In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's Iliad, he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education from Chiron, a centaur. In the Iliad, he is presented as the commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons.
Achilles's most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with Statius's unfinished epic Achilleid, written in the first century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for one heel. According to that myth, when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels, leaving it untouched by the waters and thus his only vulnerable body part.
Alluding to these legends, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a point of weakness which can lead to downfall, especially in someone or something with an otherwise strong constitution. The Achilles tendon is named after him following the same legend.
Etymology Linear B tablets attest to the personal name Achilleus in the forms a-ki-re-u and a-ki-re-we, Retrieved 5 May 2017. the latter being the dative of the former. The name grew more popular, becoming common soon after the seventh century BCEpigraphical database gives 476 matches for Ἀχιλ-.The earliest ones: Corinth 7th c. BC, Delphi 530 BC, Attica and Elis 5th c. BC. and was also turned into the female form (Achilleía), attested in Attica in the fourth century BC (IG II² 1617) and, in the form Achillia, on a stele in Halicarnassus as the name of a female gladiator fighting an "Amazon".
Achilles's name can be analyzed as a combination of (), 'distress, pain, sorrow, grief',Scholia to the Iliad, 1.1. and (), 'people, soldiers, nation', resulting in a proto-form *Akhí-lāu̯os, 'he who has the people distressed' or 'he whose people have distress'. The grief or distress of the people is a theme raised numerous times in the Iliad (and frequently by Achilles himself). Achilles's role as the hero of grief or distress forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of him as the hero of ('glory', usually in war). Furthermore, has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean 'a corps of soldiers', a muster. With this derivation, the name obtains a double meaning in the poem: when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring distress to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership.
Some researchers deem the name a loan word, possibly from a pre-Greek language. Achilles's descent from the Nereid Thetis and a similarity of his name with those of river deities such as Acheron and Achelous have led to speculations about his being an old water divinity .Cf. the supportive position of – A critical point of view is taken by Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a pre-Greek origin of the name, based among other things on the coexistence of -λλ- and -λ- in epic language, which may account for a palatalized phoneme /ly/ in the original language.Robert S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, pp. 183ff.
Other names Among the appellations under which Achilles is generally known are the following: Pyrisous, "saved from the fire", his first name, which seems to favour the tradition in which his mortal parts were burned by his mother Thetis Aeacides, from his grandfather Aeacus Aemonius, from Aemonia, a country which afterwards acquired the name of Thessaly Aspetos, "inimitable" or "vast", his name at Epirus Larissaeus, from Larissa (also called Cremaste), a town of Achaia Phthiotis in Thessaly Ligyron, his original name Nereius, from his mother Thetis, one of the Nereids Pelides, from his father, Peleus Phthius, from his birthplace, Phthia Podarkes, "swift-footed", from the wings of Arke () being attached to his feet (, )Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History, Book 6 (summary from Photius, Myriobiblon 190, trans. Pearse):
"It is said ... that he [Akhilleus (Achilles)] was called Podarkes (Podarces, Swift-Footed) by the Poet [i.e. Homer], because, it is said, Thetis gave the newborn child the wings of Arke (Arce) and Podarkes means that his feet had the wings of Arke. And Arke was the daughter of Thaumas and her sister was Iris; both had wings, but, during the struggle of the gods against the Titanes (Titans), Arke flew out of the camp of the gods and joined the Titanes. After the victory Zeus removed her wings before throwing her into Tartaros and, when he came to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, he brought these wings as a gift for Thetis."
Birth and early years
Achilles was the son of Thetis—a Nereid and daughter of the Old Man of the Sea—and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for Thetis's hand in marriage until Prometheus, the fore-thinker, warned Zeus of a prophecy (originally uttered by Themis, goddess of divine law) that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus.Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 755–768; Pindar, Nemean 5.34–37, Isthmian 8.26–47; Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.13.5; Poeticon astronomicon 2.15.
There is a tale which offers an alternative version of these events: In the Argonautica (4.760) Zeus's sister and wife Hera alludes to Thetis's chaste resistance to the advances of Zeus, pointing out that Thetis was so loyal to Hera's marriage bond that she coolly rejected the father of gods. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was also brought up by Hera, further explaining her resistance to the advances of Zeus. Zeus was furious and decreed that she would never marry an immortal.Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.13.5.
According to the Achilleid, written by Statius in the first century AD, and to non-surviving previous sources, when Achilles was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx; however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heelStatius, Achilleid 1.269; Hyginus, Fabulae 107. . It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire in order to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage.Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.869–879.
None of the sources before Statius make any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad, Homer mentions Achilles being wounded: in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, challenged Achilles by the river Scamander. He was ambidextrous, and cast a spear from each hand; one grazed Achilles's elbow, "drawing a spurt of blood". In the few fragmentary poems of the Epic Cycle which describe the hero's death (i.e. the Cypria, the Little Iliad by Lesches of Pyrrha, the Aethiopis and Iliupersis by Arctinus of Miletus), there is no trace of any reference to his general invulnerability or his famous weakness at the heel. In the later vase paintings presenting the death of Achilles, the arrow (or in many cases, arrows) hit his torso.
Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron, who lived on Mount Pelion and was known as the most righteous of the Centaurs, to be reared.Hesiod, Catalogue of Women, fr. 204.87–89 MW; Iliad 11.830–832. In some accounts, Achilles's original name was "Ligyron" and he was later named Achilles by his tutor Chiron.Apollodorus, Library, Book III 3.13.6 According to Homer, Achilles grew up in Phthia with his childhood companion Patroclus. Homer further writes that Achilles taught Patroclus what he himself had been taught by Chiron, including the medical arts.Homer, The Iliad Book XI 822-836 Thetis foretold that her son's fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity. Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan War.Iliad 9.410ff.
According to Photius, the sixth book of the New History by Ptolemy Hephaestion reported that Thetis burned in a secret place the children she had by Peleus. When she had Achilles, Peleus noticed, tore him from the flames with only a burnt foot, and confided him to the centaur Chiron. Later Chiron exhumed the body of the Damysus, who was the fastest of all the giants, removed the ankle, and incorporated it into Achilles's burnt foot. Photius also claims that Achilles had a Carthaginian mentor named Noemon.Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 190: "Thetis burned in a secret place the children she had by Peleus; six were born; when she had Achilles, Peleus noticed and tore him from the flames with only a burnt foot and confided him to Chiron. The latter exhumed the body of the giant Damysos who was buried at Pallene—Damysos was the fastest of all the giants—removed the 'astragale' and incorporated it into Achilles's foot using 'ingredients'. This 'astragale' fell when Achilles was pursued by Apollo and it was thus that Achilles, fallen, was killed. It is said, on the other hand, that he was called Podarkes by the Poet, because, it is said, Thetis gave the newborn child the wings of Arce and Podarkes means that his feet had the wings of Arce."
Physical description In Homer's Iliad, Achilles is portrayed as tall and striking, with strength and looks that were unmatched among the Greek warriors. Homer describes him as having long hair or a mane ().Homer, Iliad, 23.141 (in Greek) Along with some other characters, his hair is described with the word xanthḗ (),Myres, John Linton (1967). Who were the Greeks?, pp. 192–199. University of California Press. which meant 'yellow' and was used for light hair, including blond, brown, tawny (light brown) and auburn. Philostratus wrote that his eyes were amber and lion-like. A later Latin account, probably from the fifth century AD, falsely attributed to Dares Phrygius described Achilles as having "... a large chest, a fine mouth, and powerfully formed arms and legs. His head was covered with long wavy chestnut-colored hair (capillo myrteo, color of myrtus bark or myrrh). Though mild in manner, he was very fierce in battle. His face showed the joy of a man richly endowed."Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13
Hidden on Skyros
Some post-Homeric sourcesEuripides, Skyrioi, surviving only in fragmentary form; Philostratus Junior, Imagines i; Scholiast on Homer's Iliad, 9.326; Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.162–180; Ovid, Tristia 2.409–412 (mentioning a Roman tragedy on this subject); Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.13.8; Statius, Achilleid 1.689–880, 2.167ff. claim that in order to keep Achilles safe from the war, Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hid the young man dressed as a princess or at least a girl at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros.