Achilles

Achilles, the son of Peleus and Thetis, was the greatest of all Greek heroes who took part in the Trojan War. Knowing that her child was destined to either die the death of a glorious warrior or live a long life in obscurity, Thetis bathed Achilles as an infant in the waters of the River Styx, thus making him all but immortal: only the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable. However, as prophesied, this proved costly, because Achilles eventually died from an arrow wound in that heel. Guided by Apollo, the fateful arrow was shot by Paris, the brother of Troy’s most celebrated hero Hector, whom Achilles had previously killed in a face to face duel, in an attempt to avenge the death of his closest friend, Patroclus.

Who Was Achilles in Greek Mythology?

Achilles was the greatest warrior of the Greek army at Troy, the son of the mortal king Peleus and the sea-goddess Thetis. He is the central figure of Homer’s “Iliad,” famous for his invulnerability, his speed, his terrible anger, and the single weak point that killed him.

• Parents: Peleus, king of Phthia in Thessaly, and Thetis, an immortal Nereid
• Fought for: the Greeks, leading 2,500 Myrmidons in fifty ships
• Best known for: killing Hector, refusing to fight over Briseis, and dying from an arrow to the heel
• Son: Neoptolemus, who fought at Troy after his father’s death

Was Achilles a God or a Demigod?

Achilles was a demigod, not a god. His mother Thetis was an immortal sea-goddess and his father Peleus was a mortal king, which made Achilles half-divine but still subject to death – and he is not the god of anything.

• He receives no worship in myth as a ruling deity, though a hero-cult grew around his tomb in later centuries
• His near-invulnerability came from his mother’s intervention after birth, not from divine nature
• Peleus was deliberately chosen as a mortal husband precisely so that Thetis could not bear an immortal son
• The idea of Achilles as a “god of war” is a modern confusion: that role belongs to Ares

Was Achilles Greek or Trojan?

Achilles was Greek and fought against Troy. He led the Myrmidons, a people of Thessaly in northern Greece, on the Achaean side alongside Agamemnon, Menelaus, Odysseus, and Ajax.

• He was not a Spartan: Sparta was ruled by Menelaus, while Achilles came from Phthia
• He killed Troy’s greatest defender, Hector, and was himself killed by Hector’s brother Paris
• He was the only major Greek leader who had never sworn the Oath of Tyndareus, so he joined the war by choice rather than obligation

Where Was Achilles From?

Achilles was from Phthia, a kingdom in Thessaly in northern Greece, where he was born and where his father Peleus ruled. He did not grow up there, however: most of his childhood was spent on nearby Mount Pelion in the cave of the Centaur Chiron.

• His people were the Myrmidons, famous as the most disciplined fighters in the Greek army
• He also spent time hidden on the island of Skyros, disguised as a girl at the court of Lycomedes
• He died at Troy, in the Troad in northwest Anatolia, and was buried on the shore near the Greek camp

Was Achilles a King or a Prince?

Achilles was a prince, not a king. His father Peleus was still alive and ruling Phthia throughout the Trojan War, so Achilles commanded the Myrmidons as their war-leader rather than as a reigning monarch.

• His royal status is why Agamemnon’s seizure of Briseis is treated as a public insult rather than a simple dispute
• He answers to no king but Agamemnon, and only loosely, since he came to Troy of his own will
• His son Neoptolemus inherited Phthia after the war, ruling as king in his place

What Does the Name Achilles Mean?

The name Achilles is usually explained as a compound of the Greek words for grief and people, giving something close to “grief of the army” – a fitting name for a hero whose anger brings suffering to Greeks and Trojans alike. The etymology is debated, and some scholars think the name is older than Greek itself.

• In Greek it is written Αχιλλεύς (Achilleus); the Romans kept the same name as Achilles, unlike Odysseus, who became Ulysses
• As a girl on Skyros he was given the name Pyrrha, meaning “the red-haired one”
• His name survives in anatomy as the Achilles tendon and in English as the phrase “Achilles’ heel”

The Story of Achilles: Summary

The story of Achilles is the story of a man who chose a short, glorious life over a long, forgettable one. It moves through five stages:

• A prophecy declares that Thetis will bear a son greater than his father, so the gods marry her to the mortal Peleus
• Thetis tries to make the infant Achilles immortal, leaving only his heel vulnerable, and later hides him on Skyros disguised as a girl
• Odysseus uncovers him and Achilles sails for Troy with fifty ships, knowing he will die there
• Agamemnon takes his prize Briseis, Achilles withdraws from battle, and his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector in his place
• Achilles returns in fury, kills Hector, and is himself killed shortly afterwards by an arrow from Paris

What Did Achilles Look Like?

Homer describes Achilles as tall, powerfully built, and above all swift – his standing epithet is “swift-footed.” His most distinctive feature is his hair, which Homer calls xanthos, meaning golden or tawny, worn long and cut off as an offering at the funeral of Patroclus.

• He is repeatedly called the most beautiful of all the Greeks who came to Troy
• His voice alone terrifies the Trojans: standing unarmed at the trench, his shout drives them back
• His armour is his second identity – first the set Patroclus borrows, then the shield forged by Hephaestus
• Later art shows him as a beardless youth, reflecting how young he was thought to be when he died

Achilles’ Character and Personality

Achilles is defined by his rage. The first word of the “Iliad” is menis – wrath – and the entire poem follows the consequences of his anger rather than the war itself.

• Proud and absolute: he will not accept Agamemnon’s apology or gifts, even when the Greeks are close to defeat
• Deeply loyal: everything he does after Patroclus’ death is driven by grief for one friend
• Capable of mercy: he weeps with Priam and returns Hector’s body, in the scene that ends the poem
• Compared with Odysseus, he is the opposite kind of hero – force and honesty against cunning and disguise, which is why the two quarrel in later tradition

Achilles’ Childhood and Early Career

Achilles’ very birth is interlinked with two important prophecies: one about his mother, and another one about him. Made all but invulnerable by his mother, Achilles would spend his childhood under the mentorship of the Centaur Chiron.

The Prophecy About Thetis, Achilles’ Mother

Achilles was the son of Peleus, king of Thessalian Phthia, and Thetis, a sea-goddess. Even though he did grow up to become the greatest of all Greek heroes, for all we know, he might have even supplanted Zeus as the ruler of the entire universe if it hadn’t been for either Themis’ or Prometheus’ timely intervention.

Namely, a year before Achilles’ birth, both Zeus and Poseidon fell in love with his eventual mother and did their best to win her hand in marriage. And only Themis and Prometheus knew it was vital for the Olympian order that neither of the two marries Thetis, for it had been written “that the sea-goddess should bear a princely son, stronger than his father, who would wield another weapon in his hand more powerful than the thunderbolt or the irresistible trident.”

The Prophecy About Achilles

Whether it was Themis or Prometheus who let the cat out of the bag we may never know, but we do know that she or he did it just in time: Zeus was barely a few moments away from sharing a bed with Thetis.

We also know that Achilles’ eventual father, Peleus, was chosen for a reason: he was, supposedly, the most pious man on the planet, worthy enough of a divine wife. More importantly, he was also a mortal, meaning he couldn’t beget an immortal son.

“Let Thetis accept a mortal’s bed,” Themis counseled the Olympians ominously, “so that she can see her son die in battle, a son who is like Ares in the strength of his hands and like lightning in the swift prime of his feet.”

Achilles’ Heel

Being a goddess, Thetis wasn’t all that happy to be cruelly destined to one day see her son being taken away from her by merciless Death. So, everybody agrees that she did her best to prevent such a thing from ever happening.

Some say that the sea-goddess tried making Achilles immortal through a lengthy purifying ritual which consisted of anointing him with ambrosia every night and slowly burning away his immortality by the fireside, body part by body part. However, right near the end of the ritual, Peleus caught her in the act of putting Achilles in the fire and, understandably, was too shocked to believe any of Thetis’ excuses. The nymph felt so dishonored that she left both her husband and her son and went back to live in the sea with her sister Nereids.

Others, however, claim that soon after Achilles was born, Thetis went to the Underworld and dipped him in the waters of the River Styx. Thus, she managed to make his whole body invulnerable but for the part by which she held him: his left heel. Hence the expression “Achilles’ heel,” meaning “a seemingly small but actually crucial weakness.”

The dipping in the Styx is the version everyone knows today, but it is not the oldest one. Homer never mentions it: in the “Iliad” Achilles bleeds like any other man and wears armour because he needs it. The invulnerability story first appears in later sources, and the River Styx version is fixed for us mainly by the Roman poet Statius, writing more than a thousand years after Homer.

Achilles’ Mentors

In the absence of his mother, Achilles spent most of his childhood on Mount Pelion, where he was reared and trained by the wise Centaur Chiron in numerous disciplines, ranging from hunting to music. Needless to add, Achilles excelled in all of them, and by the time he returned to his father’s home, it was already evident to many that the boy was destined for greatness.

Back in Phthia, Achilles befriended Phoenix and Patroclus, two refugees Peleus had taken in during Achilles’ absence. Both would have an enormous influence on the young Achilles, the latter one becoming his role model and dearest friend.

The Trojan War

Achilles' anger with Agamemnon is the main theme of Homer’s “Iliad” which recounts the last year of the Trojan War, during which Achilles first withdraws from battle and then, enraged by the death of his beloved comrade Patroclus, brings the Greeks the body of Troy’s greatest warrior, Hector.

Who Did Achilles Fight For?

Achilles fought for the Greeks – the Achaeans – under the overall command of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. He brought his own contingent, the Myrmidons of Phthia, and answered to Agamemnon only as a matter of alliance, not of loyalty.

• He led fifty ships carrying fifty men each, some 2,500 Myrmidons in total
• His nearest companions in the camp were Patroclus, his mentor Phoenix, and the seer Calchas’ rival Odysseus
• He fought against Troy, whose defenders included Hector, Paris, Aeneas, and Memnon
• The quarrel that drives the “Iliad” is not with the enemy but with his own commander

Pyrrha at the Court of Lycomedes

Realizing that the Trojan War was fast approaching – and fully aware that her son was still destined to die in battle – Thetis resorted to an unusual tactic to keep Achilles safe: she disguised him as a girl and hid him at the court of king Lycomedes in Skyros. The plan worked well for a while, but then Odysseus learned from the prophet Calchas that the Greeks would lose the war without the help of Achilles.

So, he learned his whereabouts and tricked him into uncovering his identity by either disguising himself as a peddler selling jewelry and women’s clothes or feigning an attack on Skyros. In the first case, Odysseus included a spear among his goods and only one girl by the name of Pyrrha showed some interest in it; in the latter, everyone but this Pyrrha fled the scene. Either way, it was all too obvious to Odysseus: Pyrrha had to be none other than Achilles.

Why Did Achilles Disguise Himself as a Girl?

Achilles did not choose the disguise – his mother imposed it on him. Thetis knew from prophecy that her son would die if he went to Troy, so she hid him among the daughters of King Lycomedes on Skyros, where no recruiter would think to look for the greatest warrior in Greece.

• He was still a boy at the time, which made the disguise plausible
• While living there as Pyrrha he fathered a son, Neoptolemus, with the king’s daughter Deidamia
• The episode does not appear in Homer; it comes from later sources, above all Statius’ unfinished “Achilleid”

The First Nine Years: Telephus, Iphigenia, Tenes

Even though he was the only one not to have taken a vow to fight for Menelaus’ honor, once Odysseus had discovered him, Achilles decided to join the Greek army, commanding a fleet of 50 ships, each one carrying 50 of his men, the mighty Myrmidons.

However, soon after its departure, the Greek fleet lost its way and landed in Mysia by mistake. Mysia was then ruled by Heracles’ son, Telephus, whose army managed to drive the Greeks away from his country. But during the battle, Telephus was wounded by Achilles, and could not be healed in any way whatsoever. After consulting an oracle, he was told that only he who had inflicted the wound would be able to repair it; so, Telephus asked Achilles to heal him, and, in return, he agreed to guide the Greeks to Troy.

Even so, the Greeks soon faced another problem. After killing a sacred deer at Aulis, Agamemnon enraged the goddess Artemis who subsequently decided to hold back the favorable winds until she was offered a human sacrifice in return for her loss: Agamemnon’s oldest daughter, Iphigenia. Iphigenia was lured to Aulis on the pretext of a marriage with Achilles; after finding out that Agamemnon had used him deliberately in such a cruel ruse, Achilles tried to save the life of the poor girl, but barely managed to keep his head on his shoulders: everybody supported Agamemnon’s attempt to appease Artemis. Eventually, Iphigenia agreed to be sacrificed, and the Greeks set sail once again.

Near Troy, Achilles’ fleet landed on the island of Tenedos and in the fight which ensued – contrary to his mother’s advice – Achilles killed Tenedos’ king, Tenes. This enraged Tenes’ father who happened to be none other than Apollo. The Olympian never forgot Achilles’ offense and, eventually, got his revenge.

The Last Year: Achilles in the “Iliad”

A conflict mirroring the one at Aulis kickstarts the tenth year of the Greek campaign against Troy. Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaeans, is forced to give up his concubine Chryseis to appease Apollo and put an end to a plague sent by the god among the Greeks. In return for this, Agamemnon demands another hero’s war-prize – namely, Achilles’ concubine, Briseis. Furious to be dishonored in such a way, Achilles withdraws from battle, even asking his mother Thetis to convince Zeus to help the Trojans, so that Agamemnon and the Greeks recognize promptly the severity of the loss of their greatest warrior.

Zeus nods in agreement and, pretty soon, the Trojans manage to successfully drive the Greeks towards their ships. Agamemnon realizes his mistake and sends Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix to Achilles’ tent with an apology and a promise of many fine gifts. Achilles accepts neither: educated by his mother that he is destined to either die at Troy as a glorious warrior or live a long life in obscurity at home, he informs Agamemnon’s embassy that he has now chosen the latter.

Fearing ultimate defeat, Patroclus asks Achilles for his armor and, disguised as his treasured friend, he leads a successful attack against the Trojans. However, taken by the moment, he goes a step too far and is subsequently killed by the fearless Trojan prince, Hector.

Enraged by his friend’s death, Achilles rejoins the battle and, adorned with new armor made by Hephaestus, he tracks down Hector and kills him in a face to face duel. Still burning with anger, Achilles drags Hector’s lifeless body with his chariot for twelve days straight, until the gods intervene and help Priam, Hector’s father, to reach Achilles’ tent and beg for the body of his son. Achilles is moved to tears by this act and agrees to give Priam his son’s body.

Who Did Achilles Kill?

Achilles killed more named warriors than any other fighter in the “Iliad,” but one death matters above all the rest: Hector, the greatest defender of Troy. His most famous victims are:

• Hector, prince of Troy, killed in single combat outside the city walls to avenge Patroclus
• Cycnus, son of Poseidon, killed in the first landing at Troy, and Tenes, son of Apollo, on Tenedos
• Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, both killed after the events of the “Iliad”
• Lycaon, Asteropaeus, and so many Trojans in the river Scamander that the river god rose against him in anger

The Death of Achilles

Although predicted by Hector with his dying breath, the death of Achilles is not narrated in the “Iliad.” However, as predicted, it does occur relatively soon after Hector’s death: Paris, Hector’s brother, manages to kill the greatest of the great heroes with an arrow hitting Achilles’ heel, the only vulnerable part of his body. Poisoned or not, the arrow was most certainly guided by the god Apollo. Thus, Achilles paid dearly for disobeying his mother’s wishes and killing Tenes.

Who Killed Achilles?

Achilles was killed by Paris, prince of Troy, with an arrow guided by the god Apollo. He was struck in the heel – the one part of his body his mother had left vulnerable – at the Scaean Gates of Troy, and died there before the city fell.

• Hector predicted it with his dying words, naming both Paris and Apollo as the ones who would kill him
• Apollo had two reasons for revenge: Achilles had killed his son Tenes, and had slaughtered Trojans in his own sanctuary
• Ajax carried the body out of the fighting while Odysseus held off the Trojans, and Thetis and the Nereids mourned him at his funeral

Was Achilles in the Trojan Horse?

No – Achilles was already dead when the Trojan Horse was built. He was killed by Paris in the final year of the war, and the Horse was devised by Odysseus afterwards, so Achilles took no part in it and never saw the fall of Troy.

• The man often confused with him is his son Neoptolemus, who was among the warriors hidden inside the Horse
• The order of events is: Patroclus dies, Achilles kills Hector, Paris kills Achilles, then the Horse and the sack of Troy
• Neither the death of Achilles nor the Trojan Horse appears in the “Iliad,” which ends with Hector’s funeral
• The Horse is described instead in the “Odyssey” and in the lost poems of the epic cycle

Achilles’ Wife and Children

Achilles never married, but he had one son: Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus, born to Deidamia, daughter of King Lycomedes, during the time Achilles was hidden on Skyros disguised as a girl.

• Neoptolemus was brought to Troy after his father’s death, because the city could not fall without him, and he hid inside the Trojan Horse
• Achilles’ best-known attachments are not marriages: Patroclus, his dearest companion, and Briseis, the captive whose seizure sparks the “Iliad”
• He was betrothed to Iphigenia only as a lie, and to the Trojan princess Polyxena only in later, non-Homeric versions
• Some late traditions marry him after death to Helen or Medea on the White Island, a reward rather than a mortal marriage

The Ghost of Achilles

One of the shades that Odysseus encounters after descending in the Underworld in Homer’s “Odyssey” is the one of Achilles, apparently some kind of a minor ruler of the dead souls in its region. Upon realizing this, Odysseus admires Achilles for being blessed in death as much as he had been in life. “If I could choose,” replies Achilles memorably to this, “I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than king of kings among the dead.”

What Happened to Achilles After He Died?

The sources disagree about what became of Achilles, and the two main versions contradict each other completely. Homer places him among the ordinary dead in Hades; later traditions rescue him from death altogether.

• In the “Odyssey” he is a shade in the Underworld, bitterly telling Odysseus that he would rather be a poor man’s servant than king of the dead
• In the epic cycle, Thetis snatches his body from the pyre and carries him to Leuke, the White Island in the Black Sea, where he lives on
• His burial mound near Troy became a real cult site, visited by Alexander the Great, who honoured him as an ancestor and model

Facts About Achilles

The essential facts about Achilles can be stated briefly:

• He was a demigod: son of the mortal Peleus and the immortal sea-nymph Thetis
• He led 2,500 Myrmidons to Troy in fifty ships from Phthia in Thessaly
• He was raised by the Centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion, not by his own parents
• He chose a short, glorious life over a long, obscure one, knowing the cost in advance
• His shield, made by Hephaestus, is described over more than a hundred lines of the “Iliad”
• He is the only Greek hero whose anger, not his victories, gives an epic its subject
• The Romans kept his Greek name rather than renaming him, unlike Odysseus or Heracles
• There is no historical evidence that he existed, though Troy itself was a real Bronze Age city

Achilles Sources

Achilles is the central character of Homer’s “Iliad.” In Pindar’s 8^th Isthmian Ode, you can read more about the prophecy surrounding his mother, and in Apollodorus all about how Thetis tried making Achilles immortal. Odysseus’ meeting with his ghost is narrated in the 11^th book of the “Odyssey.”

See Also: Peleus, Thetis, Agamemnon, Paris, Hector, Patroclus, Trojan War