Thetis

THETIS was a goddess of the sea and the leader of the fifty Nereides. Like many other sea gods she possessed the gift of prophesy and power to change her shape at will.

Because of a prophesy that she was destined to bear a son greater than his father, Zeus had her marry a mortal man. Peleus, the chosen groom, was instructed to ambush her on the beach, and not release his grasp of the struggling goddess as she metamorphosed into a host of shapes. The couple were afterwards married in a ceremony attended by all the gods of heaven. She bore a son, the celebrated hero Akhilleus (Achilles).

In her desperate attempts to protect her son during the Trojan War, Thetis called in many favors from the gods. These included Hephaistos (Hephaestus) and Dionysos, both of whom she had given refuge in the sea as they faced crises of youth, and Zeus, whose throne she had protected by summoning the giant Briareus-Aigaion (Aegaeon) when the gods had sought to bind him.

Thetis's name is connected with the ancient Greek words thesis "creation" and têthê "nurse".

THE NEREIDES (Nereids) were fifty sea-nymphe daughters of Nereus the old man of the sea. They were goddesses of the sea's rich bounty and protectors of sailors and fishermen, coming to the aid of those in distress. Individually they represented various facets of the sea from the salty brine, to the sea foam, sand, rocks, waves and currents, as well as the various skills possessed by seamen.

The Nereides dwelt with their elderly father in a silvery grotto at the bottom of the Aegean Sea. The Nereid Thetis was their unofficial leader and Amphitrite was Poseidon's queen.

The Nereides were depicted in ancient art as beautiful, young maidens, sometimes running with small dolphins or fish in their hands, or else riding on the backs of dolphins, hippokampoi (hippocamps) and other sea creatures.

The name Nereides means "Daughters of Nereus" but also "the Wet Ones" from nêros the Greek word for "wet".