notes or info about achilles?

Question

Im doing a research paper

Answer 1

Greek mythology, Achilles, also Akhilleus or Achilleus (Ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme, not the War of Troy in its entirety, but specifically the Wrath of Achilles.

He is known for being the most 'handsome' of the heroes assembled at Troy as well as the fleetest. Central to his myth is his relationship with Patroclus, characterized in different sources as deep friendship or love.


Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons in Phthia (southeast Thessaly), and the sea nymph Thetis. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for the hand of Thetis until Prometheus the fire-bringer prophesied that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed to Peleus.[2]

As with most mythology there is a tale which offers an alternate version of the above events. The tale goes that Zeus tried to have an affair with Thetis, but Thetis was so loyal to Hera that she coldly rejected him. Zeus was furious and decreed that she would never marry an immortal. So Hera recommended that she marry Peleus, as he was as near to an immortal as she was ever going to get.

According to the incomplete poem "Achilleis", written by Statius in the first century AD, and to no other sources, when Achilles was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx. However, she forgot to wet the heel she held him by, leaving him vulnerable at that spot. (See Achilles' heel, Achilles' tendon.) It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage.

However all other sources (before Statius) don't make any reference to this invulnerability. The same Homer in the Iliad, to the contrary, mentions Achilles being wounded. (In Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, son of Pelegon, challenged Achilles by the river Scamander. He cast two spears at once, one grazed Achilles' elbow, "drawing a spurt of blood.") Also in the greek poems in which we can find description of the hero's death, Kùpria (unknown author), Aithiopis by Arctinus of Miletus, Ilias Mikrà by Lesche of Mytilene, Iliou pèrsis by Arctinus of Miletus, there is no trace of any reference to his invulnerability or his famous heel; and in the pictures of that age presenting Achilles' death the arrow (in many cases arrows) hit him on the body.

Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mt. Pelion, to be raised.

Answer 2

He was "Mr. Everything" at the Trojan War. He had the choice of a long dull life or a short glorious one that would be remembered forever and chose the latter. He was the biggest, strongest and swiftest man at Troy on either side. His closest rivals were his cousin Ajax of Salamis and the Ethiopian Memnon who arrived to help the Trojans at the eleventh hour. Some say Achilles was 13.5 feet tall. A muscular man that tall would weigh 2200 to 2500 pounds. He could toss a spear and run to catch it before it hit the ground. So why couldn't he catch Hector in the Iliad? Some say he was handsomest of the Greeks (Achaeans then), but the Iliad says Nireus of Same was. Achilles' parents were Peleus and Thetis a nymph of the Mediterranean. He killed all of the foremost Trojan warriors and allies: Cycnus, Hector, Penthesilea, Memnon, etc. The usual account is that he was shot from behind by Paris with a poison arrow that pierced his heel, the only spot on his body through which Death could enter, for he had been dipped in the grim River Styx by his mother who held his heel. His son Neoptolemus or Pyrrhus came to the war after Achilles was slain and took Achilles' armor that was much too big even for Ajax.

Answer 3

Achilles was a Greek hero who was supposed to have lived about the time of the Trojan War (we don't have any written historical records). Supposedly, his mother was afraid he would be killed in battle, so she dipped him in the River Styx, the river which surrounds Hades (the Greek version of Hell). Unfortunately, she missed a spot--she was holding him by his heel when she dipped him in, and forgot to dip that in, too. He became a great hero, but was killed during the Trojan war when he was hit with an arrow in the heel. That's also how we get the term "Achilles heel."

Answer 4

Achilles
by James Hunter
Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus and the Nereid Thetis. He was the mightiest of the Greeks who fought in the Trojan War, and was the hero of Homer's Iliad.
Thetis attempted unsuccessfully to make her son immortal. There are two versions of the story. In the earlier version, Thetis anointed the infant with ambrosia and then placed him upon a fire to burn away his mortal portions; she was interrupted by Peleus, whereupon she abandoned both father and son in a rage. Peleus placed the child in the care of the Centaur Chiron, who raised and educated the boy. In the later version, she held the young Achilles by the heel and dipped him in the river Styx; everything the sacred waters touched became invulnerable, but the heel remained dry and therefore unprotected.

When Achilles was a boy, the seer Calchas prophesied that the city of Troy could not be taken without his help. Thetis knew that, if her son went to Troy, he would die an early death, so she sent him to the court of Lycomedes, in Scyros; there he was hidden, disguised as a young girl. During his stay he had an affair with Lycomedes' daughter, Deidameia, and she had a son, Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus), by him. Achilles' disguise was finally penetrated by Odysseus, who placed arms and armor amidst a display of women's finery and seized upon Achilles when he was the only "maiden" to be fascinated by the swords and shields. Achilles then went willingly with Odysseus to Troy, leading a host of his father's Myrmidons and accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his close friend Patroclus. At Troy, Achilles distinguished himself as an undefeatable warrior. Among his other exploits, he captured twenty-three towns in Trojan territory, including the town of Lyrnessos, where he took the woman Briseis as a war-prize. Later on Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced by an oracle of Apollo to give up his own war-prize, the woman Chryseis, and took Briseis away from Achilles as compensation for his loss. This action sparked the central plot of the Iliad, for Achilles became enraged and refused to fight for the Greeks any further. The war went badly, and the Greeks offered handsome reparations to their greatest warrior; Achilles still refused to fight in person, but he agreed to allow his friend Patroclus to fight in his place, wearing his armor. The next day Patroclus was killed and stripped of the armor by the Trojan hero Hector, who mistook him for Achilles.

Achilles was overwhelmed with grief for his friend and rage at Hector. His mother obtained magnificent new armor for him from Hephaestus, and he returned to the fighting and killed Hector. He desecrated the body, dragging it behind his chariot before the walls of Troy, and refused to allow it to receive funeral rites. When Priam, the king of Troy and Hector's father, came secretly into the Greek camp to plead for the body, Achilles finally relented; in one of the most moving scenes of the Iliad, he received Priam graciously and allowed him to take the body away.

After the death of Hector, Achilles' days were numbered. He continued fighting heroically, killing many of the Trojans and their allies, including Memnon and the Amazon warrior Penthesilia. Finally Priam's son Paris (or Alexander), aided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow; Achilles died of the wound. After his death, it was decided to award Achilles' divinely-wrought armor to the bravest of the Greeks. Odysseus and Ajax competed for the prize, with each man making a speech explaining why he deserved the honor; Odysseus won, and Ajax then went mad and committed suicide.

During his lifetime, Achilles is also said to have had a number of romantic episodes. He reportedly fell in love with Penthesilia, the Amazon maiden whom he killed in battle, and it is claimed that he married Medea.


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