Thetis Rescuing Achilles to the Island of Skyros

1518

Pen and black ink, heightened with white on grey prepared paper

205 × 150 mm

Praun-, Esterházy collection

According to an episode of the thirteenth-century book Historia Trojana by Guido da Columna, the goddess Thetis brings her young son, Achilles, the later great Greek hero of the Trojan War, to safety on the island of Skyros. Thetis hopes to protect Achilles from the death prophesied for him. On the island, she disguises the young man as a girl and hides him at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros. The drawing represents Thetis and her maid standing on the back of dolphins, who also carry the young boy hidden in a sack.