Achilles, << uh KIHL eez, >> in Greek mythology, was the best Greek warrior in the Trojan War. In the 10th year of that war, the Greeks defeated the city of Troy.
The events in Achilles’s life are legends but may have some historical basis. Achilles was the son of Peleus, the king of Phthia in Thessaly, and Thetis, an immortal sea nymph. Soon after Achilles was born, Thetis dipped him in the River Styx, whose water would make him invulnerable, like a god. However, the immortalizing water did not touch the heel by which Thetis held him.
When the Trojan War began, Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces, sent soldiers to recruit Achilles into the Greek army. Thetis feared her son, who was just approaching manhood, would be killed in battle. She sent him, disguised in women’s clothing, to live with King Lycomedes on the island of Skiros. But Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin), a cunning Greek general, saw through the disguise, and Achilles joined the army.
During the last year of the war, Achilles quarreled with Agamemnon, who took away Briseis, a young woman Achilles had captured as a prize of war. In anger, Achilles refused to fight any longer and, without him, the Greek forces began to lose. Achilles allowed Patroclus, his best friend, to join the battle wearing his armor. Patroclus was slain by Hector, the greatest Trojan warrior. Enraged, Achilles returned to the battlefield, slaughtering everyone in his path. He eventually killed Hector, aided by the goddess Athena. According to some stories, Hector’s brother Paris shot an arrow into Achilles’s heel, and Achilles died from the wound.
See also Greek Mythology (Greek Heroes); Iliad; Priam.
