A long time ago, in the Mediterranean Sea, there lived an immortal whose name was Thetis. She was a Nereid, a goddess of the sea. She rode dolphins and seahorses, and helped sailors who were in trouble. All Nereids were beautiful, but Thetis was the most beautiful of them all.
One day, Zeus, the king of the gods, looked down from his palace on the top of Mt. Olympus, and he saw Thetis. She was running along the tops of the waves with her sisters. In the sunshine, she looked more beautiful than ever.
Zeus immediately wanted her.
"Who is that beautiful goddess?" he asked Poseidon, god of the sea.
"She is a Nereid. Thetis is her name," said Poseidon.
"I must have her. I must have her now."
"That would not be wise. There is an old prophecy that says her son will be greater than her father."
Zeus hesitated. He wanted to make love to Thetis. But if he made love to Thetis, she would give birth to his child, and, according to the prophecy, that child would be more powerful than Zeus himself. The child might overpower the king of the gods and rule Mt. Olympus instead of Zeus.
"Let someone less powerful than me have her," he said.
But then Zeus hesitated again.
"If another god makes love to her and she gives birth to his child, the child will still be a powerful immortal," he thought. "But if the child's father is mortal, then the child will be mortal too, and he will never be able to defeat an immortal."
"We must find a mortal husband for her," he said. "Quickly."
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