=191. Peleus=[277] was the son of Æacus and grandson of Jove. It was for his father Æacus, king of Phthia in Thessaly, that, as we have seen, an army of Myrmidons was created by Jupiter. Peleus joined the expedition of the Argonauts, and on that journey beheld and fell in love with the sea-nymph Thetis, daughter of Nereus and Doris. Such was the beauty of the nymph that Jupiter himself had sought her in marriage; but having learned from Prometheus, the Titan, that Thetis should bear a son who should be greater than his father, the Olympian desisted from his suit and decreed that Thetis should be the wife of a mortal. By the aid of Chiron, the Centaur, Peleus succeeded in winning the goddess for his bride. In this marriage, to be productive of momentous results for mortals, the immortals manifested a lively interest. They thronged with the Thessalians to the wedding in Pharsalia; they honored the wedding feast with their presence and, reclining on ivory couches, gave ear while the three Sisters of Fate, in responsive strain, chanted the fortunes of Achilles,--the future hero of the Trojan War,--the son that should spring from this union of a goddess with a mortal. The following is from a translation of the famous poem, The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis:[278] ... Now, on the day foreset, Aurora forsaking the ocean Crimsons the orient sky: all Thessaly, seeking the palace, Fares to the royal seat, in populous muster exultant, Heavy of hand with gifts, but blithesome of cheer for the joyance. Scyros behind they leave, they leave Phthiotican Tempe, Crannon's glittering domes and the battlements Larissæan, Cumber Pharsalia, throng the abodes and the streets of Pharsalus. Fields, meanwhile are untilled, grow tender the necks of the oxen, None with the curving teeth of the harrow cleareth the vineyard, None upturneth the glebe with bull and the furrowing plowshare, None with gardener's knife lets light through the branches umbrageous; Squalid the rust creeps up o'er plows forgotten of plowmen. Bright is the palace, ay, through far retreating recesses Blazing for sheen benign of the opulent gold and the silver: Ivory gleams on the thrones, great goblets glint on the tables, Glitters the spacious home, made glad with imperial splendor,-- Ay, but most--in the hall midmost--is the couch of the goddess, Glorious, made of the tusk of the Indian elephant--polished-- Spread with a wonder of quilt empurpled with dye of the sea-shell.