Thetis and Cheiron in Thessaly
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Kernos Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique 22 | 2009 Varia Thetis and Cheiron in Thessaly Emma Aston Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/1769 DOI: 10.4000/kernos.1769 ISSN: 2034-7871 Publisher Centre international d'étude de la religion grecque antique Printed version Date of publication: 1 January 2009 ISSN: 0776-3824 Electronic reference Emma Aston, « Thetis and Cheiron in Thessaly », Kernos [Online], 22 | 2009, Online since 26 October 2012, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/kernos/1769 ; DOI : 10.4000/ kernos.1769 Kernos Kernos22(2009), p. 83-107. Thetisand Cheironin Thessaly Abstract: This artic e examines an area of Thessa ian mytho ogy andcu t surrounding the figures of Thetis the Nereid and Cheiron the centaur. It argues that the pair deriEe a substantia amount of their characterisation, in ancient narratiEes, from their mutua association, andthat on y by studying them together can we receiEe a fu insight into their mytho ogica and re igious personae. Thetis and Cheiron are shown to differ significant y with regardto a number of themes, such as their re ationship with symbo ic topography and the natura andscape of Thessa y and–most striLing y –their Lourotrophic ro es. ThetisF strong association with ambiguous nurture is argued to connect with her physica conception, especia y her association with the shape-changing sepia, cutt efish, an association which inEo Ees her in the wider ancient discourse of unre iab e fema e beauty. It is a so shown that the Thetis of 1omeric epic is significant y different from the Thetis foundinotherancientnarratiEes. ésumé: Cet artic e tudie une partie de a mytho ogie et du cu te thessa iens autour des figures de a N r ide Th tis et du centaure Chiron. I montre DuFune part importante de eur caract ristiDues, dans es r cits anciens, proEient de eur association et Due cFest seu ement en es tudiant ensemb e DuFon prend a p eine mesure de eur dimension mytho ogiDue et re igieuse. Th tis et Chiron pr sentent des diff rences substantie es sur un certain nombre de p ans, te s Due eur re ation H a topographie symbo iDue et au paysage nature de a Thessa ie, et, de mani;re p us surprenante, eur rK e de courotrophes. LFassociation troite entre Th tis et FambiguQt du nourrissage est mise en re ation aEec sa constitution physiDue et aEec e sepia protiforme, e pou pe. Cette derni;re association Fins;re dans un amp e discours ancien sur a dup icit de a beaut f minine. En outre, a Th tis de F pop e hom riDue est fort diff rente de a Th tis Due Fon trouEe dans es autres r citsanciens. 2. .ntroduction In his Kernos artic e of 1995, Phi ippe 7orgeaud made a conEincing assertion of the mythica and re igious connections binding the sea-goddess Thetis with the Sepias promontory in Thessa y.1 This presented another dimension of a figure most common y Eiewed through her I iadic persona as the grieEing mother of Achi es. It a so Ea uab y brought to the fore the cutt e-fish associa- tions of Thetis, which tend to be neg ected in scho arship but which, argued 7orgeaud, are important in understanding her Thessa ian diEine persona. 1Ph. 7ORGEA.D,“NotesurleS pias.Mytheethistoire,W Kernos8(1995),p.23-29. 84 E. ASTON 1oweEer, much more can be said about Thessa ian Thetis. It is the conten- tion of this artic e that the most fruitfu inDuiry examines Thetis not as an iso ated entity but in combination with another important figure in Thessa ian myth and cu t: the centaur Cheiron. An examination of their re ationship may shed much ight both on the two deities in Duestion and on the comp ex of myth and worship which existed in the Pe ion area of Thessa y, an area which remains arge y unexp ored in modern historiography. It wou d be an oEersimp ification of their comp icated persona ities to Eiew Thetis and Cheiron so e y through a pattern of strict opposition. 1oweEer, this paper argues for the Ea ue of studying them in combination with an eye to their differences. The surest justification for this joint treatment is that, in myth, they are se dom comp ete y apart. C ear y they were considered together in mytho- ogica narratiEe, so the combination is not an artificia one, imposed on the ancient materia . Iconographica y, they represent two different ways of express- ing the same idea: the incorporation of anima and human physica components within a sing e entity, Cheiron through hybridism, Thetis through shape- changing. It is a so true to say that Eery often in GreeL myth and cu t it is contrasts which carry the burden of symbo ic expression. These contrasts are neEer b acL and white, they are not neat antitheses; but they do ho d one (not the) Ley to understanding abiding ancient attitudes and preoccupations. Some such preoccupations come to ight when we examine the way in which the characters of Thetis and Cheiron are differentiated, as differentiated they are, with a force which reEea s their combined symbo ic Ea ency. This paper traces what cou d be seen as a hosti e mythographica tradition in the characterisation of Thetis, one which runs para e with the depiction of Cheiron as a paragon of Earious crucia Eirtues. Thessa y is a rich and in myth. It is rich in heroes, such as Achi es, Adme- tos, AsL epios, Jason, Pe ias, Pe eus, Peirithoas, Protesi aos. As home and of the AiaLid c an which produced Achi es, it is a significant bacLdrop to the Trojan war. So Thessa ian names wou d haEe been part of the epic and the ora tradi- tions, and in this dimension the region does not acL g ory. At the same time, these myths do not come to us from Thessa ian sources, and from the ancient historianFs point of Eiew Thessa ian cu ture and society remain difficu t to reconstruct. Just as 7orgeaud in his worL on Pan has expressed despair of eEer attaining a Eision of the Yrea ArLadiaF,2 so we must here resign ourse Ees to being unab e to estab ish myths as Thessa ian products, and must acLnow edge the certainty of perceptions and stories being imposed on the Thessa ian setting from without. 1oweEer, the Thessa ian setting is of the greatest significance. One major aim of this paper is to shed further ight on an aspect of Thetis that runs a ongside, and rather counter to, the perEasiEe characterisation of epic, and 2 See Ph. 7ORGEA.D, The Cult of Pan in Ancient ,reece, trans. K. At ass and J. Redfie d, Chicago,1988,esp.p.4-5. ThetisandCheironin Thessa y 85 to reEea her as a component within a strong networL of intertwined mytho ogy set around Pe ion and the Magnesian ittora . That this Thetis is not Yauthenti- ca yF or Ypure yF Thessa ian is in fact to be we comed, as it a ows one to regard the region within a much broader structure of story-te ing. 2. The juxtaposition of Thetis and Cheiron in myth and cult As a pre iminary to assessing the thematic significance of their association, I sha ay out the main points of connection. In myth, the two deities are firm y inLed. The chief e ements may be enumerated as fo ows: − One (rare) tradition maLes Thetis CheironFs daughter3 in ieu of the more common y found 1ippe. − Cheiron adEises Pe eus on the capture of Thetis on the shore.4 − The wedding of Pe eus and Thetis taLes p ace in CheironFs caEe.5 (Cheiron giEes Pe eus an ash spear as a wedding present.)6 When Thetis eaEes Pe eus, the infant Achi es is consigned to the centaurFs care, and receiEes from him tuition in Earious sLi s (for sources, see be ow). So strong are the Thetis-Pe eus-Cheiron inLs that one scho ar has eEen posited the existence of a ost epic, the Peleis, treating the episodes of the coup eFs wedding and the chi dhood of Achi es, and CheironFs benign contributions.7 This is impossib e to proEe, especia y the tit e, but is not on the face of it un iLe y. The cu t connections are ess tangib e: they rest arge y on proximity. ThetisF worship on Sepias is mentioned in 1erodotos,8 but a degree of uncertainty remains as to Duite where this promontory was, though we Lnow it to haEe been on the YarmF of Pe ion.9 1oweEer, it is hard to ascertain whether Thetis 3Hyginus, Astronomica II,18;scho ionon Apo oniosRhodios, Argon. I,558. 4 Apo odoros, III, 13, 5. Interesting y, in OEid’s Eersion ( etamorphoses 3I, 221-265) this adEisoryro eistaLenbyanothero dsage:Proteus. 5 Apo od., l.c. 6 See 1omer, Iliad 3IX, 389-391: here the spear is exp icit y describedas made from Pe ian ash, anatura productofthemountain. 7 W. MANN1ARDT, Anti4e 6ald- und Feld4ulte aus nordeuropVischer Bberlieferung, 7er in, 1877, 7d. II, p. 52-55; see a so P. P1ILIPPSON, Thessalische ythologie, Zurich, 1944, p. 137. Mannhardt was conEincedthatthelost Peleis was ofear ier datethanthe Iliad –ashaLythesis. 8 1erodotos, VII, 191, 2. The passage does not describe an offering by oca s, but by the strandedPersian f eet; howeEer, it is motiEatedby the Lnow edge that offers to Thetis at that p ace werethecustom.