In the Bosom of the Goddess: Thetis and Dionysus in Il. 6.130–140

In this paper I concentrate on role of Thetis in Il. 6.130-140: in this episode, Dionysus is persecuted by Lycurgus and finds shelter with the sea-goddess. I argue that this episode ultimately resembles other myths in which Dionysus is persecuted and/or killed by a mortal man and helped by one or more female deities, thanks to whom he manages to come back to life as a god. In particular, I argue that the sequence of events of Il. 6.130-140 resembles the ritual actions of the Boeotian Argionia, a rite in which Dionysus was ‘searched among the Muses’, i.e. daughters of Mnemosyne. The link between immortalization and memory is furthermore reflected by a variety of Orphic sources, which connect the attainment of immortality with the gift of memory and display several phraseological similarities to the Iliadic episode. I therefore argue that in Il. 6.130-140 ‘the staying power of Thetis’ is an eternalizing one. As the mother of Achilles, the hero who achieves immortality through fame, Thetis acts as the maternal helper of Dionysus, the god who dies and comes back, achieving divine immortality.