Thetis Dipping the Infant Achilles into the River Styx

Thetis Dipping the Infant Achilles into the River Styx, painted around 1630, opens Rubens's comprehensive Achilles narrative cycle at its mythological beginning. The story of the sea-nymph holding her infant son by the heel in the underworld river to make him invulnerable — creating the one weak spot that would eventually cause his death — was a post-Homeric addition to the Trojan War tradition, appearing in Statius's Achilleid. Rubens was deeply conversant with the full range of classical sources on Achilles, and his cycle was unusual in treating the narrative from this mythological prelude rather than beginning with Homer's Iliad. The composition required Rubens to paint a rare combination: the infernal atmosphere of the Styx, the maternal anxiety of Thetis, and the defenseless vulnerability of an infant who would become the greatest of heroes. His treatment contrasts markedly with the cooler, more archaeological approach of contemporary Roman painters like Poussin, who was then developing his own Stoic interpretation of classical narrative; Rubens retained the emotional heat and physical immediacy of the Baroque even in the quieter register of an infant scene.

The composition focuses on the contrast between the luminous infant flesh and the dark waters of the Styx, with Rubens using transparent glazes to suggest the supernatural quality of the river.