Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Preface V
3. Contents VII
4. List of Tables and Figures XI
5. Introduction: The Power of Thetis, 30 Years On 1
6. Part I: The Powers of Thetis - Strife, Succession, and Cosmic Balance
7. The Power and Failures of Thetis in Early Poetic Traditions and Beyond 19
8. The Rape and Binding of Thetis in Its Mythological Context 43
9. Divine Even If Not Olympian: The Mobility of Thetis in the Iliad 75
10. Suggestions and Themes in Thetis’ rhesis in Euripides’ Andromache 87
11. Thetis in Callimachus’ Hymn to Apollo: Dynasty and Succession 107
12. Secrets and Lies: The Power of Thetis in Roman Culture 147
13. Neque ... sine numine uincis: Thetis, Medusa and (Literary) Creation in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 181
14. Part II: Thetis’ Family Matters
15. In the Bosom of the Goddess: Thetis and Dionysus in Il. 6.130–140 207
16. Motherhood and Shapeshifting in Depictions of Thetis 225
17. Forging Families with Thetis: “Tentacular Thinking” and Queer Kinship in Homer’s Iliad 257
18. Mourning Mothers and Premature Deaths: Thetis’ Example in Greek Funerary Epigrams 277
19. Part III: Material Culture
20. ‘A Dread and Revered Goddess’: Thetis and Other Gods in Attic Vases 299
21. Saviour Mermaids of the Ancient Mediterranean: Thetis and the Nereids as Patrons of Ancient Greek Mariners 315
22. Part IV: Reception – Thetis’ Aftermaths
23. The Wicked Witch of the West? Thetis’ Controversial Transformations in 14th- Century Middle English Vernacular Poetry 341
24. Reading Thetis in Tirso de Molina’s El Aquiles 369
25. Thetis and the Shield of Achilles — Reading the Iliad with Auden 395
26. Thetis of the Silver Screen: The Vengeful and Cosmic Goddess in Clash of the Titans 411
27. Sea Witches in Exile: Thetidean Figures in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989/2008) and Pirates of the Caribbean (2006/2007) 429
28. Reception in Performance: Interview and Poetry 471
29. Afterword to the Staying Power of Thetis 485
30. List of Contributors 495
31. Index Locorum 501
32. Subject Index 519