t was on the occasion of this marriage that the Goddess
Discord presented the golden apple, the dispute for which occasioned
the Trojan war. The part of the story which relates how she assumed
various forms, to avoid the advances of Peleus, is perhaps an
ingenious method of stating, that having several suitors, she was
originally disinclined to Peleus, and used every pretext to avoid
him, until, by the advice of a wise friend, he found means to remove
all the difficulties which opposed his alliance with her.

Some writers state that Thetis was the daughter of Chiron; but
Euripides, in a fragment of his Iphigenia, tells us that Achilles,
who was the son of this marriage, took a pride in carrying the
figure of a Nereid on his shield. The three sons of AEacus were
Peleus, Telamon, and Phocus; while they were playing at quoits, the
latter accidentally received a blow from Peleus, which killed him.
Ovid, however, seems here to imply that Peleus killed his brother
purposely.

The story of Chione most probably took its rise from the difference
between the inclinations of the two children that she bore.
Autolycus, being cunning, and addicted to theft, he was styled the
son of Mercury; while Philammon being a lover of music, Apollo was
said to be his father. According to Pausanias, Autolycus was the son
of Daedalion, and not of Chione. The story of the wolf, the minister
of the vengeance of Psamathe, for the death of Phocus, is probably
built on historical grounds. AEacus had two wives, AEgina and
Psamathe, the sister of Thetis; by the first he had Peleus and
Telamon; by the second, Phocus. Lycomedes, the king of Scyros, the
brother of Psamathe, resolved to revenge the death of his nephew,
whom Peleus had killed: and declared war against Ceyx, for receiving
him into his dominions. The troops of Lycomedes ravaged the country,
and carried away the flocks of Peleus: on which prayers and
entreaties were resorted to, with the view of pacifying him; which
object having been effected, he withdrew his troops. On this, it was
rumoured that he was changed into a rock, after having ravaged the
country like a wild beast, which comparison was perhaps suggested by
the fact of his name being partly compounded of the word +lukos+,
'a wolf.'

FABLE VII. [XI.410-748]

Ceyx, going to Claros, to consult the oracle about his brother's
fate, is shipwrecked on the voyage.