Nereids

Calchas declared that Troy could not be taken without Achilles when the boy was nine. Thetis knew that he was fated to die if he joined the expedition, so she disguised him in women’s clothing and entrusted him to King Lycomedes on Skyros. Achilles lived at the king’s court among his daughters, concealed as a young girl. During this time, he had intercourse with Deidameia, Lycomedes’ daughter, and she bore him a son called Pyrrhos, later known as Neoptolemos.

The Greek chiefs came to Skyros because they suspected that Achilles was hidden there. Lycomedes welcomed them, and they saw his daughters dancing and playing at ball. Achilles was young, slim, and beautiful, so they did not recognise him among the girls. Odysseus then searched the court for him. In one account, he disguised himself as a Phoenician merchant and brought fine cloth, embroideries, gold jewellery, amber necklaces, and weapons among the goods offered to the women.

Achilles revealed himself when Odysseus caused a trumpet to sound, with shouts and the clash of arms. Thinking that the palace was under attack, he discarded the women’s clothing and seized a shield and spear. In the simpler version, he instinctively chose the weapons when they were placed among the women’s finery. Odysseus named him as Achilles, son of Peleus, and as the chief warrior of the Achaeans. Achilles was glad to leave the women’s quarters. The Greeks clothed him as a man, gave him his sword, and sent him to join the expedition. He later returned to his home with ten ships, while Thetis wept and told him that he could choose either a long, peaceful life or a short life of war and undying renown.

Hera, Poseidon, and Pallas Athene suddenly surrounded Zeus while he slept on his couch. They bound him with rawhide thongs tied in a hundred knots, leaving him unable to move. They had placed his thunderbolt out of reach, so his threats of immediate death did not frighten them. The gods celebrated their success and argued over who should succeed him. In another account, Apollo and the other Olympians joined the plot, while Hestia alone was absent.

Thetis saw that the revolt might bring civil war to Olympus. She hurried to find Briareus, the hundred-handed being whom the gods called the terrifying Hundred-Armed One. Briareus came to Zeus and loosened the thongs with all his hands at once. Zeus was freed, and Briareus remained as his guard. The attempt to overthrow Zeus therefore failed.

Hera had led the conspiracy, so Zeus punished her by hanging her from the sky. He fastened a golden bracelet to each wrist and an anvil to each ankle. The other gods were deeply distressed, but none dared rescue her despite her cries. Zeus eventually agreed to release her on the condition that the gods swore never again to rebel against him.

Hera cast Hephaestus from Olympus because she was ashamed of his lameness. He fell into the sea and survived. Thetis and Eurynome, daughter of Oceanos, found him and carried him to the cave of the Nereids beneath the sea.

They raised him there in secret for nine years. Hephaestus set up his first forge in the underwater grotto and learned to make finely worked objects. He fashioned brooches, spiral armbands, rosettes, necklaces, and other ornamental or useful things. Thetis and Eurynome kept these works with them, and he repaid their kindness with his craft.

After nine years, Hera met Thetis wearing a brooch made by Hephaestus. Hera asked where she had found the jewel. Thetis hesitated, but Hera forced the truth from her. Hera then brought Hephaestus back to Olympus.

On Olympus, Hera gave him a finer forge with twenty bellows that worked day and night. She made much of him and arranged his marriage to Aphrodite.

In another telling, Zeus threw Hephaestus from heaven when he came to Hera's aid during a quarrel between Zeus and Hera. He fell for a whole day and was received by the Sintians on Lemnos.

Galatea combed her hair among the sea nymphs and spoke of the love that troubled her. She was the daughter of Nereus and grey Doris, and her sisters were with her. Human men had sought her favour, but she could refuse them without fear. The Cyclops Polyphemus was different. She could not escape his love, and she described this grief with tears. Her companion asked her to tell the whole story.

Galatea loved the youth Acis instead. Polyphemus desired her, but she rejected him, and his jealousy turned against her lover. He seized a gigantic rock and threw it at Acis. The stone struck him and overwhelmed him. His scarlet blood flowed from beneath it, while Galatea mourned the death of the youth.

The red blood soon began to lose its colour. It became like a stream made turbid by rain, then cleared with time. The rock split open. Reeds grew from its hollow, and bubbling water trickled from the opening. Acis rose from the stone as far as his waist, with a wreath of reeds around his horned head. He was larger than before and wholly grey. Though changed into water, he remained Acis, and continued thereafter in the form of a river bearing his name.

Poseidon approached Amphitrite after abandoning his courtship of Thetis. Themis had foretold that any son born to Thetis would become greater than his father, so Poseidon allowed her to marry the mortal Peleus. Amphitrite, a Nereid, viewed Poseidon’s advances with repugnance and fled. One passage places her flight among the Atlas Mountains. Another says that she escaped into the depths of the sea after Poseidon saw her dancing on Naxos.

Poseidon tried to win her with gifts. He made ornaments from coral, pearl, and bullion recovered from sunken treasure ships, but Amphitrite rejected them. He then created something new for her, a fish that could talk and dance. He named it Delphinus and sent it to plead his cause. Delphinus argued with such wit and eloquence that Amphitrite yielded to Poseidon’s courtship.

Amphitrite returned and became Poseidon’s bride and queen of the sea. She reigned there for many centuries. Delphinus remained her favourite creature of the deep, and she employed a string of dolphins to pull her crystal chariot. In another tradition, however, Amphitrite is not presented as Poseidon’s wife. The Homeric poems use her name simply for the sea.