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, according to a later tradition, bathed Achilles as an infant in the waters of the River Styx, thus making him all but immortal: only the part by which she held him remained vulnerable. In the epic tradition the arrow that killed him was shot by Paris, brother of Troy’s most celebrated hero Hector, whom Achilles had killed in a face to face duel to avenge the death of his closest friend, Patroclus, and Apollo guided it (Iliad 22.355–360; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.3).

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 speed, his terrible anger, and the weakness that, in later tellings, killed him.

• Parents: Peleus, king of Phthia in Thessaly, and Thetis, an immortal Nereid (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.5)
• Fought for: the Greeks, leading the Myrmidons in fifty ships, with fifty men at the oars of each (Iliad 2.685–686; 16.168–170)
• Best known for: killing Hector, refusing to fight over Briseis, and dying from an arrow at Troy
• Son: Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus, who fought at Troy after his father’s death (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.8)

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 says that his mother Thetis has told him he has two possible fates, a short life with undying glory or a long life without it (Iliad 9.410–416)
• Peleus was chosen as a mortal husband for Thetis because it was fated that her son would be stronger than his father, and the gods did not want a son of Zeus or Poseidon who would be greater than they were (Pindar, Isthmian 8.26–38)
• In the Iliad he is wounded and bleeds like any other man (Iliad 21.166–167)
• 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 Paris, Hector’s brother
• Achilles is not named among Helen’s suitors, who swore the oath of Tyndareus to defend her husband (Apollodorus, Library 3.10.8–9); he tells Agamemnon that he came to Troy for the sake of Agamemnon and Menelaus, not because Trojans had wronged him (Iliad 1.152–160)

Where Was Achilles From?

Achilles was from Phthia, a kingdom in Thessaly in northern Greece, where his father Peleus ruled; Achilles himself speaks of fertile Phthia as his home (Iliad 1.155–157). He did not grow up there, however: according to Apollodorus, Peleus brought the child to the Centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion (Library 3.13.6).

• His people were the Myrmidons, the men of his contingent at Troy
• According to later accounts he also spent time hidden on the island of Skyros, disguised as a girl at the court of Lycomedes (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.8)
• He died at Troy, in the Troad in northwest Anatolia, and was buried on the shore (Odyssey 24.80–84)

Was Achilles a King or a Prince?

Achilles was a prince, not a king. His father Peleus was still alive throughout the Trojan War, an old man waiting in his halls for news of his son (Iliad 18.434–435; 19.321–325), 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 says he came to Troy for the sake of Agamemnon and Menelaus rather than because of any grievance of his own (Iliad 1.152–160)
• After the war his son Neoptolemus is said to have been married to Menelaus’ daughter Hermione, in the city of the Myrmidons (Odyssey 4.5–9)

What Does the Name Achilles Mean?

The ancient explanation preserved by Apollodorus is that Peleus named the child Achilles because he had never put his lips to a breast, and that his name before that was Ligyron (Library 3.13.6). Modern scholars also connect the name with the Greek words for grief and people, giving something like “grief of the army”, a name that suits a hero whose anger brings suffering to Greeks and Trojans alike, but the etymology is debated.

• In Greek it is written Αχιλλεύς (Achilleus); the Romans kept the same name as Achilles, unlike Odysseus, who became Ulysses
• According to Hyginus, while hidden on Skyros he was called Pyrrha, because of his red-gold hair (Fabulae 96)

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 (Pindar, Isthmian 8.26–40)
• Thetis tries to make the infant Achilles immortal and, in later accounts, hides him on Skyros disguised as a girl
• Odysseus uncovers him and Achilles sails for Troy with fifty ships, knowing that he will die there if he stays to win glory
• 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's standing epithet for Achilles is “swift-footed”. When Priam looks at him in his hut, he marvels at how big he is and how handsome, like the gods to look upon (Iliad 24.629–632). Homer calls Nireus the handsomest of the Greeks who came to Troy, after Achilles (Iliad 2.673–674). The poet speaks of his hair as xanthos, golden or tawny: Athena seizes him by it when he is about to draw his sword on Agamemnon (Iliad 1.197), and at the funeral of Patroclus he cuts off a lock that his father had vowed to the river Spercheius and puts it in his friend’s hands (Iliad 23.140–153).

• With Athena’s help he stands unarmed at the trench and shouts three times, throwing the Trojans into confusion (Iliad 18.203–231)
• His armour is his second identity – first the set Patroclus borrows (Iliad 16.36–45), then the shield and armour forged by Hephaestus (Iliad 18.468–617)

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 (Iliad 1.1).

• Proud and absolute: he will not accept Agamemnon’s apology or gifts, even when the Greeks are close to defeat (Iliad 9.356–363)
• 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 (Iliad 24)
• Compared with Odysseus, he is the opposite kind of hero – the Odyssey mentions a song about a quarrel between Odysseus and Achilles at a feast of the gods (Odyssey 8.72–78)

Achilles’ Childhood and Early Career

Achilles’ very birth is interlinked with two important prophecies: one about his mother, and another one about him. According to later accounts 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, his mother’s son might have been greater still: had Zeus or Poseidon married her, the son she bore would have been mightier than his father.

Pindar says that Zeus and Poseidon quarrelled over Thetis, each wanting her as his wife, because love held them. But the gods did not complete the marriage, because they heard the oracles. Themis spoke among them: it was fated that the sea-goddess should bear a prince mightier than his father, who would wield another weapon in his hand more powerful than the thunderbolt or the irresistible trident, if she mated with Zeus or with one of Zeus’ brothers (Pindar, Isthmian 8.26–35). Apollodorus records the same story with Themis as the prophet, and adds that some say it was Prometheus who told Zeus that the son he had by Thetis would be lord of heaven (Library 3.13.5; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 764–768, 907–925).

The Prophecy About Achilles

Peleus was chosen for a reason, according to Pindar: Themis told the gods that Thetis should take a mortal’s bed and see her son die in battle, a son like Ares in the strength of his hands and like lightning in the swift prime of his feet. She proposed Peleus, the son of Aeacus, whom the land of Iolcus reported to be the most pious of men (Pindar, Isthmian 8.35–40).

“Let Thetis accept a mortal’s bed,” Themis counselled the Olympians, “so that she can see her son die in battle.” The gods nodded their agreement (Pindar, Isthmian 8.35–45). To win her, Peleus on the advice of Chiron seized Thetis and held her fast although she changed her shape into fire, water and a beast (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.5).

Achilles’ Heel

Being a goddess, Thetis wasn’t all that happy to be destined to one day see her son taken from her by 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 ritual of anointing him with ambrosia by day and hiding him in the fire by night to burn away the mortal element he had inherited from his father. However, right near the end of the ritual, Peleus caught her in the act and, understandably, cried out in alarm; Thetis, prevented from finishing, forsook the child and went back to live in the sea with her sister Nereids (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.6). In Apollonius’ version, Peleus leapt from his bed and saw his son writhing in the flames; Thetis flung the child screaming to the floor and rushed out of the house like a dream or a breath of wind, angrily plunging into the sea, and never came back (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.869–879).

Others, however, claim that Thetis dipped Achilles in the waters of the River Styx. In Statius’ unfinished Achilleid Thetis tells her son that she armed him at his birth in the stern river Styx, and wishes she had done it wholly (Achilleid 1.269–270). Later retellings add that she held him by the heel, which the water did not touch, so that the heel remained vulnerable – 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 (Iliad 21.166–167) and wears armour because he needs it. The detail that he was shot in the ankle appears in Apollodorus (Epitome 5.3), and the story of the Styx is told by the Roman poet Statius, writing in the first century AD, centuries 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, the most righteous of the Centaurs (Iliad 11.831–832). Apollodorus says that Peleus brought the child to Chiron, who fed him on the innards of lions and wild swine and on bears’ marrow (Library 3.13.6), and Pindar says that as a boy he killed wild lions and boars with his little javelin in the house of Chiron (Nemean 3.43–52). Needless to add, Achilles excelled, 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 had the company of Phoenix and Patroclus, two refugees Peleus had taken in. Phoenix, who had fled from his father, says that Peleus received him kindly, made him lord of the Dolopes on the edge of Phthia, and that he then reared Achilles, loving him as his own son (Iliad 9.478–491). Patroclus, as a small boy, had killed another boy in a quarrel over dice, and his father Menoetius brought him to Peleus, who raised him as Achilles’ attendant (Iliad 23.85–90). The latter became Achilles’ 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, kills Troy’s greatest warrior, Hector, and finally returns his body to Priam.

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 says himself that he went to Troy to win honour for Agamemnon and Menelaus (Iliad 1.158–160).

• He led fifty ships carrying fifty men each, some 2,500 Myrmidons in total, divided under five commanders (Iliad 16.168–171)
• His nearest companions in the camp were Patroclus and his old guardian Phoenix (Iliad 9.485–495)
• He fought against Troy, whose defenders included Hector, Paris, Aeneas (Iliad 20.158–352), and Memnon (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.3)
• The quarrel that drives the “Iliad” is not with the enemy but with his own commander

Pyrrha at the Court of Lycomedes

Homer does not tell of Achilles living among girls; he speaks only of his son Neoptolemus being reared on Skyros (Iliad 19.326–333). The disguise comes from later accounts. According to Apollodorus, when Achilles was nine years old Calchas declared that Troy could not be taken without him; Thetis, foreseeing that he was fated to die if he went to the war, disguised him in female clothes and entrusted him to Lycomedes as a maiden. Achilles had an affair with Lycomedes’ daughter Deidamia and a son, Pyrrhus, was born to him, later called Neoptolemus. But the secret was betrayed, and Odysseus, searching for Achilles at the court of Lycomedes, found him by the sound of a trumpet (Library 3.13.8).

Hyginus tells it more fully. The Greeks learned where Achilles was hidden and sent envoys to Lycomedes, who denied that he was there but let them search the palace. Not knowing which of the girls was Achilles, Odysseus put women’s gifts in the palace hall, with a shield and a spear among them, and had a trumpeter sound a call and the clash of arms be heard. Achilles, thinking the enemy had come, tore his woman’s dress and seized the shield and spear, and so was recognised; he promised his services and his Myrmidons to the Greeks (Fabulae 96). Hyginus adds that the court called the disguised Achilles Pyrrha, because of his yellow hair, the Greek word pyrrhos meaning red.

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 (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.8; Hyginus, Fabulae 96).

• He was still a boy at the time, which made the disguise plausible; Apollodorus gives his age as nine
• While living there he fathered a son, Neoptolemus, with the king’s daughter Deidamia (Library 3.13.8)
• The episode does not appear in Homer; it comes from later sources, above all Statius’ unfinished “Achilleid”

The First Nine Years: Telephus, Iphigenia, Tenes

Achilles was not among Helen’s suitors who had sworn to defend her husband, but once Odysseus had discovered him he joined the Greek army, commanding fifty ships, each one carrying fifty of his Myrmidons.

According to Apollodorus, soon after its departure the Greek fleet lost its way and landed in Mysia, which they took to be Troy, and ravaged it. Mysia was ruled by Heracles’ son Telephus, who fought against the Greeks; he was wounded, and the wound would not heal. Apollo had told him that he would be cured when the one who had wounded him became his physician, so he came to Argos in rags and begged Achilles to help; in return he promised to show the Greeks the course to Troy. Achilles healed him by scraping rust from his Pelian spear (Epitome 3.17–20). Pindar sums it up: Achilles stained the vine-clad plain of Mysia with the dark blood of Telephus, and made a bridge for the sons of Atreus for their return (Isthmian 8.49–51).

Even so, the Greeks soon faced another problem. They were windbound at Aulis, and Calchas said that they could not sail unless Agamemnon’s fairest daughter was sacrificed to Artemis, who was angry with Agamemnon, among other reasons, for something he had said when he shot a deer. Agamemnon sent for Iphigenia on the pretext that he had promised her to Achilles as a wife (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.21–22). In Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, Achilles, whose name had been used without his knowledge, offers to defend the girl, but Iphigenia herself agrees to die (Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1345–1401). Artemis snatched Iphigenia away, according to Apollodorus, and put a deer in her place at the altar, and the Greeks set sail once again.

Near Troy, Achilles’ fleet landed on the island of Tenedos. Tenes, the king of the island, tried to keep the Greeks off by throwing stones, and Achilles killed him with a sword-cut to the chest, though Thetis had warned Achilles not to kill Tenes, because if he did he would himself die by the hand of Apollo (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.23–26). Apollodorus says that Tenes was the son of Cycnus, but that according to some he was the son of Apollo.

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 captive 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’ captive, Briseis (Iliad 1.8–52, 1.318–347). Furious to be dishonored in such a way, Achilles withdraws from battle, even asking his mother Thetis to ask Zeus to help the Trojans, so that Agamemnon and the Greeks recognize promptly the severity of the loss of their greatest warrior (Iliad 1.348–356, 1.495–530).

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 (Iliad 9). 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 tells Agamemnon’s embassy that he will sail home (Iliad 9.356–363, 9.410–416). Later, however, he says he will not join the fighting until Hector reaches his own ships (Iliad 9.650–655).

Fearing ultimate defeat, Patroclus asks Achilles for his armor and, disguised as his treasured friend, he leads a successful attack against the Trojans (Iliad 16.36–45). However, taken by the moment, he goes too far and is subsequently killed by Hector, with the help of Apollo (Iliad 16.784–857).

Enraged by his friend’s death, Achilles rejoins the battle, adorned with new armor made by Hephaestus (Iliad 18.468–617). The shield is described over more than a hundred lines: on it Hephaestus made the earth, sky and sea, two cities, a ploughed field and a vineyard, and the encircling river Ocean around its rim. In the river Scamander he kills so many Trojans that the river god rises against him (Iliad 21). He then tracks down Hector and kills him in a face to face duel (Iliad 22). Still burning with anger, Achilles drags Hector’s body behind his chariot around Patroclus’ tomb, day after day, until on the twelfth day the gods intervene (Iliad 24.14–18, 24.31). Priam, Hector’s father, comes by night to Achilles’ hut to beg for the body of his son. Achilles is moved to tears and agrees to give Priam his son’s body (Iliad 24).

Before this, Achilles holds funeral games for Patroclus, with chariot races, boxing, wrestling, a foot-race, and other contests, and gives prizes to the winners (Iliad 23.257–897).

Who Did Achilles Kill?

Achilles killed many named warriors, 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 (Iliad 22)
• Cycnus, son of Poseidon, killed in the first landing at Troy by a stone, according to Apollodorus, and strangled with the straps of his helmet, according to Ovid, and Tenes, killed on Tenedos (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.26, 3.31; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.72–145)
• Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, both killed after the events of the “Iliad” (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.1, 5.3)
• Lycaon, Asteropaeus, and so many Trojans in the river Scamander that the river god rose against him in anger (Iliad 21)

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, kills the greatest of the great heroes with an arrow, and Apollo helps him, at the Scaean Gate (Iliad 22.358–360). Apollodorus says that the arrow struck Achilles in the ankle (Epitome 5.3). Thetis had warned Achilles that if he killed Tenes he would die by Apollo’s hand (Epitome 3.26).

Who Killed Achilles?

Achilles was killed by Paris, prince of Troy, with an arrow guided by the god Apollo. In Apollodorus he was struck in the ankle at the Scaean Gate of Troy, and died there before the city fell (Epitome 5.3).

• Hector predicted it with his dying words, naming both Paris and Apollo as the ones who would kill him at the Scaean Gate (Iliad 22.358–360)
• A fight broke out over his body: Ajax killed Glaucus, and carried the body out through the missiles of the enemy while Odysseus held off the attackers (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.4)
• Thetis, the Nereids and the Muses mourned him, and the Achaeans mourned for seventeen days and nights, burning the body on the eighteenth (Odyssey 24.47–65)

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 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 (Odyssey 11.523–532)
• 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 (Iliad 24.785–804)
• The Horse is described instead in the “Odyssey” and in the lost poems of the epic cycle (Odyssey 4.271–289; 8.492–520)

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 (Apollodorus, Library 3.13.8). Homer knows Neoptolemus as Achilles’ son who is being reared on Skyros (Iliad 19.326–333).

• Neoptolemus was brought to Troy after his father’s death: after the prophecy of Helenus, Odysseus and Phoenix were sent to Lycomedes at Skyros and persuaded him to let Neoptolemus go (Apollodorus, Epitome 5.10–11). In the underworld, Achilles asks Odysseus for news of his son, and Odysseus tells him of Neoptolemus’ courage inside the Horse (Odyssey 11.492–540)
• Achilles’ best-known attachments are not marriages: Patroclus, his dearest companion, and Briseis, the captive whose seizure sparks the “Iliad” (Iliad 19.297–299 has Briseis say that Patroclus promised to make her Achilles’ wedded wife)
• He was betrothed to Iphigenia only as a lie (Apollodorus, Epitome 3.22), and, in a later account, was killed when he came to a meeting to ask for the Trojan princess Polyxena (Hyginus, Fabulae 110)
• In the afterlife traditions he is married to Helen on the White Island, according to Pausanias’ report of the story (Description of Greece 3.19.11–13), and in Apollonius, Hera tells Thetis that Medea is fated to be his wife in the Elysian plain (Argonautica 4.811–815)

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. Odysseus tells him that no man was more blessed than he, honoured like a god by the Argives when alive and now holding great power among the dead (Odyssey 11.482–486). “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” (Odyssey 11.488–491).

What Happened to Achilles After He Died?

The sources disagree about what became of Achilles, and the main versions contradict each other. Homer places him among the dead in Hades; other 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 (Odyssey 11.488–491)
• In the same poem, his bones, mixed with those of Patroclus, are placed in a golden urn made by Hephaestus, and the Argives raise a great mound for them on a headland over the Hellespont, so that later men could see it from the sea (Odyssey 24.71–84)
• In the epic cycle, Thetis snatches his body from the pyre and carries him to the White Island, where he lives on (the Aethiopis, in Proclus’ summary); Apollodorus has him buried with Patroclus on the White Island (Epitome 5.5). Pindar says that Thetis brought Achilles to the Islands of the Blessed, and that he has a shining island in the Euxine sea (Pindar, Olympian 2.79–82; Nemean 4.49–50)
• His arms were offered as a prize to the bravest, and Ajax and Odysseus competed for them; Odysseus won. In the underworld the ghost of Ajax still stands apart, angry about the verdict (Odyssey 11.543–546; Apollodorus, Epitome 5.6)

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 the Myrmidons to Troy in fifty ships from Phthia in Thessaly (Iliad 2.685–686)
• He was raised by the Centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion, with Phoenix as his guardian in his father’s house
• He chose a short, glorious life over a long, obscure one, knowing the cost in advance (Iliad 9.410–416)
• His shield, made by Hephaestus, is described over more than a hundred lines of the “Iliad” (Iliad 18.478–608)
• His anger, not his victories, is the announced subject of the “Iliad,” whose first word is “wrath” (Iliad 1.1)
• The Romans kept his Greek name rather than renaming him, unlike Odysseus or Heracles

Achilles Sources

Achilles is the central character of Homer’s “Iliad” (esp. 1, 9, 16, 18, 19, 21–24). Pindar, Isthmian 8.26–60 tells of the prophecy surrounding his mother, Olympian 2.79–82 and Nemean 3.43–52 and 4.49–50 of his boyhood and afterlife, and Apollodorus tells how Thetis tried to make Achilles immortal (Library 3.10.8–9, 3.13.5–8; Epitome 3.17–31, 5.1–11). Odysseus’ meeting with his ghost is narrated in the 11th book of the “Odyssey”, and his funeral in Odyssey 24.35–94; the Horse is told in Odyssey 4.271–289 and 8.492–520, and Thetis’ rescue of his body in the summary of the lost Aethiopis. Other sources: Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.811–815, 4.869–879; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 764–768, 907–925; Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1345–1401; Statius, Achilleid 1.269–270; Hyginus, Fabulae 96, 110; Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.72–145; Pausanias 3.19.11–13.

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