Achilles

Achilles binding the wounds of his friend Patroclos Wellcome L0028166

Achilles (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς, Akhilleus) was a hero of the Trojan War and is the main character of Homer's Iliad. The son of the mortal hero Peleus and the Nereid Thetis, he is the leader of the Myrmidons, and is described as the greatest of all the Achaean warriors. The Iliad, which is set in the ninth year of the Trojan War, starts with an argument between Achilles and Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces.

Achilles' most notable feat during the Trojan War was his slaying the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy, as revenge against Hector for killing his friend, Patroclus.^p53 While Achilles' death is not presented in the Iliad (as the poem ends with Hector's funeral), other sources say that he was killed near the end of the war by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow.In medicine, we find the term "Achilles tendon", the part of the foot that connects the heel to the calf muscles. Specialists say that this is the largest tendon in the human body, which allows the movement of the toes, a movement necessary when walking. When she gave birth to Achilles, Thetis wanted to make him immortal. Achilles was completely immersed by his mother in the waters of the Styx, but his heel was left out by which Thetis held him. Another version says that Thetis anointed the boy with ambrosia and placed him over a fire to burn away all the mortal parts of his body and purify him. Interrupted by Peleus, however, Thetis became enraged and let the child go without completing the ritual. Homer makes no reference to this invulnerability in the Iliad. On the contrary, it describes a scene in which Achilles is wounded (In Book 21, the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, nephew of Axios - a river god - challenges Achilles near the river Scamander. He throws two spears, and one injures Achilles' elbow).

Legend

Later stories say Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel, as that is where his mother Thetis held him when she dipped him in the River Styx as an infant. As such, the term "Achilles' heel" has come to mean a point of fatal weakness. Because of that, his heel was still vulnerable. However, the Iliad does not say this.

According to the legend, Achilles was killed by Paris, who shot his heel with a poisoned arrow. Achilles was shot many times by the arrows of Paris but the only arrow found on his body was through his heel.