Peleus
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in mythology, a King of Thessaly. He married Thetis, one of the Nereids, the only one among mortals who married an immortal. Being accessory to the death of his brother Phocus, he retired to the court of Eurytus, who reigned at Phthia. He was purified of his murder by Eurytus, who gave him his daughter Antigone in marriage. Peleus subsequently killed Eurytus by accident, while in the chase of the Calydonian boar. This event obliged him to retire to Iolchos, when the wife of Acastus, king of the country, country, brought certain charges against him, which caused him to be tied to a tree on Mount Pelion, that he might become the prey of wild beasts; but Jupiter, aware of the innocence of Peleus, ordered Vulcan to set him at liberty. Peleus revenged himself on Acastus, by driving him from his possessions and putting to death his wife. After the death of Antigone, Peleus fell in love with Thetis, who rejected his suit because he was a mortal. Having offered a sacrifice to the gods, Proteus at length informed him that to obtain Thetis he must surprise her asleep in her grotto, near the shores of Thessaly. This advice was followed; and Thetis, unable to escape from the grasp of Peleus, at last consented to marry him. Their nuptials were celebrated with the greatest solemnity by all the gods but the goddess of discord, who was absent. From the marriage of Peleus and Thetis was born Achilles. The death of Achilles was the source of so much grief to Peleus, that Thetis promised him immortality, and commanded him to retire to the grottos of the island of Leuce, where he would see and converse with the manes of his son.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Peleus is a figure of myth, and the story Collier's told in 1921 is still the story told now: the killing of Phocus, the accidental spear-cast at the Calydonian hunt, the wrestling match with a shape-shifting Thetis, and the wedding at which the uninvited goddess of discord threw down the apple that began the Trojan War. Two small things have shifted. Modern handbooks give the king of Phthia as Eurytion rather than Collier's Eurytus, and they use the Greek names where Collier's wrote Jupiter and Vulcan for Zeus and Hephaestus. Scholars also now read the capture of Thetis as a widespread folktale motif, the mortal who wins a shape-changing sea-bride by holding on through every transformation, rather than as a local Thessalian tale alone.
Written for this edition, 2026.