Greek artists often depicted Thetis as accompanied by dolphins, sea horses or Tritones.
So the female figure riding a sea horse in these two mosaics may very well be Thetis however another popular theme was her Wedding to Peleus.
As Thetis like other sea gods had shapeshifting powers the lion on her shoulder would tell a Greek viewer this is Peleus the mortal father of Achilles wrestling with the goddess.
One aspect of the story rarely pointed out that would explain her resistance is that Peleus killed her nephew and she seems to have had mixed feelings about her marriage to a mere mortal though given the other choices were being ravished by Zeus or Poseidon ...
No comments:
Post a Comment