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