We are more or less done with Telamon now. He featured as a kind of lieutenant to great heroes like Jason, Meleager and Heracles, but his importance to us in the telling of the tale of Troy is in his fathering of those two sons, Ajax and Teucer. The same could be said of his brother Peleus. But the son of Peleus was so much more important to our story, and the manner of his birth so remarkable, that Peleus himself deserves more attention.
PELEUS IN EXILE
When the brothers were banished from Aegina for the killing of young Prince Phocus, Peleus went further afield than Telamon. He crossed the Greek mainland and travelled north to the small kingdom of Phthia in Aeolia. It was no random choice: these were ancestral lands. We must go back in time to find out the connection between Aegina in the south and Phthia in the north.
You will recall that Peleus’s father Aeacus was the son of Zeus and the sea nymph Aegina. HERA, as ever ragingly jealous of her husband’s affairs, had waited until Aeacus grew to manhood before sending a plague to the island which wiped out the human population, all but Aeacus.
Alone and unhappy, Aeacus wandered his island praying to his father Zeus for help. Falling into a sleep under a tree he was awoken by a column of ants marching over his face. He looked around and saw a whole colony swarming about him.
‘Father Zeus!’ he cried out. ‘Only let there be as many mortals to keep me company on this island as there are ants on this tree.’
He caught Zeus in a good mood. In answer to his son’s prayer the King of the Gods transformed the ants into people, whom Aeacus called the Myrmidons after myrmex, the Greek word for ant. In time most of the Myrmidons left Aegina and made their home in Phthia. And that is the reason Peleus chose Phthia as a place for exile and expiation: to be with the Myrmidons.fn11
EURYTION, Phthia’s king, welcomed Peleus and – just as Cychreus of Salamis had done for Telamon – cleansed him of his crime, appointed him heir, and gave him his daughter in marriage.
Marriage to the king’s daughter ANTIGONE;fn12 the birth of a girl, Polydora; high status in Phthia as heir apparent to the throne of the Myrmidons; purification from his crime – things looked good for Peleus. But he and Telamon were made of energetic, restless material, and the settled domesticity of married life suited neither. Over the coming years they distinguished themselves on board the Argo in the quest for the Golden Fleece and afterwards, like so many of the Argonaut veterans, they flocked to Calydon to join in the hunt for the monstrous boar that Artemis had sent to ravage the countryside there.fn13 In the heat of that legendary chase, Peleus’s spear went wide and fatally wounded his father-in-law Eurytion. Accident or no accident, this was another blood crime, another kin-slaying, and Peleus once more found himself in need of royal expiation.
The king who offered to cleanse him this time was ACASTUS, the son of Jason’s old enemy Pelias; and so now it was to Acastus’s Aeolian kingdom of Iolcos that Peleus made his way.fn14 Bear with me, reader.
By this time, Peleus had outgrown the unappealing characteristics that had caused him to play so monstrous a part in the killing of his young half-brother Phocus, and he was now recognized by all to be a modest, amiable and charming man. So modest, so charming, so amiable – and so handsome too – that it was not long before Acastus’s wife ASTYDAMEIA found herself overcome by desire for Peleus. She came to his bedchamber one night and did everything she could to seduce him, but with no success. His sense of propriety as a guest and friend of Acastus froze him in horror as she repeatedly pushed her body against his. Stung by the rejection, Astydameia turned her love to hate.
Those of you who know the story of Bellerophon and Stheneboea, or of THESEUS’s son Hippolytus and Phaedra,fn15 or indeed that of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in the book of Genesis, will be familiar with the mytheme or recurrent trope of the ‘woman scorned’ and how it inevitably unwinds.
Hot with mortification, Astydameia sent a message to Peleus’s wife Antigone, who was home in Phthia raising their daughter Polydora.
‘Antigone, this is to advise you that your husband Peleus, whom you thought so faithful, is now betrothed to my stepdaughter Sterope. I can imagine how painful for you this news must be. Peleus has made no secret of his distaste for you. Your figure since giving birth, he tells the court, is now as plump and squashy as an overripe fig and he cannot bear the sight of you. It is as well you hear this from me and not from one who wishes you ill. Your friend, Astydameia.’
After Antigone heard this message she went out and hanged herself.
Even such a terrible outcome was not enough for the vengeful Astydameia, who now approached her husband with bowed head and choked sobs.
‘Oh, my husband …’ she began.
‘Whatever is the matter?’ said Acastus.
‘No, I cannot say. No, I cannot …’
‘I command you to tell me what is troubling you.’
The terrible story came tumbling out. How the lustful Peleus had come to her bedchamber and tried to force himself upon her. How she had repulsed the rape and written to advise Antigone of her husband’s faithlessness. How Antigone in her humiliation and grief had taken her own life. How Astydameia had wanted to keep all this from Acastus, who seemed so fond of Peleus … But now he had prised it from her … Oh dear, she hoped she had not done wrong in telling him … ?
Even as Acastus comforted his wife, his mind set itself on an implacable course. He knew he had to be careful, however. It would be an infraction of the sacred laws of hospitality to kill his guest. Not only that, Peleus was a grandson of Zeus. To lay hands upon him would be foolhardy. Nonetheless, Acastus was determined to ensure the death of the wanton and depraved villain who had dared lay hands on his wife.
The next day he and his courtiers took their young guest out on a hunting expedition. In the late afternoon, Peleus, exhausted from the chase, found a grassy bank at the edge of a dark wood and sank into a deep sleep. Signalling for silence from his men, Acastus stole up to him and took his sword, a powerful weapon forged by HEPHAESTUS and given to Peleus’s father by Zeus himself. Acastus hid it in a nearby dungheap and, grinning with delight, he and his men tiptoed away, leaving Peleus locked in sleep. Acastus knew that at night the region was made lethally dangerous by marauding centaurs, half horse, half human, who would surely find Peleus and kill him.
Sure enough, not two hours later a herd of wild centaurs on the fringe of the wood sniffed the air and detected the scent of a human.
Now, everyone has two grandfathers.fn16 On his father’s side Peleus had Zeus and on his mother’s side the wise, learned and noble Chiron, the immortal centaur who had been tutor to ASCLEPIUS and Jason.fn17 It happened, that evening, that Chiron was amongst the band of centaurs that emerged from the woods and cantered towards the sleeping Peleus. Chiron overtook the others at a gallop, awoke Peleus and recovered his sword. After they had seen off the other centaurs, they embraced. Peleus was quite Chiron’s favourite grandson.
‘I have watched over you,’ said the centaur. ‘You have been the victim of a great wrong.’
Peleus learned from Chiron what Astydameia had done and wept with sorrow for the loss of Antigone and with rage at the injustice that had been practised on him. He went back to Phthia, erected a tomb for his dead wife and returned to Iolcos with an army of his best Phthian soldiers – the elite Myrmidons. Acastus was killed, the wicked Astydameia cut into pieces, and Thessalus – the son of Peleus’s old friend Jason – installed on the throne. From that point on, Aeolia became known as Thessaly, as it is to this day.