Thetis.
A Nereid, one of the fifty daughters of the sea-god Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, Thetis was the mother of the Greek hero Achilles. She was desired by both Zeus (Jupiter) and Poseidon (Neptune), but the gods gave her in marriage to the mortal Peleus when it was prophesied that she was destined to bear a son who would be greater than his father.
      After the birth of Achilles, Thetis tried to make him immortal by holding him by the heel and dipping him into the river Styx, according to the most famous legend. She also tried unsuccessfully to prevent his inevitable participation in the Trojan War by disguising him as a girl and hiding him on the island of Scyros. Thetis’s role in episodes during the conflict at Troy included consoling her son after his loss of the Trojan captive Briseis, procuring a new set of armor from Hephaestus for Achilles’ return to battle, and participating in the hero’s funeral.
      
       Classical Sources. Homer, Iliad 1, 9, 18-19, 24 passim; Odyssey 25.15-97. Hesiod, Theogony 240,1003; Catalogue of Women 57 (fragment). Pindar, Nemean Odes 4.65ff., io7ff. Euripides, Iphigenia inAulis 700—07,1036—47. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.790IÏ. Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.217-65, n.40off. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 1.2.7, 3-5, 9.25; 3-5-1, I3.4ff; E3.26-29; E6.5-6,12. Hyginus, Fabulae 54, 92, 96, 97, 106, 270. Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 12, “Doris and Thetis,” 7, “Panope and Galene.” Listings are arranged under the following headings:
       General List Thetis and Peleus See also Achilles; Dionysus, General List; Gods and Goddesses, General List; Hector, Death; Memnon; Patroclus.