Spirituality & Religious StudiesAchilles
Also known as Ahilleus or Akhilleus.
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors.
He’s the main character in Homer’s Iliad. He was the son of the Nereid named Thetis & King Peleus of Phthia (& famous Argonaut). He had a few nicknames: “Swift-footed,” “Breaker of men,” “Aristos Achaion” (Best of the Greeks).
Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus & received his education from the centaur, Chiron. In the Iliad, he was presented as a member of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons. The Myrmidons are/were an ancient Thessalian tribe.
Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the unaliving of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Achilles’ death isn’t shown in the Iliad. Other sources concur that he was unalived near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow.
Later legends (beginning with Statius’ unfinished epic Achilleid, written in the 1st century CE) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for 1 heel. According to that myth, when his mother, Thetis, dipped him in the River Styx as an infant, she held him by 1 of his heels, leaving it touched by the waters & thus his only vulnerable body part.
Achilles was the son of Thetis & King Peleus of the Myrmidons. Zeus & Poseidon had been rivals for Thetis’ hand in marriage until Prometheus (the fore-thinker) warned Zeus of a prophecy (originally said by Themis, goddess of divine law) that Thetis would have a son who would be greater than his dad. For this reason, the 2 gods withdrew their affections & had her marry King Peleus.
There’s a story that tells an alternative version of events: In the Argonautica, Zeus’ sister-wife (his literal biological sister, whom Zeus married), Hera, refers to Thetis’ chaste resistance to Zeus’ advances. It points out that Thetis was so loyal to Hera’s marriage bond (with Zeus) that she rejected Zeus.
Even though Thetis was Nereus’ daughter, she was also raised by Hera. This further explains her resistance to Zeus’ advances. Zeus was BIG mad. Zeus decreed that she would never marry an immortal.
According to the Achilleid (written by Statius in the 1st century), when Achilles was born, Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the River Styx. He was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him, his left heel/tendon.
In another version of the story, Thetis anointed Achilles in ambrosia & put him on top of a fire in order to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus & abandoned both dad & son in a rage.
In the Iliad, Achilles isn’t completely invulnerable. He gets wounded in Book 21. For the original Greeks, Achilles was terrifying not because he was magic. But because he was just better – faster, stronger, & more relentless than any mortal man.
The Paeonian hero Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, challenged Achilles by the river Scamander. He was ambidextrous. He threw a spear from each hand. 1 grazed Achilles’ elbow. Peleus entrusted Achilles’ education to Chiron.
Chiron lived on Mount Pelion & was known as the most righteous of the Centaurs. In some accounts, Achilles’ original name was “Ligyron,” & he was later named Achilles by his tutor, Chiron.
According to Homer, Achilles grew up in Phthia with his childhood companion Patroclus. Homer tells us that Achilles taught Patroclus what he himself had been taught by Chiron, including the medical arts.
Thetis foretold that her son’s fate was either to gain glory & die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity. Achilles chose the former & chose to take part in the Trojan War.
The pivot point of Achilles’ life is Patroclus. It’s highly debated about their relationship status – cousins, friends, or lovers. The intensity of Achilles’ grief suggests a relationship beyond a regular friendship. He fasted, wept over his body openly, & demanding their ashes be mixed together.
When Patroclus is killed by the Trojan prince Hector, Achilles transforms from a brooding soldier into a terrifying force of nature.
Some post-Homeric sources claim that to keep Achilles safe from the war, Thetis (or in some versions, Peleus) hid Achilles dressed as a girl at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros. There, a properly disguised, Achilles lived among King Lycomedes’ daughter. With Lycomedes’ daughter, Deidamia, (Achilles started a relationship with her.) Achilles fathered 2 sons (Neoptolemus & Oneiros) there.
According to this story, Odysseus learned from the prophet Calchas that the Achaeans would be unable to capture Troy without Achilles’ help. Odysseus went to Skyros in disguise as a peddler selling women’s clothes & jewellery & put a shield & spear amongst his wares. When Achilles immediately picked up the spear, Odysseus saw through the disguise. Odysseus talked Achilles into joining him for the Greek campaign.
According to the Iliad, Achilles arrived at Troy with 50 ships. Each ship carried 50 Myrmidons. Achilles appointed 5 leaders: Menesthius, Eudorius, Peisander, Phoenix, & Alcimedon. Each leader commanded 500 Myrmidons.
When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in Mysia. Mysia was ruled by King Telephus. In a battle, Achilles gave Telephus a wound that wouldn’t heal. King Telephus talks to an Oracle, who said that “he that wounded shall heal.” Guided by the Oracle, he arrived at Argo, where Achilles healed him in order that he might become their guide for the voyage to Troy.
According to Cypria, when the Achaeans wanted to return home, they were stopped by Achilles (who afterwards attacked the cattle of Aeneas), sacked neighboring cities (like Pedasus & Lyrnessus, where the Greeks capture the queen Briseis) & unalived Tenes (a son of Apollo), as well as King Priam’s son Troilus in the sanctuary of Apollo Thymbraios.
At the end of the Iliad, King Priam of Troy snuck into Achilles’ tent to beg Achilles from the return of his son Hector’s body. Instead of unaliving, or turning him away, Achilles openly weeps with King Priam. They share a meal & recognize their shared suffering.
At this moment, the “Breaker of men” finally acknowledges the humanity of his enemy. King Priam says his famous line to Achilles during this interaction: “I have endured what no one on earth has ever done – I have kissed the land of the name who killed my son.”
The poem ends with a description of Hector’s funeral, with the doom of Troy & Achilles himself still to come.
In Book 22 of the Iliad, Hector predicts with his last breath that both Paris & Apollo will unalive him at the Scaean Gates leading to Troy, with an arrow to the heel. In Book 23, the sad spirit of dead Patroclus visits Achilles as he just drifts off to sleep. The ghostly Patroclus asks that his bones be placed in his golden vase, along with Achilles’ bones, as a present of his mom.
Achilles’ armor was the object of a feud between Odysseus & Ajax the Great. They competed for it by giving speeches on why they deserved the armor, to their Trojan prisoners (who decided that Odyssesu got the armor). Ajax didn’t particularly care for that decision. So he cursed Odysseus.
Athena didn’t like Ajax’s curse. She said, “I got something for ya, boy.” The goddess made Ajax temporarily upset/mad with grief & anguish that he began killing sheep, thinking they were his friends. After a while, Athena lifted the madness.
Ajax realized what he’d done, he was so ashamed that he self-deleted. Odysseus eventually gave the armor to Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus.
The armor was made by Hephaestus. The Shield of Achilles was made by Hephaestus. Achilles’ legendary spear was given to him and participated in the Trojan War. It was called the Pelian Spear, which no other man could wield.
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