Thetis dompelt Achilles onder in de Styx 1679

Franz Ertinger etched "Thetis dipping Achilles in the River Styx" around 1640. Here, Thetis immerses her son Achilles in the Styx, seeking to grant him immortality. Note the torch bearer above her, Hecate, goddess of magic and crossroads, whose flame casts a shadow, ironically foreshadowing Achilles's mortality. The Styx itself is no mere river; it is the boundary between the living and the dead, a motif that echoes through centuries. Consider Dante's "Inferno," where the Styx is a marsh of the wrathful, or even earlier, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, where waterways must be crossed to reach the afterlife. This river as a metaphor for transition and peril is deeply ingrained in our collective psyche. Observe the dogs in the foreground. They evoke Cerberus, guardian of the underworld, a subtle reminder that Achilles's fate is intertwined with death, revealing how potent symbols resurface, transformed, in art across time.