Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Peleus, purified of blood-guilt (commonly for the death of his half-brother Phocus), came to Iolcus and was received by Acastus son of Pelias. Astydameia (or Cretheis), Acastus’s wife, fell in love with Peleus and solicited him; when he refused, she accused him to Acastus of attempting her honor—the Potiphar pattern familiar also from Bellerophon. Acastus would not kill a guest by his own hand. Instead he took Peleus hunting on Pelion, stole his marvelous knife (a gift of the gods or of Hephaestus) while he slept, hid it, and abandoned him among the savage centaurs, expecting them to destroy him. Chiron (or Hermes) restored the knife; Peleus survived. In Apollodorus he later sacked Iolcus with Jason and the Dioscuri, killed Astydameia, and— in the harshest version—cut her body in pieces and led the army between the limbs into the city. Pindar alludes more briefly to Acastus’s treachery and Hippolyte/Astydameia’s deceit, celebrating Peleus’s piety in refusing the queen. The episode establishes Peleus as the chaste, wronged guest-hero whom the gods will reward with Thetis—and stains Acastus’s house with the same Pelian treachery that Jason’s line already knew.