Betrayal
Though we can praise Homer a lot, there is one thing
we do not admire…Nor do we approve of Aeschylus when he writes that
Thetis says Apollo sang at her wedding and foretold
the good fortune of her offspring and his long
life free of illness. Then said her fate was
blessed by the gods and sang paeans to her joy.
She believed that Apollo’s divine, unerring mouth,
full of the art of prophecy, could never be wrong.
“Yet, he, himself… who sang the hymn…
he killed my son.”
Plato, Republic B’
When Thetis got married to Peleus
Apollo stood up at the splendid wedding table,
and wished the best to the newlyweds
for the son that would be born from their union.
He said, “Sickness will never touch him
and he will enjoy a long life…”— when he said this
Thetis was overjoyed because the words
of Apollo, who knew all about prophesies,
sounded like a guarantee for her child’s life.
As Achilles grew up, and his beauty
was the pride of all Thessaly
and Thetis remembered the words of the god.
But one day, old men came with the news
that Achilles had been killed at Troy.
Thetis tore off her purple garments,
took off her bracelets and rings
and threw them to the ground.
And in her lamentation, she remembered the past.
And she asked what the wise Apollo was doing,
the god-prophet who sang so eloquently
at banquets, where was he, when
her son was killed in the prime of his youth.
And the old men answered that Apollo,
himself went down to Troy,
and there with the Trojans, he killed her son.
Manolis Aligizakis 