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The History of Achilles | Achilles in the 20th and 21st Century
Myths about Achilles | Pictures | Games | Sources
The History of Achilles
Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons in Phthia (southeast Thessaly) and the nereid (sea nimph) Thetis . His mother dipped him in the river from the Hades, the Styx, to make him immortal. But she held him on his heel, so that part of him was mortal. That was going to be the cause of his death.
Thetis
dipping Achilles in the Styx
The cause of the Trojan war
During Thetis' and Peleus' wedding, where all
gods were invited, only Eris wasn't, the goddess of Strife and Discord. Suddenly
she came by without permission, and she threw a golden apple amidst the guests.
There was a text on the apple: 'for the prettiest one'. And what Eris hoped for,
came true: immediately Athena, Afrodite and Hera were quarreling, because they
all thought they were the prettiest. Zeus decided to let the young and handsome
Trojan Paris make the decission. The goddesses offered him several things:
wealth, love... Finally he gave the apple to Afrodite, who promised him to marry
the most beautiful woman on earth. Paris went to Sparta to abduct Helena (who
was married to Menelaus at that time). The Greeks saw this abduction as a
challenge and declared war to Troy. This war lasted 10 years, from which Homer
described a few days, at the end of the battle, in the Iliad.
When Achilles was a boy, the seer Calchas forsaw that Troy could not be conquered without his help. Thetis knew that if her son went to Troy, he would die young. So she sent him, disguised as a little girl, to the court of Lycomedes, in Scyros. During the time he was there, he had an affair with Lycomedes' daughter, Deidameia, and they had a son: Pyrrhus (or Neoptolemus). Achilles' disguise was finally discovered by Odysseus, because Odysseus placed weapons amidst the womens' finery, and Achilles was the only girl who was fascinated by them. Then, Achilles went with Odysseus to Troy, accompanied by his tutor Phoenix and his very close friend Patroclus, leading the 50 ships of the Myrmidons.
The fight with Agamemnon
During his other exploits, he captured 23 towers in
Trojan area, including the town of Lyrnessos, where he took the girl Briseis as
a war-prize. Later, Agamemnon was forced to give up his war-prize: the girl
Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. When Agamemnon didn't want to
give Chryseis back to her father, who wanted to buy her back, Apollo sent a plague through the Greek armies and Agamemnon was forced to give
his war-prize back to her father. Then he
took Briseis from Achilles away, as a compensation for his loss. Achilles was
furious, and he refused to fight in the Trojan War again. The war went badly, and many
Greeks tried to persuade Achilles to join them in the war again. Still, Achilles
refused to join them in the war, but he agreed with his friend Patroclus to let
him fight in Achilles' weapon equipment, and let the Trojans think that Achilles
was back in the battle. The next day, Patroclus was killed and stripped of his
armor by Hector, the Trojan hero, who mistook Patroclus for Achilles.
When Achilles heard his friend died, he was overwhelmed
with grief for his friend, and he was furious at Hector. He wanted to kill him,
as fast as he could, to let him pay for what he had done. His mother Thetis heard his
crying from deep down the sea, and she came too him. She dissuaded him to look
for Hector, because he didn't have any weapons. She let Hephaestus make new
armor for him, and the next day Achilles went to Hector, and he got help of
Athena. She was disguised as Hector's brother, and told him that he shouldn't
run from Achilles, but fight him, while she told Achilles to rest and wait for
Hector. That way, he had the power to kill him. Athena also gave him back his
arrow, which Achilles had already thrown. Achilles killed Hector.
He treated the body badly, dragging it behind his chariot around the walls of
Troy, and didn't let Hector's family do funeral rites.
But when Priam, Hector's father and the king of Troy, came secretly in the Greek
camp, to beg for the body, Achilles finally allowed him to take the body with
him.
In the Trojan War, Achilles was in a battle with a beautiful woman and Ares' daughter: Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons. She helped Troy because Hector died. Achilles killed her, but when he took off her helmet and saw her beauty, he fell in love with her.
Achilles kills Penthesilea
Achilles' death
Finally Paris (also called
Alexander), Priam's son, wounded Achilles in his heel with an arrow, with
Apollo's help. Achilles died. After his death, many brave Greek warriors wanted
his armor, and it was decided to give it to the bravest one. Ajax and Odysseys
competed for the prize, by both explaining why they should have it. Ajax was the
most powerful one of the two, and he thought he deserved it, because he was
Achilles' cousin and he took his body away from the battle field. Odysseus was
the clever one. Odysseus won the armor, because everyone was impressed by his
beautiful words. Ajax went mad and he committed suicide.
Ajax takes Achilles' body
away from the battle field
The History of Achilles | Achilles in the 20th and 21st Century
Myths about Achilles | Pictures | Games | Sources