Achilles

A mother’s fear

Achilles was the son of King Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis. Knowing her son was mortal, Thetis tried to make him invulnerable, in the best-known version by dipping him into the river Styx while holding him by the heel. He was raised by the wise centaur Chiron, who taught him medicine, music and hunting. When war with Troy loomed, Thetis hid him on the island of Skyros disguised as a girl, but clever Odysseus exposed him by offering gifts that included weapons.

The wrath of Achilles

The Iliad begins with his quarrel with Agamemnon, the Greek commander, who took away Briseis, a captive woman given to Achilles as a prize. Insulted, Achilles withdrew from the fighting, and the Greeks suffered terribly. Only when his beloved companion Patroclus was killed by Hector, while wearing Achilles’ armour, did he return to battle, consumed by grief and rage. He killed Hector and dragged his body behind his chariot, until the aged King Priam came secretly to his tent to beg for his son’s corpse, and the two enemies wept together.

The heel

Achilles knew he was fated to die young if he stayed at Troy. Soon after Hector’s death, the Trojan prince Paris shot him with an arrow guided by Apollo, striking his one vulnerable spot. The phrase Achilles’ heel, meaning a fatal weakness, still carries his name.