Analysis: The perpetuation of trauma
**The Song of Achilles book spoilers + mentions of sexual assault**
As I was reading about how Achilles was essentially coerced into sleeping with Deidameia, I thought about how it was his own mother, Thetis, who had arranged it.
Sure, Thetis had always been severe and cold throughout The Song of Achilles, but looking at it through the lens of Thetis herself having been a victim of sexual assault, her inflicting this upon her son brings a different layer of complexity and tragedy to the act.
It makes me wonder about how much of this act was one that was chosen out of cruel pragmatism (her demigod son needing an heir) versus an unconscious perpetuation of the trauma she herself had experienced (forced by Peleus to conceive).
Maybe both.
It's just tragic when you think about how much distaste Thetis held for mankind. It makes me wonder how much of it was the disdain of a goddess toward mere mortals, and how much of it was disgust at what a human had done to her, taken from her.
Yet she was the one to make Achilles suffer the same fate.
