Sexual life in ancient Greece : with thirty-two full-page plates
RELIGION AND ERrRoTIC
The same holds good of the forms and events of the Theban and Trojan cycle of legends. When Thetis, the immortal, was assigned in marriage to Peleus, a son of man, she struggled against her fate for long, for she was unwilling to lie in the arms of any mortal. Then a bitter struggle arose, and according to Pindar (Nemea, iii, 35) Peleus was obliged “* to seize the woman of the sea with vigour ”’ ; and Ovid (Metam., xi, 229 ff.) depicts with great gusto how Thetis, who intends to give herself up to a sweet siesta in comfortable nakedness, changes herself into a thousand forms, to escape the desire of Peleus, until she is conquered by his cunning and at last surrenders herself to him and so conceives the great Achilles in this love-embrace—a highly erotic picture, which leaves nothing to the imagination. Then followed the wedding of Thetis with the mortal, with special preference glorified by the Greek poets, in which all the gods took part, which was also represented by plastic art in ever renewed, ever more beautiful variations. Certainly Eris (Strife) also appeared at the wedding-feast, and threw among the guests the notorious apple of strife, an action that brought in its train the devastating tragedy of the Trojan war. A deep-meaning symbol this, of the truth that a strong drop of bitterness is ever mixed with earthly happiness.
The story of Odysseus, full of cunning, the man of sorrows, the resolute sufferer, is known to everyone. But less familiar may be the story of how, in the district of Pellana, where ‘Tyndareos and Icarius had once lived with their children, an image of Aidds! was seen, dedicated by Icarius after the departure of his daughter. He had vainly attempted to induce Odysseus to change his abode
* The word aiéeés does not mean “‘ chastity’, but what the Latins call pietas, modest devotion to duty. The daughter of Icarius does not wish to grieve her father ; but neither does she desire to break faith with her beloved. Hence she veils her face, to conceal her mental conflict and to beg that she may not be further pressed (see Pausanias, iii, 20, 10, for the story of Penelope veiling her face).
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