Cornelis van
Haarlem (1562–1638), The Wedding of
Peleus and Thetis (1593), oil on canvas, 246 x 419 cm, Frans Hals Museum,
Haarlem, The Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons.
Πολλά ἂρα Ὁμήρου ἐπαινοῦντες, ἀλλά τοῦτο οὐκ ἐπαινεσόμεθα…
οὐδὲ Aἰσχύλου, ὅταν φῇ ἡ Θέτις τὸν Ἀπόλλω ἐν τοῖς αὑτῆς γάμοις ἂδοντα
ἐνδατεῖσθαι τὰς ἑὰς εὐπαιδίας,
νόσων τ’ ἀπείρους καὶ μακραίωνας βίους.
Ξύμπαντά
τ’ εἰπὼν
θεοφιλεῖς ἐμὰς τύχας
παιῶν’ ἐπευφήμησεν,
εὐθυμῶν
ἐμέ.
Κἀγὼ
τὸ Φοίβου θεῖον ἀψευδὲς στόμα
ἢλπιζον εἶναι, μαντικῇ βρύον τέχνῃ:
Ὁ δ’, αὐτὸς ὑμνῶν, ...............................
............................αὐτὸς
ἐστιν ὁ
κτανὼν
τὸν παῖδα
τὸν ἐμόν".
Πλάτων, Πολιτείας Β΄
Σαν
πάντρευαν την Θέτιδα με τον Πηλέα
σηκώθηκε
ο Απόλλων στο λαμπρό τραπέζι
του
γάμου, και μακάρισε τους νεονύμφους
για
τον βλαστό που θα ’βγαινε απ’ την ένωσί των.
Είπε·
Ποτέ αυτόν αρρώστια δεν θ ’αγγίξει
και
θα ’χει μακρινή ζωή. — Αυτά σαν είπε,
η
Θέτις χάρηκε πολύ, γιατί τα λόγια
του
Απόλλωνος που γνώριζε από προφητείες
την
φάνηκαν εγγύησις για το παιδί της.
Κι
όταν μεγάλωνεν ο Αχιλλεύς, και ήταν
της
Θεσσαλίας έπαινος η εμορφιά του,
η
Θέτις του θεού τα λόγια ενθυμούνταν.
Αλλά
μια μέρα ήλθαν γέροι με ειδήσεις,
κι
είπαν τον σκοτωμό του Αχιλλέως στην Τροία.
Κι
η Θέτις ξέσχιζε τα πορφυρά της ρούχα,
κι
έβγαζεν από πάνω της και ξεπετούσε
στο
χώμα τα βραχιόλια και τα δαχτυλίδια.
Και
μες στον οδυρμό της τα παλιά θυμήθη·
και
ρώτησε τί έκαμνε ο σοφός Απόλλων,
πού
γύριζεν ο ποιητής που στα τραπέζια
έξοχα
ομιλεί, πού γύριζε ο προφήτης
όταν
τον υιό της σκότωναν στα πρώτα νιάτα.
Κι
οι γέροι την απήντησαν πως ο Απόλλων
αυτός
ο ίδιος εκατέβηκε στην Τροία,
και
με τους Τρώας σκότωσε τον Αχιλλέα.
Henry Fuseli
(1741–1825), Thetis Lamenting the Death
of Achilles (1780), tempera on cardboard, 41.8 × 55.8 cm, The Art Institute
of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Wikimedia Commons.
[1904]
Κ. Π. Καβάφης. [1991] 1995. Τα Ποιήματα. Τόμ. Α΄ (1897–1918). Επιμ. Γ. Π. Σαββίδης. 4η έκδ. Αθήνα: Ίκαρος.
UNFAITHFULNESS
Joachim Wtewael
(1566–1638), The Wedding of Peleus and
Thetis (date not known), oil on copper, 36.5 x 42 cm, The Clark Art
Institute, Williamstown, MA. Wikimedia Commons.
"So although we approve of many things in Homer, this we will
not approve of... nor will we approve of Aeschylus when he
makes Thetis say that Apollo sang at her wedding in
celebration of her child:
that he would not
know sickness, would live long,
and that every
blessing would be his;
and he sang such
praises that he rejoiced my heart.
And I had hopes that the divine
lips of Apollo,
fluent with the
art of prophecy, would not prove false.
But he who
proclaimed these things...
he it is
who killed my son...”
Plato, Republic, II. 383
At the marriage of Thetis and Peleus
Apollo stood up
during the sumptuous wedding feast
and blessed the
bridal pair
for the son who
would come from their union.
“Sickness will
never visit him,” he said,
“and his life will
be a long one.”
This pleased Thetis
immensely:
the words of
Apollo, expert in prophecies,
seemed to guarantee
the security of her child.
And when Achilles
grew up
and his beauty was
the boast of Thessaly,
Thetis remembered
the god’s words.
But one day elders
arrived with the news
that Achilles had
been killed at Troy.
Thetis tore her
purple robes,
pulled off her
rings, her bracelets,
and flung them to the
ground.
And in her grief,
recalling that wedding scene,
she asked what the
wise Apollo was up to,
where was this poet
who holds forth
so eloquently at
banquets, where was this prophet
when they killed
her son in his prime.
And the elders
answered that Apollo himself
had gone down to
Troy
and together with
the Trojans had killed her son.
Thetis and the
Nereids mourning Achilles, Corinthian black-figure hydria, c. 555 BC (Louvre,
Paris).
Reprinted from C.
P. CAVAFY: Collected Poems Revised
Edition, translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard, edited by George
Savvidis. Translation copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.
Princeton University Press.
