reus, the ancient one of the sea.

Said old Nereus: "Thou hast prayed to Zeus, and I am here to speak an
answer to thy prayer. She whom you have looked upon is Thetis, the
goddess of the sea. Very loath will she be to take Zeus's command and
wed with thee. It is her desire to remain in the sea, unwedded, and she
has refused marriage even with one of the immortal gods."

Then said Peleus, "Zeus promised me an immortal bride. If Thetis may
not be mine I cannot wed any other, goddess or mortal maiden."

"Then thou thyself wilt have to master Thetis," said Nereus, the wise
one of the sea. "If she is mastered by thee, she cannot go back to the
sea. She will strive with all her strength and all her wit to escape
from thee; but thou must hold her no matter what she does, and no
matter how she shows herself. When thou hast seen her again as thou
didst see her at first, thou wilt know that thou hast mastered her."
And when he had said this to Peleus, Nereus, the ancient one of the
sea, went under the waves.

II

With his hero's heart beating more than ever it had beaten yet, Peleus
went into the cave. Kneeling beside her he looked down upon the
goddess. The dress she wore was like green and silver mail. Her face
and limbs were pearly, but through them came the radiance that belongs
to the immortals.

He touched the hair of the goddess of the sea, the yellow hair that was
so long that it might cover her all over. As he touched her hair she
started up, wakening suddenly out of her sleep. His hands touched her
hands and held them. Now he knew that if he should loose his hold upon
her she would escape from him into the depths of the sea, and that
thereafter no command from the immortals would bring her to him.

She changed into a white bird that strove to bear itself away. Peleus
held to its wings and struggled with the bird. She changed and became a
tree. Around the trunk of the tree Peleus clung. She changed once more,
and this time her form became terrible: a spotted leopard she was now,
with burning eyes; but Peleus held to the neck of the fierce-appearing
leopard and was not affrighted by the burning eyes. Then she changed
and became as he had seen her first--a lovely maiden, with the brow of
a goddess, and with long yellow hair.

But now there was no radiance in her face or in her limbs. She looked
past Peleus, who held her, and out to the wide sea. "Who is he," she
cried, "who has been given this mastery over me?"