| | '''Achilles''' was a mythological [[Greek]] soldier, who lived around the 12th or 13th Century BC. He was the King of Pthia and leader of the Myrmidons who fought with him at Troy on the side of the Greeks against the Trojans in the [[Trojan War]]. He was the chief protagonist of the [[Iliad]] by [[Homer]]. He also features in [[Greek tragedy]], such as ''Iphigenia at Aulis'' by [[Euripides]]. | | '''Achilles''' was a mythological [[Greek]] soldier, who lived around the 12th or 13th Century BC. He was the King of Pthia and leader of the Myrmidons who fought with him at Troy on the side of the Greeks against the Trojans in the [[Trojan War]]. He was the chief protagonist of the [[Iliad]] by [[Homer]]. He also features in [[Greek tragedy]], such as ''Iphigenia at Aulis'' by [[Euripides]]. |
| − | The overarching theme of the Iliad, according to its opening line, is the "wrath of Achilles". This arose in the final year of the Trojan War when [[Agamemnon]], the leader of the Greek forces, took the captive girl Briseis from the hero. Feeling slighted, Achilles withdrew from the war, leaving the Greeks short-handed against the Trojans. It was only when his companion Patroclus was killed in battle while wearing his armour that Achilles returned in a fury to exact vengeance on the Trojan prince and champion [[Hector]], whose funeral marks the end of the epic. | + | The overarching theme of the Iliad, according to its opening line, is the "wrath of Achilles". This arose in the final year of the Trojan War when [[Agamemnon]], the leader of the Greek forces, took the captive girl Briseis from the hero. Feeling slighted, Achilles withdrew from the war, leaving the Greeks short-handed against the Trojans. It was only when his companion Patroclus was killed in battle while wearing his armour that Achilles returned in a fury to exact [[vengeance]] on the Trojan prince and champion [[Hector]], whose funeral marks the end of the epic. |
| | In [[Greek mythology]], when Achilles was an infant, his mother Thetis held him by the heel and dipped him into the [[river Styx]] to give him invulnerability. Every part of his body touched by the river became invulnerable except the place where she was holding him; thus he could only be killed by a wound to his heel. According to tradition (though the incident is never described explicitly by Homer) [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] killed him with a poisoned arrow which hit him in the heel. This myth has given rise both to the expression "Achilles' heel" to mean a weak or vulnerable spot, and the name "Achilles' tendon" for the large tendon which joins the calf muscle to the heel bone. | | In [[Greek mythology]], when Achilles was an infant, his mother Thetis held him by the heel and dipped him into the [[river Styx]] to give him invulnerability. Every part of his body touched by the river became invulnerable except the place where she was holding him; thus he could only be killed by a wound to his heel. According to tradition (though the incident is never described explicitly by Homer) [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] killed him with a poisoned arrow which hit him in the heel. This myth has given rise both to the expression "Achilles' heel" to mean a weak or vulnerable spot, and the name "Achilles' tendon" for the large tendon which joins the calf muscle to the heel bone. |