Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/190

Rh 178 PELEUS. charged Peleus before her h usband with having made improper proposals to her, and Acastus, unwilling to stain his hand with the blood of the man whom he had hospitably received, and whom he had puri- fied from his guilt, took him to mount Peiion, where they hunted wild beasts ; and when Peleus, overcome with fatigue, had fallen asleep, Acastus left him alone, and concealed his sword, that he might be destroyed by the wild beasts. When Peleus awoke and sought his sword, he was at- tacked by Centaurs, but was saved by Cheiron, who also restored to him his sword. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 3.) To this account there are some modifications, for instead of Astydameia, Pindar {Nem. iv. 92, V. 46 ; comp. Schol. ad Apollon. Rlmd. i. 224, ad Aristoph. Nub. 1059 ; Horat. Carm. iii. 7. 18) mentions Hippolyte, the daughter of Cretheus, and others relate that after Acastus had concealed the sword of Peleus, Cheiron or Hermes brought him another one, which had been made by He- phaestus. (Apollon. Rhod. i. 204 ; Aristoph. Nuh. 1055.) While on mount Peiion, Peleus married the Nereid Thetis, by whom he became the father of Achilles, though some regarded this Thetis as different from the marine divinity, and called her a daughter of Cheiron. (Apollon. Rhod. i. 558 ; comp. Thetis.) The gods took part in the mar- riage solemnity, and Cheiron presented Peleus Avith a lance (Hom. //. xvi. 143, xxiv. 61, &c., which, however, according to Pindar, Nem. iii. 56, Peleus made for himself), Poseidon with the immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus, and the other gods with arms. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 5 ; Hom. //. xvi. 381, xvii. 443, xviii. 84.) According to some, his immortal wife soon left him, though Homer knows nothing of it (//. xviii. 86, 332, 441), for once, as he observed her at night while she held the infant Achilles over a fire or in a cauldron of boiling water, in order to destroy in him those parts which he had inherited from his father, and which were mortal, Peleus was terror- struck, and screamed so loud that she was pre- vented from completing her work. She therefore quitted his house, and returned to her sisters, the Nereides ; but Peleus, or, according to others, Thetis herself (Orph. Argon. 385), took the boy Achilles to Cheiron, who brought him up. (Apollod. iii. 13. § 6.) Homer mentions only Achilles as the son of Peleus and Thetis, but later writers state that she had already destroyed by fire six children, of whom she was the mother by Peleus, and that as she attempted the same with Achilles, her seventh child, she was prevented by Peleus. (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 816 ; Lycoph, 178 ; Ptolem. Hephaest. 6.) After this Peleus, who is also men- tioned among the Argonauts, in conjunction with Jason and the Dioscuri, besieged Acastus at lol- cus, slew Astydameia, and over the scattered limbs of her body led his warriors into the city. (Apollod. iii. 13, § 7 ; comp. i. 9. ^ 16 ; Apollon. Rhod. i. 91 ; Orph. Argon. 130 ; Hygin. Fuh. 14.) Some state that from mount Peiion Peleus, without an army, immediately returned to lolcus, slew Acas- tus and his wife (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 224 ; Pind. Nejn. iii. 59), and .annexed lolcus to Hae- monia. (Thessaly ; Pind, Nem.'w. 91.) Respect- ing the feud between Peleus and Acastus, the legends present great differences. Thus we are told, for example, that Acastus, or his sons, Ar- clmiider and Architeles, expelled Peleus from his PELT AS. kingdom of Phthia (Eurip. Troad. 1127, with the Schol.), or that the flocks which had been giv»in by Peleus to Acastus, as an indemnification for the murder of his son Actor, were destroyed by a wolf, wlio was forthwith changed by Thetis into a stone (Tzetz. ad Lye. 175, 901), or that Peleus, being abandoned during the chase by Acastus, was kindly received by Cheiron, and having acquired the possession of flocks, he took them to Irus, as an atonement for his son Eurytion, whom he had killed. But Irus refusing to accept them, Peleus allowed them to wander about without superintending shepherds, until they were attacked by a wolf. (Anton. Lib. 38.) This wolf was sent by Psamathe, to avenge the murder of Phocus, but she herself afterwards, on the request of Thetis, changed him into stone. (Tzetz. ad Lye. 175 ; Ov. Met. xi, 351, &c., 400.) Phoenix, who had been blinded by his own father Amyntor, and who afterwards became the companion of Achilles, had his sight restored to him by Cheiron, at the request of Peleus, who also made him king of the Dolopes. (Lycoph. 421 ; Hom. //. ix. 438, 480.) Peleus also received in his dominion Epeigeus, son of Agacles, and Patroclns who had fled from his home, and some even relate that Patroclus was the son of Polymele, a daughter of Peleus. (Hom. II. xvi. 571, xxiii. 89 ; Apollod. iii. 13. § 8.) Peleus, who had once joined Heracles in his expedition against Troy (Pind. 01. viii. 60), was too old to accompany his son Achilles against that city : he remained at home and survived the death of his son. (Hom. II. xviii. 434, Od. xi. 495.) [L. S.] PELIADES (HeA/aSes), the daughters of Pelias. (Eurip. Med. 9 ; Hvgin. Fab. 24 ; comp. Pe- lias.) ' [L. S.] PE'LTAS {UeXias). 1. A son of Poseidon (or Cretheus, Hygin. Fab. 12 ; Schol. ad Tlieocrit. iii. 45) and Tyro. The latter, a daughter of Salmo- neus, was in love, in her youth, with the river-god Enipeus, and Poseidon assuming the appearance of Enipeus, visited her, and became by her the father of Pelias and Neleus. Afterwards she was married to Cretheus, her father's brother ; she became by him the mother of Aeson, Pheres, and Amy- tiiaon, (Hom, Od. xi. 234, &c. ; Apollod. i. 9. § 8 ; Hygin. Fab. 157.) Pelias and Neleus were exposed by their mother, and one of them was struck by a mare which passed by, so that his face became black, and a shepherd who found the child called him Pelias (from TreAfdw, Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1682) ; and the other child which was suckled by a she-dog, was called Neleus, and both were brought up by the shepherd. When they had grown up to manhood, they discovered who their mother was, and Pelias killed Sidero, the wife of Salmoneus and step-mother of Tyro, at the altar of Hera, because she had ill used her step-daughter Tyro. After the death of Cretheus, Pelias did not allow his step-brother Aeson to undertake the government of the kingdom, and after expelling even his own brother Neleus he ruled at lolcus (Schol. ad Eurip. Alcest. 255 ; comp. Paus. iv, 2. § 3), whereas according to others, he did not reign at lolcus till after Aeson's death, and even then only as the guardian of Jason, the son of Aeson. (Schol. ad Hom. Od. xii. 70.) It is probably in allusion to his conduct towards his own brothers that Hesiod {Theog. 996) calls him vSpiffrT/is. He married, according to some (Hygin. Fab, 14), Anuxibiu, the daughter of Bias, and accordnig to