Achilles, one of the Greatest Heroes of Greek Mythology

Achilles was a half-divine hero, being the son of the sea nymph Thetis and king Peleus of Thessaly.
He was educated by the wise centaur Cheiron and was described as extremely handsome but also very emotional. He was almost immortal since his mother had dipped him into the river Styx as a baby.

Holding the child by its heel when putting it in the water, Thetis made Achilles’ whole body except the heel immortal. He had a son, Neoptolemus, with the Skyrian princess Deidameia, who met her when he was hidden in the Palace of the king Likomidis on the island on Skyros.

When the war against Troy was ignited by the kidnapping of Helen, Thetis learnt by an oracle that her son would not come back alive if he joined Agamemnon. The oracle had said that he would either die young and glorious, or reach old age in obscurity. Thetis then send Achilles to Skyros to the king Likomidis and disguise himself as a woman, thus becoming the first known cross-dresser, but unfortunately he was revealed by Odysseus and forced to join the army against Troy.

Odysseus managed to reveal Achilles true identity by dressing as a merchant, then filling a cart with weapons, clothing and perfumes. While the women ran to see the clothes and perfumes, Achilles ran to the weapons. According to another version, Odysseus blew a horn, which made all the women flee except Achilles.

When the Greeks sailed for Troy, they accidentally stopped at Mysia, werre Telephos was king. In the battle, Achilles wounded Telephos. The wound did not close and so Telephos asked an oracle which stated that “the one who hurt will heal”. According to reports of others about the lost work of Euripides, Telephos went to Avlis, pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to heal his wound. Achilles denied him, claiming he had no medical knowledge.

Alternatively, Telephos held Orestes hostage in exchange for Achilles’ help in healing the wound. Odysseus concluded that the spear created the wound so the spear should heal it. Scratches from the spear were placed on the wound and Telephos was healed.

Achilles led a fleet of 50 ships with an army of warriors called the Myrmidons. When they arrived in Troy, they also conquered 12 cities by the sea and 11 on land. Achilles killed the queen of the Amazons, Penthelisea, but just as she died their eyes met and they both fell desperately in love.

After an argument with king Agamemnon, who had taken Briseis, a beautiful hostage, from Achilles – the hero was so upset that he pulled out of the war.
His abcense from the battle field gave courage to the Trojans, who no longer having to face Achilles, began to gain ground and cause a lot of suffering to the Greeks.

In Vain Agamemnon and other Greeks begged him to take part in the battle and they sent gifts and slaves to persuade him to back his decision. But the entreaties from Agamemnon and the other Greeks were all in vain.

Eventually only the entreaties of his closest friend Patroclus made him him retreat and gave him his great armor that it was made by the god Hephaestus. to fool the Trojans, that supposedly was Achilles who took part in the battle.

Hector but he understood and the battle that followed killed Patroclus and took its armor. Patroclus managed to trick the Trojans, who thought he was Achilles who took part in the battle. But Hector understood that he was not Achilles and during the battle that followed he killed him and took his armor.

Patroclus was his best friend and when he was killed by the Trojan hero Hector Achilles was totally mortified. Homer describes how Achilles cut off his hair in mourning and lit the funeral pyre. As a revenge, Achilles killed Hector, dragged the body around the city. This fact and the disrespect towards the dead Hector angered the god Apollo who helped the Trojan prince Paris, Helen’s kidnapper with Aphrodite’s help, to shot an arrow into Achilles only weak spot: his heel.

Thetis and the Nine Muses attended Achilles funeral. In the underworld Achilles remained a leader, but it was not a happy existence. According to another version, the hero was taken to Elysium by his mother, where he married Helen or Medea. Yet another myth tells us that his shadow asked Polyxene to be present at his funeral. She was a Trojan princess who, despite him killing her brother, had fallen in love with Achilles. Polyxene went willingly to the funeral pyre, where the Greeks killed her.
Achilles was worshiped as a hero in Thessaly, but also throughout ancient Greece.

About the name of Achilles 

Achilles has a name, which has a genuine Mycenaean origin, since it appears on the Mycenaean plates of the Bronze Age as the name of everyday people in Knossos and Pylos. In the past, there was a tendency to associate the particular name with the first element of the name of the rivers Acheloos and Acheron, where the root “Ach” would be associated with the meaning “water”.

Today this view has been generally abandoned and most experts associate the name with the root of the word anxiety (pain, sadness, sorrow, anxiety, agony, sorrow).Some studies consider the name to be compound by the word, anxiety + army, and in this case the name would mean “the one who causes anxiety in the army”