The Argonautica

since first she left behind their chamber and marriage bed,

angry over her glorious son Achilles, still an infant.

For Thetis always burned away around his mortal flesh

with the blaze of fire in the depth of night; throughout the day she would

anoint the child's soft, tender body with ambrosia,

so he might grow immortal, guarding flesh from hateful age.

But Peleus, leaping suddenly out of his bed, looked in and saw

his beloved child gasping inside the flame; he loosed a cry

terrible in sound when he saw it, great fool that he was; Thetis

heard, snatched up the screaming baby, and hurled him to the ground,

while she herself, embodied like a fleeting breath of wind or dream,

sped quickly out of the palace and leapt into the sea,

still angry; never afterward did she retrace that pathway.

Helpless, deep perplexity bound Peleus; nevertheless,

he reported every command of Thetis to all his companions.

They stopped each contest, breaking off midway at once,

then busily prepared both supper and beds on the ground,

There they shared the meal, then slept all night as before.

When Dawn the light-bearer struck the uttermost edge of heaven,

then, at the fierce, rushing onset of the strong west wind,

they boarded the rowing benches from shore; and up from the bottom

gladly they hauled their anchors and drew every other piece of

tackle into order as needed; high overhead the sail

they hauled up, drawing it taut by the sheets from the yardarm.