The life of Achilles was a complicated mixture of honor, bravery, hatred, and cruelty. His life and death were literally the stuff of legend. From his semi-divine birth to his glorious death, the Immortals of Mount Olympos, led by Zeus, scripted the events of Achilles's life to conform to their unfathomable goals. In that respect, Achilles was nothing more than a pawn, but he was magnificent, nonetheless.
Achilles was born to be a warrior ... he inherited his ferocity from his father and his grandfather, Peleus and Aiakos. While Achilles was still an infant, Peleus distinguished himself by becoming an Argonaut and sailing with such men as Herakles and Ieson (Jason) on the Quest for the Golden Fleece. As king of Phthia, Peleus was feared and respected throughout Greece ... the Myrmidons were his subjects and their reputation as brave fighters had been firmly established long before Achilles was born.
Achilles's mother was not an Olympian goddess, but she was awe inspiring, nonetheless. Named Thetis, she was a daughter of an ancient sea-god named Nereus and Doris, a daughter of Okeanos (Ocean). Thetis literally had the sea in her blood.
Thetis and her sisters were called Nereids after their father. They had the outward appearance of normal looking human women but that's where all similarity to mortal women ended. They could swim with the agility of dolphins yet live comfortably on land for extended periods of time.
Zeus, the father of gods and men, was notorious for his philandering and made no secret of his desire for Thetis. Powerless to stop his unfaithfulness, his sister-wife Hera vacillated between tolerance and outrage. As queen of the Immortals, Hera could be dangerous when provoked. Thetis tactfully evaded Zeus's amorous advances and earned Hera's heartfelt respect. Zeus also respected Thetis ... her tenaciousness was refreshing but her impudence was an insult to his authority.
In order to suitably punish Thetis, Zeus made arrangements for her to marry a mortal man. Peleus was chosen to be Thetis's husband because of his devotion to the gods of Mount Olympos ... Zeus also knew Thetis could only be tamed by a forceful man like Peleus. At first, Thetis was not willing to marry Peleus, but after a difficult and sometimes violent courtship, she relented.
The wedding of Thetis and Peleus was the setting for a defining event that triggered the Trojan War. This event has come to be known as the Judgment of Paris, although at that time it was just another demonstration of the rivalry between the immortal gods and goddesses.
The goddess Hera made sure the wedding was well-attended. One of the most notable Immortals at the wedding was the goddess of discord and strife, Eris, who came not to celebrate but to exercise her talent for causing trouble. At the wedding, Eris tossed down a golden apple with the inscription, "For the most beautiful one." Zeus's daughter Athene, his wife Hera, and Aphrodite, goddess of love, each assumed the prize was intended for them. When the inevitable conflict arose, Zeus found himself in an awkward position ... someone had to make the decision as to which goddess was the most beautiful. To resolve the dispute, Zeus sent the three obstinate goddesses with the messenger god Hermes to Mount Ida, near Troy. Prince Alexandros, also known as Paris, was chosen to be the judge. Zeus decreed that the judgment of Paris would be final.
Alexandros chose Aphrodite because she promised that the most desirable woman in the world, Helen of Argos, the daughter of Zeus, would be his wife. Before Helen could be abducted by Prince Alexandros and become Helen of Troy, Aphrodite and the other Immortals of Mount Olympos needed to coordinate their efforts to be sure the Trojan War would be unforgettable ... they succeeded admirably. Achilles would die a glorious death, the walls of Troy would fall thunderously and, even after three thousand years, the war would be vividly remembered.
Thetis and Peleus had a magnificent son whom they named Achilles. The poets Homer and Hesiod tell us Peleus tried to be a good husband and father, but he was ignorant of the ways of the Immortals. When Peleus caught Thetis placing the infant Achilles in the fireplace, he became enraged and ordered Thetis from his house. Without telling Peleus that the baptism of fire would have made Achilles an Immortal, Thetis did as Peleus commanded ... she threw Achilles to the floor and returned to her home in the sea.
The fate of Achilles was only partially known to Thetis, who knew his life would take one of two courses: 1) he could refuse to fight in the Trojan War, inherit his father's kingdom and be forgotten; or 2) he could die at Troy and be remembered forever as a hero. He chose to go to Troy and die with such glory that his name would be remembered long after the gods and goddesses who started the war were forgotten.
After Thetis deserted Peleus, Achilles was placed in the care of the Centaur Kheiron to be educated. Kheiron and the infant Achilles were on the shore when Peleus set sail with the Argonauts. The voyage of the Argonauts lasted over ten years, so we might reasonably assume Achilles stayed with Kheiron until he was in his early teens.
Upon returning to his father's home, Achilles was placed under the supervision of a patient and clearheaded man named Phoinix. As Achilles's education continued, he was joined by his older cousin, Patroklos. The two young men became best friends and constant companions.
When the Trojan War began, Achilles eagerly volunteered. King Peleus was undoubtedly pleased that Phoinix and Patroklos were willing to accompany Achilles to Troy because he needed men he could trust to give good advice to his predictably over-proud son. During the course of the Trojan War, Patroklos indeed tried his best to be a positive influence on Achilles. Although Patroklos was persistent and sincere, he and Achilles would both die before the war ended.
The Trojan War, which began circa 1250 BCE, was one of the most horrific conflicts ever inflicted on the human race by the Immortals of Mount Olympos. Homer and the poets of the Epic Cycle describe how, with years of subtle manipulation and direct interference, the Immortals made certain the Trojan War would be unavoidable.
The beginning of the war can be traced to the kidnapping of Helen by Trojan Prince Alexandros. Helen was the daughter of Zeus, but her de facto father was King Tyndareus of Sparta. When it came time for Helen to marry, Tyndareus chose Prince Menelaos of Mykenai to be her husband.
Menelaos was chosen from dozens of fervent suitors, men of wealth and influence who offered lavish gifts to Tyndareus. Before he chose Menelaos, King Tyndareus made the suitors swear a solemn oath, stipulating that if Helen was ever taken from her rightful husband, they would come to her rescue. The oath he made them swear was administered while they stood on the bloody remains of a sacrificial horse.
After the Judgment of Paris, Aphrodite waited a suitable amount of time before she honored her promise to give Helen to Alexandros. Helen was living in Sparta with her husband Menelaos ... she had a daughter, and by all outward appearances, lived a happy and fulfilling life. Using enchantments, Aphrodite arranged for Alexandros to be in Sparta when Helen's husband was "unexpectedly" called away on business. With Menelaos out of the way, the two enchanted lovers took Helen's considerable dowry and fled in the night. Once the "kidnapping" by Alexandros became apparent, the call went out for the kings and princes who had once been Helen's suitors to honor their oath. Achilles had not been a suitor of Helen, as he was too young.
With Helen presumably taken against her will, Menelaos was duty- bound to bring her back home ... to do that, he needed an army. He went to his brother, King Agamemnon of Mykenai, for assistance. Capitalizing on Agamemnon's wealth and influence, an army of kings, princes, warriors, and adventurers joined Agamemnon and Menelaos to free Helen from her Trojan captors. The greatest warrior in Agamemnon's army, by all accounts, was Achilles. He joined Agamemnon with fifty ships and 2,500 Myrmidon soldiers.
The Greeks, commonly known as the Achaians or Argives, were massed at the city of Aulis. Agamemnon, however, was a proud man and sometimes prone to excess. During one of his self-aggrandizing tirades about his prowess as a hunter, he offended the goddess Artemis ... in retribution, she called up the winds and made it impossible for the fleet to leave Aulis.
A reliable seer named Kalkhas saw the problem and told Agamemnon a grand sacrifice was needed to appease the goddess ... Agamemnon would be required to sacrifice one of his children or the winds would never relent. Agamemnon sent for his daughter Iphigenia on the pretext she was to marry Achilles. He was used as bait because he was handsome, wealthy, and renowned for his virility.
When Iphigenia arrived, she was led to the sacrificial altar, but Artemis spirited her away at the last moment and substituted a stag in her place. Satisfied with the proceedings, the goddess lifted her curse ... she knew the Trojan War could be delayed but not prevented.
Kalkhas made another prediction before the fleet left Aulis. This prediction, inspired by Zeus, had an authenticity that was beyond question. In the presence of Kalkhas and other onlookers, a blood-mottled snake emerged from beneath the altar of Zeus and proceeded to symbolically foretell the outcome of the Trojan War.
The snake climbed to a nearby bird nest and attacked the eight hatchlings therein ... the mother bird tried to save her chicks but was also killed and eaten. With the gory feast completed, the snake turned to stone. Kalkhas correctly reasoned the nine birds symbolized nine years of warfare at Troy, and the tenth year would bring victory for the Achaians.
Even though the winds were favorable, the fleet was still unable to sail for Troy because the Achaians simply did not know its exact location ... they needed a guide. The help they needed came to them in a roundabout way. After the fleet left Aulis, the Achaians became lost and put in at Teuthrania, which was approximately 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Troy. A man named Telephos was wounded by Achilles during the attack on Teuthrania. The Achaians did not realize that Teuthrania was relatively close to Troy, so after sacking the city they returned to the Greek mainland. Again, the Immortals intervened to keep the war on track ... Telephos was given an oracle saying he should go to Achilles for his wounds to be healed.
Achilles had been taught the art of healing by the Centaur Kheiron, and Achilles did indeed heal Telephos. In accordance with the oracle he had been given, Telephos in turn agreed to lead the Achaians to Troy. The Achaians regrouped at Aulis and then proceeded north towards Troy with Telephos as their guide. A violent storm scattered the fleet, and Achilles was forced ashore on the island of Skyros where he married a woman named Deidamia. Achilles stayed on Skyros long enough to father a son named Neoptolemos.
The Trojans, meanwhile, had gathered their allies and were ready for the inevitable invasion. The Trojan army, led by Prince Hektor, was on the beach waiting for the Achaians when they arrived. The first man ashore was Protesilaos ... Hektor killed him instantly. Achilles vaulted from his ship and joined the fight. When he killed Kyknos, a son of Poseidon, the Trojans gave ground. A thousand Achaian ships were pulled onto the beach carrying sixty thousand men ... the war had begun.
Arriving at Troy was a dream come true for Achilles. He quickly proved himself to be the fastest, bravest, and most bloodthirsty warrior on the battlefield. No man alive could match his fighting skills or rival his contempt for death. The Trojan War made Achilles an immortal hero and his bloody reputation has never been equaled.
The events of the first nine years of the war were, for the most part, unrecorded. However, one significant incident was briefly noted by Hesiod involving a meeting between Achilles and Helen. Achilles apparently expressed an interest in meeting Helen ... his mother Thetis facilitated the get-together. We might speculate that he simply wanted to meet the woman responsible for the war.
Thetis conspired with Aphrodite, goddess of love, to arrange the meeting. Aphrodite actively supported the Trojans because her son Aineias was in the Trojan army. Thetis supported the Achaians but did not engage in the fighting. The details of the meeting between Achilles and Helen were not recorded, indicating that whatever they discussed did not alter the course of the war.
The Iliad by Homer documents the last year of the Trojan War, circa 1240 BCE. According to the prophecy given to Kalkhas, this was to be the last year of the war ... the walls of Troy would topple, and Achaians would plunder the city.
That outcome did not seem apparent when the god Apollon positioned himself offshore and began assailing the Achaians with arrows. True to his title, Lord of the Silver Bow, Apollon unleashed arrow after arrow into the Achaian encampment. After nine days of constant bombardment, Achilles called an assembly in an effort to find out how they had angered the god and what they must do to stop the punishment.
The seer Kalkhas again used his skills to deduce the problem but was reluctant to speak out for fear of being punished by Agamemnon. Achilles quickly assured Kalkhas no one would harm him if he spoke the truth. Achilles glared at Agamemnon to make sure he understood the promise to Kalkhas included everyone, including the commander of the army.
Kalkhas said Agamemnon had insulted one of Apollon's priests. To be disrespectful to a priest or priestess was tantamount to sacrilege. The incident that angered Apollon was initiated during one of the Achaian plunder-raids.
To sustain their army, the Achaians frequently pillaged neighboring islands and cities for food, equipment, and slaves. On one such raid, several young women were taken as prisoners ... a woman named Khryseis had been awarded to Agamemnon as a "prize." Another young woman named Briseis had been awarded to Achilles.
When Khryseis's father came to Agamemnon to beg for the return of his daughter, Agamemnon not only refused to return the woman, he threatened the man with violence. Agamemnon ignored the fact that Khryseis's father carried the staff and ribbons indicative of a priest of Apollon.
Kalkhas told the assembled Achaians that Apollon's wrath would end when Agamemnon returned the woman to her father and made appropriate sacrifices to appease the god. Agamemnon was not pleased with Kalkhas's pronouncement but quickly thought of a way to placate Apollon and still have a new captive woman for his entourage. Agamemnon announced that Khryseis would be returned to her father and that he would take Achilles's captive woman Briseis as compensation for his loss.
Achilles was furious. He rose to his feet and called Agamemnon a coward and a pitiful excuse for a king ... he seriously considered drawing his sword and killing Agamemnon in front of the entire assembly. The goddess Hera watched the drama from Mount Olympos. She cared deeply for Agamemnon and felt compelled to protect him. To avert violence, Hera sent the goddess Athene to calm Achilles.
Athene swooped down from the heavens and stood beside Achilles ... she tugged at his hair to get his attention. He saw her clearly, but she was invisible to everyone else.
"Agamemnon's arrogance is unbearable." Achilles said to Athene. "I will kill him if he continues to insult me."
"Hera and I command you to quell your anger," she replied. "You may rebuke Agamemnon but do not resort to brutality."
With great self-restraint, Achilles put aside his violent intentions and told Agamemnon he would no longer obey his commands or fight the Trojans unless they tried to burn his ships.
Succumbing to the calming influence of the goddess Athene, Achilles regained his composure and sat down.
Achilles surrendered Briseis to Agamemnon's heralds without a confrontation, but his anger was simmering. He went to the seashore and called to his mother. Thetis emerged from the sea and listened sympathetically to her son's problems. Thetis promised she would go to Zeus and ask that Achilles be compensated for his humiliation. Thetis knew Zeus would help her; she also knew she had to be careful not to upset Hera. When she arrived on Mount Olympos, Thetis found Zeus sitting apart from the other Immortals ... she clasped his knees and begged for justice for her son. Zeus listened sympathetically ... he wanted to help Thetis, but he did not want to provoke Hera ... he did not fear Hera, but her displeasure could be bothersome. To indicate his compliance with Thetis's wishes, Zeus nodded his head ... Olympos trembled, and Hera was indeed annoyed.
With Achilles and his Myrmidons refusing to fight, the tides of war turned against the Achaians. The Trojans pushed their way to the defensive ditch that protected the Achaian ships. If the ditch was breached, the ships could easily be set afire. To make matters worse, several of the best Achaian warriors were wounded, including Menelaos and Odysseus.
Prompted by his advisors, Agamemnon assembled a delegation of men Achilles respected. Their mission was to offer Achilles splendid gifts and plead with him to muster his troops for battle.
The delegation found Achilles brooding in his elaborate shelter. Feigning hospitality, Achilles ordered Patroklos to make the guests comfortable. Food and wine had little effect on the tension permeating the room as the guests faithfully repeated Agamemnon's reconciliation. Achilles was polite but remained adamant ... he did not want gifts and did not care about the dead and wounded Achaians. The delegation left the meeting with a feeling of dread ... without the participation of Achilles and his Myrmidons, the prophesied victory over the Trojans would be an unnecessarily bloody ordeal.
Patroklos quailed when he heard Achilles rebuke Agamemnon's delegation. Later, when he and Achilles were alone, Patroklos felt compelled to speak up.
Patroklos was an older cousin of Achilles. They grew up together and were as close as brothers. Achilles's father, King Peleus, made Patroklos swear to always give good advice to Achilles, and with the Achaians on the verge of defeat, Patroklos could not remain silent. He reminded Achilles of the continuous defeats the Achaians were suffering and the growing list of wounded soldiers.
Although Achilles had been unmoved by Agamemnon's delegation, Patroklos's impassioned pleas inspired a response. Achilles ordered his men to prepare his armor and chariot ... he instructed Patroklos to don the armor and ride out onto the field of battle. Everyone would assume that Achilles was in the chariot. The strategy was twofold ... the Trojans would retreat in fear and the Achaians would regain their resolution.
Patroklos played his part brilliantly. The Trojans scattered and the Achaians charged forward behind Achilles's chariot. The Immortals watched the drama unfold as Patroklos moved dangerously close to the walls of Troy. He had been warned to withdraw as soon as the Trojans moved away from the ships, but his vanity drove him on. Zeus's son Sarpedon placed himself directly in the path of Patroklos ... by doing so, Sarpedon sealed his own doom. Patroklos killed Zeus's son and continued his reckless charge towards the walls of Troy.
By now, Patroklos had been on the battlefield long enough for the astute soldiers of both armies to realize he was not Achilles. Oblivious to his impending doom, Patroklos charged straight into the hands of Prince Hektor. The god Apollon had anticipated this moment. He positioned himself near Hektor, and when Patroklos dismounted the chariot to fight, Apollon slammed Patroklos in the back and loosened his armor. Hektor stepped forward and delivered the deathblow. Hektor stripped Achilles's armor from Patroklos and retreated into the Trojan ranks so that he could discard his old armor. Zeus fitted Achilles's armor to Hektor's body.
With Patroklos dead, his corpse left in the dirt, and Hektor wearing Achilles's armor, the bloodiest fight of the war began. The Trojans wanted to seize Patroklos's body as a trophy ... the Achaians wanted to retrieve their beloved comrade for the sake of honor. The fight raged ... men on both sides were injured and killed.
Still brooding in his shelter, Achilles was unaware of Patroklos's death. Finally, a messenger came from the fighting and gave him the bad news. Achilles simmered in a powerless rage ... without his armor, he could not charge out to rescue Patroklos's corpse from the Trojans. Yet before he was overwhelmed by his impotency, the goddess Iris descended into the Achaian encampment. She approached Achilles and told him to make his presence known by going to the battlements and screaming his outrage.
Standing atop the wall surrounding the Achaian ships, Achilles surveyed the battlefield ... and as he filled his lungs with anger and grief, he began to scream. To make sure he could be seen from the battlefield, the goddess Athene put a golden cloud around Achilles's head and infused it with a flame that could be seen from the offshore islands. Upon seeing the sun-bright halo around Achilles's head and hearing his third terrifying scream, the Trojans gave ground. The brief respite allowed the Aiantes, Telamonian Aias and Lesser Aias, to plunge into the Trojans and hold them back while Menelaos and Meriones dragged Patroklos's body to safety.
Achilles had a massive funeral mound built for Patroklos. The cremation would have to wait, however, until Achilles had his revenge on Hektor for killing Patroklos.
Patroklos had been wearing Achilles armor when he died and it now belonged to Prince Hektor. Achilles lamented to his mother Thetis about Patroklos's death and the sad fate of his armor; she told him that she would have new armor made by Hephaistos, the artificer of the Immortals. Hephaistos loved Thetis because she had once helped him when the other gods and goddesses of Mount Olympos left him for dead. Thetis knew he would help her no matter what she asked him to do.
Thetis went to the workshop of Hephaistos where he made intricate devices and designed magnificent structures for the Immortals. Thetis told Hephaistos of Achilles's plight, and the god readily agreed to make new armor for her son.
Setting to work with his robot assistants, Hephaistos began to make truly divine body armor and a shield for Achilles. The shield was similar to the one he had previously made for Herakles and differed only slightly in its complexity.
Achilles's shield was massive and made of bronze and tin, with three folds on the rim and five in the center ... the strap was made of silver. On the face of the shield, Hephaistos inscribed the earth, the sea, the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Two cities were also visible on the face of the shield. In one city, the animated population was engaged in various forms of public activities including a wedding ceremony with dancers and singers ... apart from the wedding, two men were arguing in the marketplace before an assembly of elders. The other city was being besieged by two armies ... Athene and Ares, the god of war, were on the battlefield. Nearby, Eris, goddess of discord and strife, stalked through the throng, her clothing stained with blood, dragging three men: one was wounded, one was unhurt, and the other was dead.
The shield of Achilles also included majestic scenes with noblemen, farmers, and children. The animated figures made of gold reflected the work of men and kings in everyday life. Scenes of lions eating the torn flesh of oxen while the herdsmen's dogs bayed at the beasts appeared in the metal. Young men in tunics and women dressed in long, light robes ran and formed rows that crisscrossed one another on a ceremonial dancing floor. Two acrobats led the spectators in song. Finally, Hephaistos rimmed the shield with Okeanos (Ocean) for strength.
The master craftsman then turned to the armor that would protect Achilles's body. He made a bright corselet, an intricate helmet with a gold top-ridge and grieves of pliable tin to protect Achilles's legs. With the work complete, Hephaistos gave the armor and shield to Thetis.
When Thetis went to Achilles with the new armor and shield, she unceremoniously placed them at his feet. She knew well that her son would soon die in that glorious armor. The armor was so bright that Achilles's henchmen, the Myrmidons, could not look directly at it. Achilles now felt ready to mete out death to countless Trojans and, finally, Hektor.
Given his inconsolable grief for Patroklos, Achilles, when he received his new armor, wanted to charge straight into the Trojan defenses and kill every opponent he encountered. Odysseus, a man with considerable negotiating skills, explained to Achilles that the army was weary, hungry, and needed to rest before the next assault could begin. Achilles respected Odysseus and contained his impulses. As Achilles waited, the goddess Athene secretly gave him ambrosia and nectar so he would be able to fight when the time came. When the Achaians were ready to fight, Achilles took the forefront of the battle formation. Two immortal horses, Xanthos and Balios, pulled Achilles's chariot. The goddess Hera gave voice to Xanthos and told Achilles that he was destined to die at Troy. Achilles was undaunted. His new armor flashed like a bright star as he moved into the ranks of the Trojans.
The god Apollon saw Achilles and in the guise of King Priam's son Lykaon, went immediately to Aineias and encouraged him to fight Achilles. Even though he was the son of the goddess Aphrodite, Aineias was hesitant to face Achilles because Achilles had once chased him from Mount Ida. Apollon goaded Aineias forward. When the two demigods came face to face, Aineias boasted that he was the son of Aphrodite, goddess of love, and therefore of higher birth than Achilles ... Achilles was unimpressed. Achilles respected Aineias's fighting abilities but did not fear him. As a precaution, Achilles held his shield further out in front of his body in case Aineias's spear passed through it. There would be no retreat.
Hera, Athene, and Poseidon, lord of the sea, watched the impending fight with great concern. They knew Achilles would kill Aineias. The three gods also knew Zeus had decreed that Aineias was destined to survive the Trojan War and continue the bloodline of Trojan King Dardanos. Aineias had to be saved, but Hera and Athene had sworn never to help a Trojan ... the task fell to Poseidon.
Aineias and Achilles were grappling when Poseidon arrived invisibly beside them. Achilles was drawing his sword—his spear already lodged in Aineias's shield—when Poseidon intervened ... he wrapped Achilles in a mist and hurled Aineias to a safe distance ... the god then pulled the spear from Aineias's shield and laid it at Achilles feet. With Aineias out of reach, Achilles charged furiously into the nearby Trojans.
The Trojans fled in panic, but in the confusion of the battle, not all of them could avoid Achilles. He was the fastest runner in either army ... many Trojans had no choice but to fight or be stabbed in the back with Achilles's massive spear.
Hektor had been watching Achilles ... he knew that a confrontation was inevitable, so he decided to stand his ground and fight before Achilles got too close to the city walls. Apollon and Athene were still on the battlefield and they too were watching Achilles. Apollon had acted impulsively when he goaded Aineias to fight Achilles. The shrewd god was not going to make the same mistake with Hektor ... Zeus protected Hektor ... when that protection was lifted, Hektor would die, not before.
Apollon went to Hektor and encouraged him to retreat, but Hektor was determined to fight. He threw his spear at Achilles ... Athene turned it aside with her breath. Achilles furiously charged at Hektor but before he could land a blow, Apollon wrapped Hektor in a cloud ... Achilles lunged his spear into the vapor three times, striking nothing. Finally, Achilles charged into the cloud but found no sign of Hektor.
Not being permitted to fight with Aineias or Hektor, Achilles let his rage guide him into the heart of the fighting. The slaughter of the Trojans had just begun ... men of semi-divine birth were killed alongside sons of Trojan King Priam ... any man who came within stabbing distance fell to Achilles's spear. When Achilles reached the banks of the Xanthos River, the slaughter became unimaginable.
The river-god Xanthos chose the Trojan ally Asteropaios to stop Achilles. Xanthos placed valor in Asteropaios's heart and persuaded him to stand against Achilles. When Asteropaios was killed instantly, his men turned and ran. Achilles chased them down and killed them without hesitation. Achilles continued to throw dead bodies into the river until Xanthos rose from his banks and commanded Achilles to stop clogging his waters with dead Trojans. Achilles said he would stop throwing bodies in the water but would not stop killing Trojans until Hektor was dead.
Xanthos was still angry ... he rose up and sloshed the dead bodies from his waters. He then hurled a giant wave against Achilles and washed him into a whirlpool. Achilles leapt from the waters of Xanthos and ran the distance of a spear-cast, as Xanthos pummeled Achilles with violent waves.
Zeus watched Achilles's ordeal with deep interest and decided that in order for Achilles to survive the onslaught of Xanthos, the Immortals had to become directly involved. He sent Athene and Poseidon to Achilles's side. Poseidon assured Achilles that he was not going die by the devices of Xanthos because he was destined to kill Hektor. The goddess Hera sent her son Hephaistos to save Achilles by using fire against Xanthos. Hephaistos burned the corpses Achilles left on riverbank and then turned his fire on Xanthos. The river-god begged Hephaistos to stop the fires and humbly agreed to end his assaults against Achilles.
Achilles charged back into the Trojan lines and started killing men and chariot horses without discrimination. The god Apollon did not want Achilles to get too close to the city walls so he devised a clever plan to divert Achilles away from the thick of the fighting. Apollon put courage in the heart of a man named Agenor and placed him in Achilles's path. Achilles charged at Agenor as the doomed man made a vain spear-cast. It was obvious that his fate was sealed unless Apollon somehow removed him from harm's way. Shrouding Agenor in mist, Apollon assumed the man's appearance and began to run away. Achilles gave chase but soon realized he had been tricked and turned back toward the walls of Troy.
Soon enough, Achilles saw the object of his intense hatred standing at the Skaian Gates. Hektor stood resolute as the other Trojan soldiers ran to safety inside the city.
The Trojan captain Poulydamas advised Hektor to withdraw the army inside the city walls. Hektor agreed but remained outside the gates because he knew the widows and orphans inside the city would blame him for the deaths of so many Trojans if he did not stand and fight Achilles. Hektor even considered laying aside his weapons and offering to return Helen to the Achaians but he knew in his heart that he and Achilles would have to fight to the death.
When he saw the onslaught of Achilles and his unrelenting anger, Hektor lost his nerve and began to run. Every time Hektor tried to reach the safety of one of the city gates, Achilles would block his way and force him back to open ground.
King Priam watched the spectacle from the city walls but was powerless to help his doomed son. Achilles chased Hektor four times around the city until the Trojan commander finally stopped and faced Achilles, ready to fight.
As Achilles drew close, the goddess Athene disguised herself as Hektor's brother Deiphobos and appeared beside Hektor. She told Hektor the two of them could fight and defeat Achilles. Hektor stood his ground and addressed Achilles with measured words.
"Son of Peleus, I will no longer run from the fight. I swear before the immortal gods that if I kill you, I will not defile your body so you may have a proper burial by your comrades. I ask that you make the same oath."
Achilles replied darkly, "There are no oaths between wolves and lambs. There will be no agreement for mercy. Your payment will be in full when, with the help of Pallas Athene, you lay dead at my feet." Prince Hektor made a valiant spear-cast but Achilles's god-made armor deflected the blow. Achilles hurled his spear at Hektor but missed. The goddess Athene placed the spear back in Achilles's hands. Hektor turned to Deiphobos for support, but when he saw that his brother was not there, the Trojan prince realized Athene had tricked him and he was now going to die.
Achilles lunged at Hektor with his spear and wounded him severely in the throat ... Hektor fell to the ground, nearly dead. With his last breath, he begged Achilles to give his body to his parents so that he might have a proper burial. Achilles was in no mood for mercy. He vaulted over Hektor's prone body and said that, instead of a hero's burial, his body should be butchered and eaten.
When the other Achaians arrived on the scene, they despoiled the corpse of Hektor in full view of the Trojans who were watching from the walls. Achilles then pierced Hektor's ankles, and using a leather strap, tied the body to his chariot and raced around the city to further humiliate and inflame the Trojans.
The desecration of Hektor's body continued when it was dragged back to the Achaian camp. Achilles repeatedly drove his chariot through the encampment and around the burial mound of Patroklos, towing Hektor's body through the dirt. Appalled at the spectacle, various Immortals came secretly to Hektor's body and covered it with ambrosia and oils so the rough treatment inflicted by Achilles would not tear or mutilate the dead flesh.
It had been a long and bloody day ... sorrowful and exhausted, Achilles fell asleep on the seashore. The ghost of Patroklos, appearing lifelike, stood over Achilles and spoke to him. Patroklos wanted to have his body cremated as soon as possible so he could enter the House of Hades, lord of the dead, and find peace.
Patroklos also said that there was no doubt that Achilles would soon die on the battlefield of Troy ... Achilles was unperturbed ... death held no sway over him. Patroklos asked Achilles to make arrangements to have their bones placed in the same urn so that they could be as inseparable in death as they had been in life. Patroklos recalled his youthful follies and the reason he had become the ward of Achilles's father, King Peleus. An argument over dice had led to murder ... Patroklos fled his home and supplicated his uncle Peleus for asylum. Peleus made Patroklos Achilles's squire, but the two young men became as close as brothers. Before the ghost departed, Achilles tried to embrace his lost friend one last time but grasped only vapor.
Now that Hektor was dead and his body sufficiently dishonored, Achilles proceeded with the cremation of Patroklos. Achilles had asked his mother Thetis to protect Patroklos's body from decay until the body could be burned. Thetis promised that even if Patroklos's body were not burned for a whole year, there would be no decomposition.
Patroklos's body was placed on the funeral pyre but before the wooden framework could be set alight, elaborate sacrifices had to be prepared. Achilles killed sheep, oxen, and nine of Patroklos's dogs so their blood and flesh could be placed on the pyre. As a gruesome, but seemingly necessary addition to the blood sacrifice, twelve young Trojan men that Achilles had captured on the banks of the Xanthos River were ceremoniously killed and placed on the pyre. In a gesture of respect and self-sacrifice, Achilles and the other Myrmidons cut their hair and placed it on Patroklos's body.
In order for the body to be consumed completely, a strong wind was needed. Achilles earnestly prayed to the North and West winds, Boreas and Zephyros, to come to his assistance. The goddess Iris conveyed Achilles's prayer to the winds and they willingly obliged. As the flames did their work, Achilles went to his shelter to rest. It was his first undisturbed sleep since Patroklos had been killed. Hektor's body, meanwhile, was not put on Patroklos's funeral pyre ... it was kept under Achilles's bed.
The grief for Patroklos was not restricted to Achilles and the Myrmidons ... the entire Achaian army was despondent at the loss of such a noble and dependable comrade. Achilles organized a series of athletic events in honor of Patroklos so the soldiers could compete and win prizes. Funeral games were a traditional form of paying tribute to fallen warriors. Achilles was the judge and referee ... he also provided generous prizes for the winners and consolation prizes for those who exhibited determination or exemplified the competitive spirit by which he personally lived.
After the funeral games were finished, Achilles continued to indulge his hatred, with Hektor's dead body the focus of that hatred.
Zeus, however, had seen enough depravity and ordered Thetis to go to her son to say it was the will of Zeus that Hektor's body be returned to his family. Zeus sent the messenger-goddess Iris to King Priam to tell him to prepare a ransom to take to Achilles in exchange for Hektor's corpse. Priam was given specific instructions not to go alone ... he was to take an elderly man with him. Priam loaded a wagon with suitable gifts and began the dangerous trek towards the Achaian encampment.
Fearing for the life of King Priam, Zeus commanded his son Hermes to meet Priam on the plain and escort him to Achilles. Hermes assumed the guise of a mortal man, a henchman of Achilles, sent to escort the king and the ransom to Achilles's shelter. Priam more or less guessed the young guide was no mere mortal but the king kept his suspicions to himself. Hermes took Priam through the Achaian defenses without incident and left him inside the fence that surrounded Achilles's elaborate shelter. Hermes then revealed his true identity and assured Priam that Achilles would not harm him.
King Priam entered Achilles's shelter and fell to his knees. He embraced Achilles as a supplicant and kissed the same hands that had killed his son. Achilles was truly amazed at the king's bravery and marveled at his godly appearance. Achilles was fully aware that he could kill Priam with his bare hands but was fearful of Zeus's commandment and remained civil. Both men wept ... Priam for his beloved son and Achilles for his dead companion. Achilles ordered his serving-women to wash Hektor's body so that the king would not see the filth caused by the constant abuse. With little or no ceremony, the ransom was offloaded from the wagon and King Priam returned Hektor's body safely to Troy with Achilles's promise of an eleven-day truce so Hektor could be given a funeral befitting a hero.
This list of the men, and one woman, who were killed by Achilles is essentially in chronological order but there is no way to be precisely sure when some of the deaths occurred.
Protesilaos, the first Achaian soldier to set foot on Trojan soil, was killed instantly by Prince Hektor. Achilles rushed ashore and joined the fight, killing Kyknos, a son of Poseidon. Kyknos was the first man Achilles killed in the Trojan War.
In the last year of the Trojan War, circa 1240 BCE, Achilles sacked the town of Lyrnessos. A young woman named Briseis was protected by many men—her husband, her father Briseus, and her two brothers—Achilles killed them all and took Briseis as his captive. Upon returning to the Achaian encampment, the plunder and captives were distributed to the soldiers as "prizes." Briseis was given to Achilles, but Agamemnon, making questionable use of his authority, demanded that she be surrendered to him. Agamemnon later regretted his actions and returned Briseis to Achilles. Even though Achilles killed her family, Briseis seemed to have genuine affection for him.
King Eetion of Thebe was the father of Andromakhe, wife of Trojan Prince Hektor. Andromakhe was already at Troy when Achilles plundered Thebe and killed her father and brothers. The brothers were all killed on the same day, but it's not clear if King Eetion was killed on that day too. In the Iliad, Homer tells us Achilles killed all the men in Andromakhe's family and took her unnamed mother, the queen, as a captive.
Achilles showed respect for King Eetion by not taking his armor. Achilles then burned Eetion's body and made a burial mound for the king's remains. To mark the solemn event, the mountain Nymphs planted elm trees over Eetion's grave. Achilles accepted a ransom for the queen and she was released unharmed ... her freedom ended abruptly when she was killed by the goddess Artemis for undisclosed reasons.
When Achilles sacked the town of Lyrnessos and killed Briseis's family, he also killed the furious spearmen, Epistrophos and Mynes. They were the sons of Euenos and grandsons of Selepios.
The islanders of Tenedos worshiped King Tennes as a god because of his virtues and their belief that he had been washed ashore on their island by divine providence. Tennes went to Troy to assist the Trojans but was killed by Achilles. The Tenedians despised Achilles for killing their eponymous founder ... a law was passed forbidding the utterance of Achilles's name in the sacred precinct of Tennes.
Nastes and Amphimakhos were the sons of Nomion ... one of the young men—it's unclear which—was killed by swift-running Achilles. After he killed Nastes or Amphimakhos, Achilles stripped the warrior of his golden armor, which was more suitable for a girl. Most translators of the Iliad say Achilles killed Nastes.
Iphition, a Trojan ally from Hyde in Asia Minor, was the son of Otrynteus, an acclaimed 'sacker of cities,' and a Naiad Nymph—a Nymph of a spring, river or lake. Achilles's spear split Iphition's head in half ... the body fell to the dirt, and Achilles stood over the corpse and exulted in the fact that he had killed Otrynteus's son. The Achaian chariots rolled across Iphition's lifeless body, cutting it to pieces.
Demoleon, the son of a Trojan elder named Antenor, faced a dilemma. As an advisor to King Priam, Antenor encouraged the king to end the war by returning Helen to her Achaian husband. This advice was not taken. Even though Antenor was against the war, Demoleon was compelled to fight in the Trojan army—if he refused to fight and the city was sacked, he would be killed by the Achaians; if he refused to fight and the Trojans prevailed, he would be branded a coward and driven from his home. Demoleon managed to stay alive until he met Achilles on the battlefield. Achilles stabbed Demoleon in the temple, driving the spear-point through Demoleon's head. His brains splattered out from the smashed bones and death overcame him instantly.
Hippodamas was watching when Achilles dashed out Demoleon's brains. Seeing Demoleon die in such a horrific way unnerved Hippodamas. He jumped from his chariot and tried to run away, but he was too slow to outrun Achilles's spear. A single spear-thrust caught Hippodamas in the back ... Homer tells us the doomed man fell to the ground "bellowing like a bull being led to sacrifice."
Polydoros, the youngest son of King Priam and the most beloved by his family, was forbidden from entering the fighting. Polydoros disobeyed his father because he foolishly thought he could race through the fighters and not be injured. Polydoros was a fast runner but not faster than Achilles's spear. When Achilles saw Polydoros, he aimed his spear for the young man's back and hit him squarely. The point of the spear went through Polydoros's body. His entrails spilled out into his hands as he died.
The god Apollon favored the Trojans and often entered the fighting either as an instigator or a combatant. When Achilles found Hektor on the battlefield, Apollon knew that he had to delay their confrontation ... he enclosed Hektor in a mist. Try as he might, Achilles could not find Hektor in the mist. Enraged, Achilles turned back to the fighting and attacked Dryops with a spear-thrust to the neck. Dryops fell at Achilles feet ... Achilles left Dryops's body in the dirt as he moved to confront Demoukhos.
Demoukhos, the son of Philetor, was a large and powerful man but fell quickly to the ground when Achilles stabbed him in the knee with his spear. Achilles then pulled his sword and killed Demoukhos as he was laying helpless in the dirt.
Achilles was in the midst of his killing spree and moving from one fight to another when he encountered Dardanos and Laogonos, the two sons of Bias. Leaving Demoukhos in the dirt, Achilles charged at Dardanos and Laogonos, and knocked them from their chariot before they could flee. One of the young men was killed immediately with a spear-thrust ... Achilles killed the other with his sword.
Tros, the son of Alastor, was one of the youngest soldiers to fight for the Trojans. When he met Achilles on the battlefield, he threw himself at Achilles's feet and begged for pity because of his youth. Achilles did not give mercy a thought as he plunged his sword into Tros's body, dislodging the young man's liver. Tros quickly bled to death.
With Tros dead, Achilles turned his rage on a man named Moulios. Achilles stabbed Moulios in the side of the head with such force that the spear-point entered one ear and exited through the other.
The lives and deaths of Agenor and his son Ekheklos intersected with Achilles and Achilles's son, Neoptolemos during the Trojan War. The traveler-historian Pausanias reported that Neoptolemos killed Agenor and Achilles 'slaughtered' Ekheklos. The Iliad is more specific about how Ekheklos died. Achilles struck Ekheklos on the head with his sword ... blood poured over the blade as Ekheklos died.
Achilles stabbed at Deukalion with his spear and struck him in the elbow. While the helpless man was transfixed with the spear, Achilles drew his sword and cut off Deukalion's head with one stroke. The head and helmet flew away as bone marrow spewed from Deukalion's neck ... the lifeless body fell full-length on the ground.
Rhigmos and Areithoos were in their chariot when they encountered Achilles on the battlefield. As they charged past Achilles, he stabbed Rhigmos in the stomach with his spear ... the mortally wounded man fell from the chariot. Areithoos turned the chariot to ride away but Achilles stabbed him in the back, killing him.
Achilles was killing Trojans and taking prisoners at the Xanthos River when he encountered Lykaon—a son of King Priam and a concubine named Laothoe. The hapless Lykaon was climbing out of the river thinking he would be safe on the riverbank. For a moment Achilles thought the dead had risen because he recognized Lykaon from a previous confrontation. The unsuspecting young man had been outside the walls of Troy cutting wood for his chariot rails when he was captured by Achilles. On the nearby island of Lemnos, Achilles sold Lykaon for one hundred oxen. After much hardship, Lykaon escaped servitude and returned to Troy. He had been home twelve days when Achilles caught him at the river.
Lykaon was without his helmet, shield or spear when Achilles burst upon him at the edge of the river. After hesitating for a moment, Achilles tried to drive his spear downward into Lykaon's kneeling body but missed and jabbed the spear into the dirt. Lykaon fell to his knees and begged for mercy. He grasped Achilles's knees with one hand and held the spear shaft with the other.
"I am at your knees as a supplicant," Lykaon said plaintively. "Respect my position and have mercy—you've already killed my brother, Polydoros, and now I fear the same evil fate awaits me ... I must surely be cursed by some god to be back in your grips."
Achilles looked at Lykaon without sympathy or regret. Fate, black as night, had already marked both men for death ... one would die now, one would die later.
As an afterthought, Lykaon added: "Hektor killed your companion, he and I have different mothers ... we are not from the same womb ... please don't kill me for what Hektor did."
"Before Patroklos met his destiny, I would sometimes spare the lives of Trojans," Achilles said coldly. "Now, if the gods send a Trojan into my path, they will die—even sons of Priam ... and so you will die."
The commotion of the nearby fighting combined with Achilles's looming presence made Lykaon realize that nothing he could do or say could vanquish Achilles's murderous intent.
"Don't make such a clamor over your death." Achilles continued: "I am a splendid man with a noble father and an immortal mother, but I too will die on this battlefield ... it is my destiny."
Lykaon's knees went slack ... he spread his hands in a futile gesture of supplication. Drawing his sword, Achilles plunged it into Lykaon's chest. The blade entered the shoulder near the collarbone and went straight down through Lykaon's body until the sword was buried to the hilt. Lykaon dropped to the ground, face down ... his blood turned black as it mixed with the dirt. Achilles grabbed the dead youth by the foot and hurled him into the river.
Ennomos, co-commander of the Trojan allies from Mysia, was a seer who could interpret the flight of birds. But his auguries could not ward off black fate when he encountered Achilles on the banks of the Xanthos River. Ennomos died along with many other Trojans as they fled Achilles's murderous assault.
Asteropaios, the son of Pelegon and the grandson of the river-god Axios, stood against Achilles with no fear. He had been infused with valor by the river-god Xanthos, on whose banks he stood. He brandished two spears as he faced Achilles.
"Who are you," Achilles asked, "and why would you dare match your war-craft against mine?"
"I am Asteropaios, from Paionia, and descended from Axios," he said proudly. Asteropaios threw both spears simultaneously because he was ambidextrous.
One spear hit Achilles's shield but did not pierce it. The other spear grazed Achilles's right forearm and stuck in the ground behind Achilles. Bleeding from the wound, Achilles threw his spear but missed Asteropaios and buried half its length in the riverbank. Achilles drew his sword and charged at Asteropaios.
Asteropaios tried three times to pull Achilles's spear from the riverbank but could not. He then tried to break off the spear-shaft but couldn't do that either. With his sword, Achilles stabbed Asteropaios in the belly, spilling his guts on the ground. Achilles jumped on Asteropaios's chest and stripped him of his armor.
"I am descended from Zeus and no man descended from a river-god can stand against me," Achilles said, throwing Asteropaios's body in the river for the eels and fish to devour.
A portion of the armor Achilles took from Asteropaios was given as a prize in the funeral games in honor of Patroklos. Even though he came in last in the chariot race, an Achaian named Eumelos was awarded Asteropaios's corslet ... a piece of body armor covering the midsection, front and back. The corslet was made of bronze with bright tin casting set in circles and lauded as an object of great worth.
After killing Asteropaios, Achilles chased the Paionians and killed them as he overtook them. Thersilokhos was the second Paionian to die.
Astypylos was the third Paionian to die.
Mydon was the fourth Paionian to die.
Mnesos was the fifth Paionian to die.
Thrasios was the sixth Paionian to die.
Ainios
Ainios was the seventh Paionian to die.
Ophelestes
Ophelestes was the eighth Paionian to die. Achilles would have killed more Paionians, but the river-god Xanthos rose from his waters and confronted Achilles. Xanthos, whom the mortals call Skamandros, told Achilles to take the slaughter elsewhere.
"If you must continue killing Trojans, drive them onto the plain and cease to clog my waters with corpses," Xanthos said.
Achilles, of course, paid no heed to the river-god's request.
Troilos and his sister Polyxena were on Mount Ida when they were ambushed by Achilles at an altar of Apollon. In the accepted version of what happened, Achilles killed Troilos and lobbed his head over the city wall into Troy.
Troilos was mentioned in the Iliad when King Priam lamented the death of his son, but Homer fails to say how or by whom Troilos was killed. Exactly where the details of Troilos's death were first recorded is not clear, but circa 500 BCE, judging by the subject matter of extant artwork, it seemed to be common knowledge that Achilles killed Troilos. Likewise, it is assumed that a prophecy was given stating it was necessary for Troilos to die before Troy could be captured.
The Athenian playwright Sophokles produced a play in 418 BCE entitled Troilos. The play survives in four brief fragments but when examined with artwork from the same period, we have to assume Sophokles and his contemporaries had access to literature that is now lost. The image shown here is of Achilles brandishing the head of Troilos.
The death of Hektor reflects a turning point in the Trojan War. The events the Immortals decreed necessary for the conclusion of the war required the death of Hektor, followed by the death of Achilles. Hektor was fortunate in that he did not live to see his home destroyed and his family massacred or enslaved. Andromakhe, Hektor's wife, was taken as a slave by Achilles's son, Neoptolemos. Hektor's infant son Astyanax was thrown from the city walls by either Neoptolemos or Odysseus.
Penthesilea, an exiled Amazon warrior who went to Troy to fight as an ally of the Trojans, was a daughter of Ares and endowed with her father's warlike tendencies. After Hektor's death, Penthesilea killed many Achaians, but her life came to a brutal end when she encountered Achilles. We don't know the details of the fight between Achilles and Penthesilea, but we do know she died heroically.
When Achilles killed the Amazon Penthesilea, an Achaian soldier named Thersites insulted Achilles saying that, although he killed her, Achilles was actually in love with Penthesilea. Unaccustomed to ridicule, Achilles attacked Thersites and killed him. The Achaians were outraged and demanded satisfaction. In order to gain absolution, Achilles sailed to the island of Lesbos and made sacrifices to Apollon, Artemis, and Leto. After the sacrifices were completed, Odysseus purified Achilles of his guilt.
As Achilles hacked his bloody path to Hektor, he killed many Trojans at the banks of the Xanthos River. In the midst of the slaughter, Achilles pulled twelve young men from the river and took them captive instead of killing them. Homer reports Achilles had no intentions of sparing their lives ... he only wanted to make their deaths more ceremonial.
The twelve young men were held in the Achaian encampment until Achilles killed Hektor ... they were then taken to the funeral pyre of Patroklos and, along with oxen, sheep, and dogs, butchered and thrown on the fire.
Memnon, the son of the goddess Eos (Dawn) and King Tithonos of the Aithiopians, went to Troy as a Trojan ally and survived nine years of bitter fighting. Memnon died in the tenth and final year of the Trojan War ... he was one of the last defenders of Troy to be killed by Achilles.
The Iliad ends with the meeting between Achilles and King Priam in Achilles's shelter. The two men agreed to an eleven-day truce so Hektor's body could be returned to Troy and given a proper burial. The implication is that after the truce, the war would continue. We only find out when we read the Odyssey that the Achaians won the war. They didn't win by siege or attrition, they won with a clever ruse involving the infamous Trojan Horse.
With no decisive end to the war in sight, the Achaians pretended to withdraw and left the Trojan Horse as a token of their defeat. The Trojans were famous for their mastery of horses so a giant wooden horse statue seemed like an appropriate symbol for their victory over the Achaians. The Trojan Horse was hollow and filled with the finest of the Achaian fighters who, once inside the city, exited the horse and opened the city gates. By means of this stratagem, Troy was conquered.
The fragmented remains of the Returns in the Epic Cycle give us some insight about the aftermath of the war but the exact circumstances of Achilles's death remain a mystery, prompting several different versions.
The ancient Greek version of Achilles's death, as put forth in the Aethiopis, says simply the god Apollon and Paris (Alexandros) killed Achilles. No details are given. A pre-second century manuscript attributed to Hyginus, says Achilles was lured to a meeting with Paris and Deiphobos to discuss a marriage between Trojan Princess Polyxena and Achilles. Apollon assumed the guise of Paris and shot Achilles in the heel with an arrow, killing him.
As time passed, the Romans began to re-record the events of the Trojan War. We cannot be sure whether the Romans were using documents that are no longer available to us or embellishing stories they found incomplete. Regardless, the Roman versions of Achilles death are generally considered to be what actually happened.
The Romans believed Achilles was shot in the heel with an arrow by Paris. Achilles's heel was the only vulnerable part of his body and the wound inflicted by the arrow caused Achilles to bleed to death. Achilles heel was vulnerable for one of two reasons: 1) his divine armor left his heel exposed; or 2) when his mother Thetis dipped the infant Achilles in the river Styx to immortalize him, she held him by the ankle of one foot and the river's water did not touch his heel, which left it vulnerable.
In his narrative poem Metamorphoses (circa 1 CE), the Roman poet Ovid suggested that Achilles had a vulnerable part on his body, but Ovid was not specific as to what that vulnerability might have been. Circa 95 CE, the Roman poet Statius was the first to imply that Achilles's vulnerability was his heel.
According to the Aethiopis, which is said to be the work of Arktinos of Miletus, circa 750 BCE, a terrible fight arose for possession of Achilles's corpse. The Achaians wanted Achilles's body in order to pay tribute to their greatest warrior. The Trojans wanted to disgrace Achilles's body in the same way Hektor's corpse had been publicly dishonored. The confrontation was reminiscent of the battle for Patroklos's body. Telamonian Aias and Odysseus were at the forefront of the fighting. When the Trojans began to falter, Aias lifted Achilles's body and carried it to safety while Odysseus frantically fought to keep the Trojans at bay.
As befitting the death of a hero, Achilles's body was placed on a pyre and burned. Achilles's mother Thetis, her sister Nereids, and the Muses attended the solemn occasion. After Troy was leveled, numerous atrocities were committed by Achaians against the Trojans. Prince Hektor's infant son was thrown from the city walls ... King Priam's daughter, Princess Polyxena, who was only a young girl, was butchered at the grave of Achilles as if she were an animal.
A tomb was built for Achilles near Troy, but its size and location are unknown. We learn from the Odyssey by Homer that the bones of Achilles and Patroklos were placed in the same urn and presumably buried together. In the Campaigns of Alexander, Arrian reported that while at Troy, Alexander the Great encircled the tomb of Achilles with a garland and Hephaestion decorated the tomb of Patroklos in the same way. That would imply there were two separate tombs, but it must be recalled that Alexander was at Troy nine hundred years after the Trojan War and Arrian wrote his history two hundred years after Alexander's death. Arrian also said that while Alexander was at the Trojan temple of Athene, he exchanged his armor for the armor of Achilles, which was enshrined in the temple.
The armor Hephaistos made for Achilles became the focus of a bitter dispute. Diverse sources' such as the Odyssey, the Little Iliad, and the Aethiopis tell us Telamonian Aias and Odysseus both believed they deserved Achilles's armor ... both had risked their lives to save Achilles's body from the Trojans and both felt they had earned Achilles's armor. As related in the Little Iliad, when Nestor heard the men arguing, he suggested they send a spy to the walls of Troy to eavesdrop on the Trojans and find out which warrior they respected more, Aias or Odysseus.
A spy was sent and overheard a Trojan woman praise Aias for carrying Achilles's body out of the fray, another woman, at the contrivance of the goddess Athene, said that anyone, even a woman, could carry a body but only a real warrior like Odysseus could fight off such a fierce attack. The poet Pindaros suggested a more practical approach ... he said the Achaians took a secret vote to award Achilles's armor to Odysseus. Regardless of how the decision was made, Achilles's armor was finally given to Odysseus who, in turn, gave the armor to Achilles's only son, Neoptolemos. The fate of Aias is somewhat disputed after this episode, but it is generally believed that he took his own life in a fit of depression.
The life of Achilles revolved around the Trojan War. Excavations near Troia, Turkey, revealed that a city, possibly named Troy, was inhabited as early as 2900 BCE and then subsequently destroyed and rebuilt many times. The "Troy" of the Iliad was destroyed circa 1240 BCE.
Counting backwards from the end of the Trojan War, we can approximate the pivotal events of Achilles's life.
One troubling event that does not fit neatly into the timeline is the birth of Achilles son, Neoptolemos. While stranded on the island of Skyros, Achilles married a woman named Deidamia ... Neoptolemos was their son. We know Odysseus gave Achilles's armor to Neoptolemos to wear in the final battle of the Trojan War. The problem is that if Neoptolemos was born in 1251, he would have only been ten or eleven years old when he fought at Troy. It's not difficult to imagine a pre-teen fighting in a war, but it seems impossible that Neoptolemos could have worn his father's armor unless, just as Zeus fitted Achilles's armor to Hektor, there was divine intervention.
The problem with the age of Neoptolemos fighting at Troy seems to have been solved by several Roman authors. Apollodorus and Hyginus suggested that Achilles went to the island of Skyros a decade before the Trojan War and fathered Neoptolemos. The story goes that Thetis, Achilles's mother, wanted to prevent her son from going to Troy because she knew he would die there. When Achilles was nine years old, Thetis dressed him as a girl and hid him on Skyros among the daughters of King Lykomedes. Deidamia, one of the king's daughters, became Achilles's wife. This scenario would allow Achilles to be a father while in his early teens. Neoptolemos would have been approximately twenty years old when he fought at Troy ... the same age as Achilles when the war began.
No one really knows how old Achilles was when he died. It has been suggested he could have been as young as 25 or as old as 65—but 25 seems a bit too young and 65 too old. The timeline presented here is an educated guess and in no way definitive.
After his death, the disembodied spirit of Achilles was seen by living people. Judging by the nature of the reported encounters, we might assume the "wrath of Achilles," which was so evident in the Iliad, perished with his mortal body.
These encounters were more spiritual than violent.
The siege of Troy lasted for ten years. Most of the men in the Achaian army, including King Agamemnon, did not visit their homes during the course of the war. Agamemnon's wife Klytemnestra waited in Mykenai but did not endure his absence well. Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus became Klytemnestra's lover, and they plotted to kill Agamemnon when he returned from Troy.
As the Achaians were preparing to leave Troy with their plunder and slaves, the ghost of Achilles ascended from the House of Hades and informed Agamemnon that Klytemnestra and Aegisthus were plotting to kill him. Agamemnon also received a warning from Kassandra, daughter of King Priam, about the assassination. She had been given the gift of prophecy by the god Apollon, but she was also cursed by Apollon so no one would believe her prophecies. Agamemnon ignored the warnings and returned home to die a pitiable death.
After his assassination, Agamemnon joined Achilles in the Underworld. "Mankind will always honor your name and your deeds at Troy will never be forgotten," the phantom of Agamemnon assured Achilles.
Several years after the fall of Troy, the disembodied spirit of Achilles was seen at the entrance to the Underworld by the intrepid wanderer Odysseus, whose departure from Troy seemed uneventful. But Odysseus soon ran afoul of Poseidon, lord of the sea. With scant hope of escaping Poseidon's wrath, Odysseus roamed the seas trying to reach his island home of Ithaka.
The Dread Goddess Kirke (Circe) advised Odysseus to go to the entrance to the Underworld and consult the dead Theban seer Teiresias. "Teiresias will be able to help you put an end to Poseidon's torment," she said. In order for Odysseus to see and converse with the dead, a series of blood-rituals had to be performed.
Teiresias was not the only phantom to responded to the rituals. Odysseus encountered numerous spirits, including a sad reunion with his deceased mother, Antikleia. He was however pleased to see that Achilles had been reunited with his companion Patroklos. "Fierce fighting took place to make sure the Trojans did not disgrace your body, and your bones were placed in a jar with the bones of Patroklos." Odysseus told Achilles. "I assure you Achilles that you were the best of the Achaians and the Trojan War, along with its aftermath, were the work of Zeus."
Seeing the phantom of Telamonian Aias reminded Odysseus of the bitter dispute the two men had after they rescued Achilles's body from the Trojans. Even though both men fought valiantly for Achilles's corpse, the armor was awarded to Odysseus. Aias and Odysseus had been friends until the disagreement over Achilles's armor but now, even though he was dead, Aias would not speak to Odysseus.
It's possible that the body of Achilles was not consumed by the flames of his funeral pyre. A fragment from the Aethiopis, as well as passages from the annals of the traveler-historian Pausanias, indicate that before the flames could incinerate Achilles's body, his mother and her sisters took it from the pyre. With their divine powers, Thetis and the Nereids reanimated Achilles and placed him safely on White Island, which was relatively small and located in the Black Sea near the mouths of the Danube River. White Island was reputed to be the home of deceased Trojan War heroes such as Telamonian Aias, Lesser Aias, Patroklos, and Antilokhos, the son of Nestor. The temple and statue of Achilles on the island gave credence to the idea that the island was sacred to Achilles.
A man named Leonymos was the first mortal to go to White Island. He was directed to the island after being wounded in battle by the disembodied spirit of Lesser Aias. He went to Delphi to be healed, but the Pythia, a priestess of Apollon, instructed Leonymos to go to White Island where he could be treated by the same phantom that wounded him. He did as he was told and was cured. After leaving White Island, Leonymos insisted that he had seen Achilles and Helen, who were married.
The idea of Achilles's phantom residing on White Island and in the House of Hades simultaneously is not impossible to believe if one accepts, as Pausanias and Pindaros ask us to, that phantoms, by definition, are ethereal and therefore not bound by physical laws.
Since it is generally believed that Achilles was shot in the heel with an arrow, the tendon of the heel has become known as Achilles Tendon, and the term Achilles' Heel has become a metaphor for vulnerability of any sort. Achilles' Heel entered the English lexicon in 1810 CE as a reference by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in an essay in the weekly paper The Friend.
The only thing worse than being forgotten, is to be remembered as a fictional character ... such is the case with Achilles. The Trojan War actually happened and Achilles, like the other men and women who fought or died at Troy, were not fictional characters fighting in a fictitious war—they were as real as anyone you know.
Some of the events that took place during the Trojan War may have come down in an exaggerated form, but the essence of the story related in the Iliad is, according to this and other authors, accurate and reliable. There is little reason to doubt that Achilles was in fact the most formidable warrior on the battlefield ... that his companions respected and feared him ... that his enemies simply feared him.
The attempts by Achilles's mother to make him an Immortal by bathing him in fire did not succeed, but thanks to the brilliance of Homer, Achilles lives on.
Homer was a poet who flourished in the middle of the 8th century BCE. His epic poem the Iliad begins with the poet asking the Muses to sing of the wrath of Achilles. The Iliad is essentially the story of Achilles with the Trojan War as the backdrop. Homer, in a real sense, immortalized Achilles. No hero in history has a more elegant and enduring tribute as the one given to Achilles by Homer.
Alexander the Great is reputed to have said he regretted the fact that, unlike Achilles, he did not have someone like Homer to document his deeds. Practically speaking, more is known about Achilles than about Homer.
No historical record exists of a man named Homer to prove conclusively he composed the epic poems known as the Iliad and the Odyssey. There are mentions of his birth and his travels but they all come hundreds of years after he supposedly lived. Following the Iliad and the Odyssey, there were many poems written about the Trojan War and its aftermath. These poems are usually included in a collection known as the Epic Cycle, which are attributed to various authors. The Iliad and the Odyssey seem unique in that, in ancient times, they were always attributed to one man, the poet Homer.
It has been suggested that Homer was blind. Those who encourage that notion imagine Homer traveling throughout Greece and Asia Minor reciting his epic poems at public festivals or simply writing poems for patrons who gave him a bed and a meal. As romantic as that sounds, it's probably not true. The assumption that Homer was blind can be convincingly disputed by citing the eloquent and vivid way in which he related visual phenomena, such as the sun glinting from bronze armor or the way Eos (Dawn) reddened the morning sky.
The renown classicist Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1824) was the first modern scholar to dissect the Iliad and the Odyssey to determine their linguistic composition and origin. His conclusions were not reassuring to the one-man theory. Professor Wolf concluded the dialects used in the Iliad and the Odyssey were Ionic and Aeolian, as used in Asia Minor. He further asserted the poems were probably a collection of many poems united to form the epics we enjoy today. Regardless of whether we accept or reject Homer as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the fact remains that his name has been enduringly linked to these masterpieces and will remain so until some new, definitive evidence is unearthed to prove otherwise.
Despite the differences of opinion on Homer's birth and travels, there at least seemed to be some agreement as to how and where he died. Presumably at an early stage of his life, Homer was told by an oracle that he would die on the island of Ios from an illness caused by a riddle posed by some boys. As strange as this may seem, it was "common knowledge" during the Classical Period (circa 500–323 BCE) that when Homer was on the island of Ios he encountered some Akadian boys returning from a day of fishing. Homer inquired as to how their luck had been. The boys replied, "The ones we caught, we left behind, the ones we missed we carry." The boys were jokingly referring to the fact that the fishing had been unproductive and that they had spent their idle time removing lice from their clothing. Unable to grasp the subtle humor, Homer became distraught and fell into a depression so deep he couldn't eat or sleep. Finally, he died. The people of Ios erected a grave marker that said: "Here the earth conceals that sacred head, the adorner of warrior heroes: the godly Homer."
When Homer called upon the Muses to sing about the wrath of Achilles, the goddesses undoubtedly knew their song would be sung for thousands of years and Achilles's wrath would immortalize heroes, heroines, gods, and goddesses who would have otherwise been forgotten.
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
Works and Days by Hesiod
Catalogues of Women and Eoiae
Catalogue of Women by Hesiod
Kypria
Little Iliad
Sack of Ilion
Contest of Homer and Hesiod
The Histories by Herodotos
Description of Greece by Pausanias
Library of History by Diodorus of Sicily