Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes - Rubens and VanDyck

Thetis, Achilles' mother, knew the prophecy that her son would die in battle. To prevent him from going to the Trojan War, she disguised him as a girl and hid him among Lycomedes' daughters. Odysseus unmasked Achilles by disguising himself as a merchant and mixing weapons among the women's trinkets he claimed to be selling, which Achilles immediately rushed to buy without thinking. Traditionally, in this scene, Odysseus wears an oriental merchant's turban, signifying his cunning, while Ajax, who suspects nothing, is bareheaded. Deidamia, the young girl in love with Achilles, whom she discovers at this moment to be a man, is depicted here standing in white, surrounded by her attendants.