Peleus became annoyed

From the second Loeb volume of Hesiod in the collection of fragments – an amusing scholia from Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica about a lost work attributed (in antiquity) to Hesiod. A compilation of the more absurd of these would be very entertaining for a very small audience.

The author of the Aegimius says in Book 2 that Thetis cast the children she bore to Peleus into a cauldron of water since she wanted to find out whether they were mortal . . . And after many had been destroyed, Peleus became annoyed and prevented Achilles from being cast into the cauldron.

ὁ τὸν Αἰγίμιον ποιήσας ἐν δευτέρῳ φησίν, ὅτι ἡ Θέτις εἰς λέβητα ὕδατος ἔβαλλεν τοὺς ἐκ Πηλέως γεννωμένους, γνῶναι βουλομένη εἰ θνητοί εἰσιν . . . · καὶ δὴ πολλῶν διαφθαρέντων ἀγανακτῆσαι τὸν Πηλέα καὶ κωλῦσαι τὸν Ἀχιλλέα ἐμβληθῆναι εἰς λέβητα.

The verb used for Pelias’ emotion (ἀγανακτέω) is not the sort of terribly strong one you’d expect of a man whose wife seems to have made it a practice to boil/drown their children. Below is the LSJ entry.

ἀγᾰνακτ-έω, properly in physical sense,

• Afeel a violent irritation, of the effects of cold on the body, Hp. Liqu. 2, cf. Heliod. ap. Orib. 46.7.8; of wine, ferment, Plu. 2.734e; so metaph., ζεῖ τε καὶ ἀ., of the soul, Pl. Phdr. 251c.
  • IImetaph., to be displeased, vexed, μηδʼ ἀγανάκτει Ar. V. 287; esp. show outward signs of grief, κλάων καὶ ἀ. Pl. Phd. 117d; τὰ σπλάγχνʼ ἀγανακτεῖ Ar. Ra. 1006, etc.; ἀ. ἐνθυμούμενος . . And. 4.18:—foll. by a relat., ἀ. ὅτι . . Antipho 4.2.1, Lys. 3.3; ἀ. εἰ . ., ἐάν . . And. 1.139, Pl. La. 194a.
    • 2c. dat. rei, to be vexed at a thing, θανάτῳ Pl. Phd. 63b, etc.; c. acc. neut., ib.64a; ἀ. ταῦτα, ὅτι . . Id. Euthphr. 4d; ἀ. ἐπί τινι Lys. 1.1, Isoc. 16.49, etc.; ὑπέρ τινος Pl. Euthd. 283e, etc.; περί τινος Id. Ep. 349d; διά τι Id. Phd. 63c; πρός τι Epict. Ench. 4, M.Ant. 7.66; and sts. c. gen. rei, AB 334.
    • 3to be vexed at or with a person, τινί X. HG 5.3.11; πρός τινα Plu. Cam. 28, Diog.Oen. 68; κατά τινος Luc. Tim. 18:—c. part., to be angry at, ἀ. ἀποθνῄσκοντας Pl. Phd. 62e, cf. 67d.
  • IIIMed. in act. sense, aor. part. -ησάμενος Luc. Somn. 4; prob. in Palaeph. 40; ἠγανάκτηνται τῷ πράγματι Hyp. Fr. 70.