The Rape and Binding of Thetis in Its Mythological Context

Abstract

Maciej Paprocki’s contribution examines why the Iliadic Thetis lost much of her former agency after her marriage: analyzing the motif of binding prominent in Thetis’ mythos, Paprocki argues that Peleus, who assaulted and raped Thetis with Zeus’ tacit consent, symbolically (and supernaturally) bound her reproductive potential - and, by extension, her political power. The author highlights Thetis’ connection to the magical and subversive art of binding and to its practitioners. Subsequently, he surveys a selection of texts on Thetis’ courtship by Zeus and Poseidon, abruptly terminated by the revelation of the prophecy that the goddess would bear a son stronger than his father. Building on Glenn Most’s reconstruction of Peleus’ assault on Thetis, Paprocki considers it in its literary context, emphasizing the symbolic dimension of sexual violence and agency deprivation. In doing so, he compares Thetis to other deities bound by mortals, with special attention given to Circe, deprived of her magical tricks by Odysseus, and Hephaestus, the maker of god-binding artefacts. In Paprocki’s view, the metamorphic fight between Thetis and Peleus, a pivotal event in her mythos, was no mere shapeshifting contest of cunning but a debilitating event that permanently depowered Thetis.