underwent her physical transformations<\/strong> in a bid to escape. This impressed the nymph and she agreed to become the wife of Peleus.<\/p>\nThe couple held a huge wedding feast and invited most of the Olympian gods including Poseidon, Hera and Athena.<\/strong> Each wedding guest brought a gift to the couple; Hera brought a cloak known as chlamys while Athena brought a flute.<\/p>\nPoseidon gifted Peleus the two immortal horses: Balius and Xanthus while Nereus brought a basket full of the divine salt that aids appetite and digestion. Zeus gifted gave the wings of the Titan Arke<\/strong> to Peleus wife and Aphrodite gifted the couple a bowl with an embossed image of the primordial deity Eros.<\/p>\nHowever, the gods who were not invited got angry and planned to upset the wedding. One of such gods was Eris the goddess of discord and strife who brought the golden apple of discord<\/strong> to the wedding. True to its name, the apple brought discord between the wedding guests which eventually led to the Trojan War.<\/p>\nThe Judgment of Paris at Peleus’ Wedding<\/h3>\n
According to the myth, Eris wrote on the apple “To the fairest one”<\/strong> and threw it into the wedding. Immediately, three goddesses: Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, struggled over the apple, both believing that they were “the fairest one.”<\/p>\nFinally, they consulted Paris, the Prince of Troy, to settle the quarrel by choosing the most beautiful among them. Paris settled on Aphrodite as the “fairest one” because she had helped him secure the most beautiful woman, Helen, from Troy.<\/strong><\/p>\nPeleus’ Son, Achilleus<\/h2>\n
Peleus and his wife gave birth to seven children but six of them died as infants except for Achilleus.<\/strong> Due to what happened to her children, Thetis decided to make her son Achilleus invulnerable. There are several accounts as to how she went about it, but the most popular is her dipping the infant in the infernal river Styx. While dipping him in the river,<\/strong> she held his heel, which became the weakness of Achilleus since that portion did not enter the river.<\/p>\nThe earliest account of the myth stated that Thetis anointed her son with ambrosia,<\/strong> the drink of the gods that granted immortality. Once done, she held the boy over the fire to burn away the mortal parts of his body. As she was getting to the heel of her son, Peleus walked in and interrupted the process which upset Thetis and she walked out without holding her son’s heel to the fire. Thus, his heel became the only vulnerable part<\/strong> of the body of Peleus’s son.<\/p>\nLater, Peleus gave his son to the centaur Chiron for training on Mt Pelion, which derived its name from Peleus. According to Homer, Peleus Iliad gave his spear and two immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus<\/strong> to his son. Peleus also gave his armor to his son, who in turn gave it to Patroclus, his best friend. During the war against Troy, Paris killed Achilleus by shooting an arrow at his heel.<\/p>\nThe Legacy of Peleus<\/h2>\n
Peleus had no piece of land or shrine,<\/strong> also known as a temenos, dedicated to him, unlike his father Aeacus, whose tomb was enshrined in a temenos in the port city. Phocus, the half-brother of Peleus, also had a tumulus (also known as a burial mound) built in his honor.<\/p>\nThough the reason why Peleus had no landmark in his honor is unclear several accounts have tried to explain it. In the play, Troades written by Euripides, Acastus, the son of Pelias, drove Peleus away from the city and he died while in exile.<\/p>\n
Another explanation was that Peleus was made immortal by his nymph wife<\/strong>; thus, the city Aegina did not feel the need to establish a temenos to venerate him. However, an ancient literary work from Clement of Alexandria purported that an Achaean was offered as a human sacrifice to Peleus and Cheiron. Clement of Alexandria cited the “collection of marvels” by the anonymous writer Monimos as his source.<\/p>\nA discovered fragment of Aitia (a poem) by the ancient Greek poet Callimachus stated that a tomb of Peleus was sited on the island of Ikos<\/strong>, modern-day Alonissos. In Ikos, Peleus was venerated as King Peleus of the Myrmidons. An annual festival known as the return of the hero was instituted to celebrate his achievements.<\/p>\nPeleus Percy Jackson and the Olympians<\/h2>\n
In Rick Riordan’s novel series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the character named Peleus is a friendly dragon<\/strong> that loves to play with the campers. Initially, he was a baby dragon but soon grew big enough to encircle the pine tree known as Thalia’s tree at the edge of the camp. According to the series, the Peleus dragon has a snake-like head and his body is covered in copper scales.<\/strong> His yellow eyes had an excellent vision which was necessary to guard the Golden Fleece against thieves.<\/p>\nThough Peleus is affable, he jealously protects the Golden Fleece and he can be seen always around it. His protection of the Golden Fleece is so fierce that Percy Jackson once thought he would attack the current oracle of Delphi,<\/strong> Rachel Elizabeth Dare. However, the dragon allayed Percy’s fears by refusing to attack Rachel, proving that he could distinguish a friendly visitor from an enemy.<\/p>\nPeleus in the Sea of Monsters<\/h3>\n
We first come across Peleus the dragon in the book Sea of Monsters where he is introduced as a baby dragon brought to protect the Golden Fleece.<\/strong> Percy Jackson, Grover Underwood, Annabeth Chase, and Clarisse La Rue had just stolen the fleece from the island of Polyphemus and placed it in Thalia’s tree. Chiron, the immortal centaur and Argus, the one-hundred-eyed giant, were selected to feed and care for baby Peleus till he was old enough.<\/p>\nPeleus in the Battle of the Labyrinth<\/h3>\n
Peleus is again mentioned in the series when Annabeth and Percy<\/strong> pay him a visit in Thalia’s tree. Percy pets the now growing dragon and comments on his new stature compared to when he last saw him.<\/p>\nPeleus in the Last Olympian<\/h3>\n
This book details how Rachel Elizabeth Dare compelled Blackjack (a pegasus) to transport her to the camp where she met Peleus. Percy fears that Rachel will get attacked by Peleus since she is a mortal,<\/strong> but his fears do not materialize as Peleus refrains from attacking Rachel. It is possible that Peleus’s refusal to attack is either an instruction from the gods, or he recognizes Elizabeth as the future Oracle of Delphi.<\/p>\nPeleus in the Lost Hero<\/h3>\n
In this book, the Greek demigod Piper McLean is taking a tour of Camp Half-Blood with Annabeth<\/strong> when she sees the Golden Fleece in Thalia’s tree. Thinking it is a fake, she moves closer until she sees Peleus and realizes that it is the fleece.<\/p>\nPeleus in the Tower of Nero<\/h3>\n
Peleus displays his affable nature when he allows Apollo and Meg McAffrey to pet him<\/strong> while he sits by Thalia’s pine tree. He also allows the daughter of Demeter to hug him.<\/p>\nSummary:<\/h2>\n
So far, we’ve studied the mythology of Peleus from his birth to his legacies and encountered the dragon Peleus in Rick Riordan’s work. Here is a summary<\/strong> of all that we’ve read so far:<\/p>\n\n- Peleus’ father was King Aaecus of Aegina, and his mother was the mountain nymph Endeis of Mount Pelion; he gave birth to the great Greek hero, Achilleus.<\/li>\n
- He and his brother, Telamon, accidentally killed their half-brother, Phocus, and they fled to Phthia, where their uncle, King Eurytion, cleansed them.<\/li>\n
- However, during the hunt for the boar in Calydon, Peleus accidentally killed King Eurytion and had to again flee to Iolcus for cleansing by King Acastus.<\/li>\n
- At Iolcus, Astydamiea, the wife of Acastus, fell in love with Peleus and made sexual advances toward him, but Peleus resisted and scolded her.<\/li>\n
- Later, Peleus ravaged the city of Iolcus and killed both King and Queen after Astydamiea framed him and was abandoned by Acastus on top of a hill to die.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In modern literature, the writer Rick Riordan has implored the character of Peleus in his series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He is a dragon with a snake-liked head,<\/strong> and yellow eyes, and his body is covered in scales with his only one duty; to protect the Golden Fleece in Thalia’s pine tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peleus was an Argonaut who fled the city of Aegina after he and his half-brother, Telamon, murdered their sibling, Phocus. The two brothers landed in Phthia for the purification ceremony only for Peleus to later kill the King of Phthia albeit in another accident. The Queen of Phthia fell in love with Peleus and made…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22678"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23185,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678\/revisions\/23185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ancient-literature.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}