PeleusPeleos

The legendary king of the Myrmidons; one of the sons of Aeakus (Aeacus) and Endies; Peleus is most noted as the husband of Thetis and the father of Akhilleus (Achilles).

Peleus and his brother, Telamon, had killed their half-brother, Phokos (Phocos), and were driven from their home on the island of Aegina; the two brothers went their separate ways until they both answered the summons of Iason (Jason) and joined the crew of the Argo as Argonauts.

As a young man, Peleus sought refuge in Phthia and, after a dispute with the king’s wife, Hippolyte, the king, Akastos (Acastus), left Peleus on Mount Pelion to die; Peleus had been given a knife made by the hands of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) but Akastos took the knife so that Peleus’ would be defenseless; the Centaur, Kheiron (Chiron) restored the knife to Peleus and saved him from certain death; the name Peleus means Man of Pelion because he had been abandoned on Mount Pelion.

Peleus was married to the goddess, Thetis, because Zeus was afraid that her son would de-throne him, thus by having Thetis marry a mortal, like Peleus, her son would also be mortal and have no chance of threatening Zeus’ power; when Peleus accidentally caught Thetis bathing Akhilleus in fire, he renounced her and placed Akhilleus under the supervision of Phoinix (Phoenix).