Thetis:This painting dates from back in January, and is part of a commissioned set that features the

Thetis:

This painting dates from back in January, and is part of a commissioned set that features the mothers of Classical heroes.

Thetis is a sea nymph who was forcibly married to a mortal, Peleus. She’s most famous for rendering her son, Achilles, nearly invulnerable. In the most common version of the story, Thetis dipped the infant Achilles in the waters of the Styx, protecting all parts of him but his heel. In another version, she passed him through the fire at night to burn away his immortality.

She also came to her son after the death of his beloved Patroclus. While Achilles sat wrapped in mourning, Thetis convinced Hephaestus to make him a shield and set of divinely protected armor - the armor he wore to defeat the Trojan Hector.

In Archaic Greece, Thetis may have been a goddess worshipped in her own right. One fragment identifies her as the creator of the universe, and some writings suggest her worship persisted into the historical period. 

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