(), a son of Aeacus and Endeis, was king of the
Myrmidons at Phthia in Thessaly. (Hom. Il. 24.535.) He was a
brother of Telamon, and step-brother of Phocus, the son of Aeacus, by the Nereid Psamathe.
(Comp. Hom. Il. 16.15, 21.189; Ov. Met. 7.477, 12.365; Apollon. 2.869, 4.853 ; Orph. Arqgon. 130.) According to some, Telamon was not a
brother, but only a friend of Peleus. (Apollod. 3.12.6.)
Peleus and Telamon resolved to get rid of their step-brother Phocus, because he excelled them
in their military games, and Telamon killed him with a disk which he threw at him. The two
brothers concealed their crime by removing the body of Phocus, but were nevertheless found
out, and expelled by Aeacus front Aegina. (Apollod. 3.12.6;
comp. Horat. ad Pison. 96.) According to some, Peleus murdered Phocus
(Diod. 4.72; comp. Paus. 2.29.7,
10.30.2), while others combine the two statements by saying
that Peleus threw down Phocus with a disk, while Telamon despatched him with his sword.
(Tzetz. ad Lyc. 175.) After being exiled from Aegina, Peleus went to
Phthia in Thessaly, where he was purified from the murder by Eurytion, the son of Actor,
married his daughter Antigone, and received with her a third of Eurytion's kingdom. (Hom. Il. 16.175 ; Apollod.
3.13.1.) Others relate that he went to Ceyx at Trachis (Ov.
Met. 11.266, &c); and as he had come to Thessaly without companions, he prayed to
Zeus for an army, and the god, to please Peleus, metamorphosed the ants (μύπμηκες) into men, who were accordingly called Myrmidons.
(Tzetz. ad Lyc. 175.) By Antigone, Peleus is said to have become the
father of Polydora and Achilles. (Enstath. ad Hom. p. 321.) Peleus
accompanied Eurytion to the Calydonian hunt, and involunltarily killed him with his spear, in
consequence of which he fled from Phthia to Iolcus, where he was again purified by Acastus.
(Apollod. 3.12.2; comp. Ov. Fast.
2.39, &c.) According to others (Tzet. ad Lyc. 175, 901),
Peleus slew Actor, the son of Acastus. At the funeral games of Pelias, Peleus contended with
Atalante, but was conquered (Apollod. 3.9.2), whereas,
according to Hygilus (Fab. 273) he gained the prize in wrestling. During
his stay at lolcus, Astydameia, the wife of Acastus, fell in love with him, and made proposals
to him, which he rejected. In order to take vengeance on him, she sent a message to his wife
at Phthia, that he was on the point of marrying Sterope, the daughter of Acastus. On receiving
this information, the wife of Peleus hung herself. Astydameia further charged
Peleus before her husband with having made improper proposals to her, and Acastus, unwilling
to stain his hand with the blood of the man whom he had hospitably received, and whom he had
purified from his guilt, took him to mount Pelion, where they hunted wild beasts; and when
Peleus, overcome with fatigue, had fallen asleep, Acastus left him alone, and concealed his
sword, that he might be destroyed by the wild beasts. When Peleus awoke and sought his sword,
he was attacked by Centaurs, but was saved by Cheiron, who also restored to him his sword.
(Apollod. 3.13.3.) To this account there are some
modifications, for instead of Astydameia, Pindar (Nern. 4.92, 5.46; comp.
Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 1.224, ad Aristoph. Nub.
1059; Hor. Carm. 3.7.18) mentions Hippolyte, the daughter
of Cretheus, and others relate that after Acastus had concealed the sword of Peleus, Cheiron
or Hermes brought him another one, which had been made by Hephaestus. (Apollon. 1.204; Aristoph. Cl.
1055.)
While on mount Pelion, Peleus married the Nereid Thetis, by whom he became the father of
Achilles, though some regarded this Thetis as different from the marine divinity, and called
her a daughter of Cheiron. (Apollon. 1.558; comp. THETIS.) The gods took part in the marriage solemnity, and Cheiron
presented Peleus with a lance (Hom. Il. 16.143, 24.61, &c., which, however, according to Pindar, Pind. N. 3.56, Peleus made for himself), Poseidon with the immortal
horses, Balius and Xanthus, and the other gods with arms. (Apollod.
3.13.5; Horn. Il11. 16.381, 17.443, 18.84.) According to some,
his immortal wife soon left him, though Homer knows nothing of it Il.
18.86, 332, 441),
for once, as he observed her at night while she held the infant Achilles over a fire or in a
cauldron of boiling water, in order to destroy in him those parts which he had inherited from
his father, and which were mortal, Peleus was terrorstruck, and screamed so loud that she was
prevented from completing her work. She therefore quitted his house, and returned to her
sisters, the Nereides; but Peleus, or, according to others, Thetis herself (Orph. Argon. 385), took the boy Achilles to Cheiron, who brought him up. (Apollod. 3.13.6.) Homer mentions only Achilles as the son of
Peleus and Thetis, but later writers state that she had already destroyed by fire six
children, of whom she was the mother by Peleus, and that as she attempted the same with
Achilles, her seventh child, she was prevented by Peleus. (Apollon.
4.816; Lycoph. 178; Ptolem. Hephaest. 6.) After this Peleus, who is also mentioned
among the Argonauts, in conjunction with Jason and the Dioscuri, besieged Acastus at Iolcus,
slew Astydameia, and over the scattered limbs of her body led his warriors into the city.
(Apollod. 3.13.7; comp. 1.9.16; Apollon. 1.91; Orph. Argon. 130; Hyg.
Fab. 14.) Some state that from mount Pelion Peleus, without an army, immediately
returned to Iolcus, slew Acastus and his wife (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod.
1.224; Pind. N. 3.59), and annexed Iolcus to Haemonia.
(Thessaly; Pind. N. 4.91.) Respecting the feud between Peleus
and Acastus, the legends present great differences. Thus we are told, for example, that
Acastus, or his sons, Archander and Architeles, expelled Peleus from his kingdom of Pllthia
(Eur. Tro. 1127, with the Schol.), or that the flocks which
had been given by Peleus to Acastus, as an indemnification for the murder of his son Actor,
were destroyed by a wolf, who was forthwith changed by Thetis into a stone (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 175, 901), or that Peleus, being abandoned during the chase by
Acastus, was kindly received by Cheiron, and having acquired the possession of flocks, he took
them to Irus, as an atonement for his son Eurytion, whom He had killed. But Irus refusing to
accept them, Peleus allowed them to wander about without superintending shepherds, until they
were attacked by a wolf. (Ant. Lib. 38.) This wolf was sent by
Psaimathe, to avenge the murder of Phocus, but she herself afterwards, on the request of
Thetis, changed him into stone. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 175; Ov. Met. 11.351, &c., 400.) Phoenix, who had been blinded by
his own father Amyntor, and who afterwards became the companion of Achilles, had his sight
restored to him by Cheiron, at the request of Peleus, who also made him king of the Dolopes.
(Lycoph. 421; Hom. Il. 9.438, 480.) Peleus also received in his dominion Epeigeus, son of Agacles, and Patroclus
who had fled from his home, and some even relate that Patroclus was the son of Polymele, a
daughter of Peleus. (Hom. Il. 16.571, 23.89; Apollod. 3.13.8.) Peleus,
who had once joined Heracles in his expedition against Troy (Pind. O.
8.60), was too old to accompany his son Achilles against that city: He remained at
home and survived the death of his son. (Hom. Il. 18.434,
Od. 11.495.)