"about love assume that Achilles and Patroclus were a couple; Phaedrus argues that Achilles was the younger and more beautiful one so he was the beloved and Patroclus was the lover. But ancient Greek had no words to distinguish heterosexual and homosexual, and it was assumed that a man could both desire handsome young men and have sex with women. The death of Achilles, as predicted by Hector with his dying breath, was brought about by Paris with an arrow (to the heel according to Statius). In some versions, the god Apollo guided Paris' arrow. Some retellings also state that"
"in the heel with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel because, when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels. Alluding to these legends, the term ""Achilles' heel"" has come to mean a point of weakness, especially in someone or something with an otherwise strong constitution. Linear B tablets attest to the personal name ""Achilleus"" in the forms ""a-ki-re-u"" and ""a-ki-re-we"", the latter being the"
"likely anatomical basis for Achilles's death, assuming an unpoisoned dart, would have been an injury to his posterior tibial artery behind the medial malleolus, in between the tendons of the flexor digitorum longus and the posterior tibial vein. This area could also have been included in Thetis's grip. Achilles' heel An Achilles' heel is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common. In Greek mythology, when Achilles was a baby, it was foretold"
"forefinger. The use of ""Achilles heel"" as an expression meaning ""area of weakness, vulnerable spot"" dates only to 1840, with implied use in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ""Ireland, that vulnerable heel of the British Achilles!"" from 1810 (""Oxford English Dictionary""). The large and prominent tendon of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the calf is called the ""tendo achilleus"" or Achilles tendon. This is commonly associated with the site of Achilles' death wound. Tendons are avascular, so such an injury is unlikely to be fatal; however, the myth has the arrow poisoned with the blood of the Lernaean Hydra. A more"
"Shield of Achilles The Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer's ""Iliad"". The intricately detailed imagery on the shield has inspired many different interpretations of its significance, with no definitive answer. In the poem, Achilles lends Patroclus his armor in order to lead the Achaean army into battle. Ultimately, Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, and Achilles' armor is stripped from his body and taken by Hector as spoils. The loss of his best friend (often times, called soul mate),"
"to refer to the personal blame felt by Achilles for the death of his friend Patroclus. Widespread references to the fable afterwards suggest that it had gained proverbial force. A version titled ""The Archer and the Eagle"" and ascribed to Aesop appeared among the collection of fables by Babrius. The fable did not appear in mediaeval collections of fables reliant on Latin sources but began to be noticed in Europe from the 16th century. In Guillaume La Perrière's Emblem book ""Le théatre des bons engins"" (The theatre of fine devices, 1544), there is an illustration of the wounded eagle accompanied"
"on why they were the bravest after Achilles to their Trojan prisoners, who after considering both men, decided Odysseus was more deserving of the armour. Furious, Ajax cursed Odysseus, which earned him the ire of Athena. Athena temporarily made Ajax so mad with grief and anguish that he began killing sheep, thinking them his comrades. After a while, when Athena lifted his madness and Ajax realized that he had actually been killing sheep, Ajax was left so ashamed that he committed suicide. Odysseus eventually gave the armour to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. A relic claimed to be Achilles' bronze-headed"
"Achilles' heel An Achilles' heel is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common. In Greek mythology, when Achilles was a baby, it was foretold that he would die young. To prevent his death, his mother Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invulnerability, and dipped his body into the water; however, as Thetis held Achilles by the heel, his heel was not washed over by"
"there. At that moment he realizes that he is doomed. Hector decides that he will go down fighting and that men will talk about his bravery in years to come. The desire to achieve ever-lasting honor was one of the most fierce for soldiers living in the timocratic (honor-based) society of the age. Hector pulls out his sword, now his only weapon, and charges. But Achilles grabbed his thrown spears that were delivered to him by the unseen Athena who wore the Hades helmet. Achilles then aimed his spear and pierced the collar bone section of Hector, the only part"
"her resistance to the advances of Zeus. Zeus was furious and decreed that she would never marry an immortal. According to the ""Achilleid"", written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to non-surviving previous sources, when Achilles was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx. However, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heel (see Achilles' heel, Achilles' tendon). It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in"
"Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles or Achilleus ( ; , ""Achilleus"" ) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's ""Iliad"". His mother was the immortal Nereid Thetis, and his father, the mortal Peleus, was the king of the Myrmidons. Achilles' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the ""Iliad"", other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him"
"one-on-one combat, Asteropaios throwing two spears at the same time at Achilles. One spear hit Achilles' shield, while the other reached his right forearm and drew blood. Asteropaios was the only Trojan in the ""Iliad"" who was able to draw blood from Achilles. However, he fails to kill Achilles, and is slain. And Achilles boasts that though Asteropaios may be descended from a river-god, that he, Achilles, is descended from a mightier god, Zeus. Later, in the funeral games for the slain Patroclus, the bronze and tin corslet and the silver-studded sword of Asteropaios are awarded as prizes. The asteroid"
"relation to peace."". Shield of Achilles The Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses in his fight with Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478–608 of Homer's ""Iliad"". The intricately detailed imagery on the shield has inspired many different interpretations of its significance, with no definitive answer. In the poem, Achilles lends Patroclus his armor in order to lead the Achaean army into battle. Ultimately, Patroclus is killed in battle by Hector, and Achilles' armor is stripped from his body and taken by Hector as spoils. The loss of his best friend (often times,"
"and arrow emphasizes this, since he does not follow the code of honor shared by the other heroes. Early in the epic, Paris and Menelaus duel in an attempt to end the war without further bloodshed. Menelaus easily defeats Paris, though Aphrodite spirits him away before Menelaus can finish the duel. Paris is returned to his bedchambers, where Aphrodite forces Helen to be with him. Paris's second attempt at combat is equally fated: rather than engage the Greek hero Diomedes in hand-to-hand combat, Paris wounds Diomedes with an arrow through the foot. Later, after slaying Hector and other heroes, Achilles"
"with the Hattis only to discover that the mighty empire of the Hattis had disintegrated and the soldiers were nothing more than bandits. He then encounters a band of Hatti soldiers led by Lukka who agree to follow him back to his camp. Upon return he discovers Achilles' partner Patrocles is dead and this has prompted Achilles to enter the battle again. He faces off with Hector and defeats him cutting off his head. However, Achilles is wounded by a stray arrow piercing his heel. He later commits suicide. Lukka and his group then help in building a ramp over"
"he entered the gates of Troy, Achilles was fatally struck with an arrow shot by Paris, assisted by Apollo. Odysseus and Ajax retrieved the body of Achilles. The Achaeans then hold burial rights for both Antilochus and Achilles. The burial of Achilles is attended by the goddess mother of Achilles, Thetis, along with her sisters and the muses. Following the funerals, the Achaeans honored Achilles' death with ceremonial games. In the games, Ajax and Odysseus competed for the title of greatest hero and for the grand prize of Achilles of precious armor. The ""Little Iliad"" follows the events of the"
"the heel by which she held him was not touched by the Styx's waters and failed to be protected. In the story of Achilles in the Trojan War in the ""Iliad"", Homer does not mention this weakness of Achilles' heel. A similar myth of immortalizing a child in fire is connected to Demeter (compare the myth of Meleager). Some myths relate that because she had been interrupted by Peleus, Thetis had not made her son physically invulnerable. His heel, which she was about to burn away when her husband stopped her, had not been protected. Peleus gave the boy to"
"you, on that day when Paris and Phoibos Apollo...destroy you in the Skainan gates, for all your valor. After his death, Achilles slits Hector's heels and passes the girdle that Ajax had given Hector through the slits. He then fastens the girdle to his chariot and drives his fallen enemy through the dust to the Danaan camp. For the next twelve days, Achilles mistreats the body, but it remains preserved from all injury by Apollo and Aphrodite. After these twelve days, the gods can no longer stand watching it and send down two messengers: Iris, another messenger god, and Thetis,"
"described the tendon's location and said that it was commonly called ""the cord of Achilles."" The tendon has been described as early as the time of Hippocrates, who described it as the ""tendo magnus"" () and by subsequent anatomists prior to Verheyen as ""chorda Hippocratis"". Verheyen referred to the mythological account of Achilles being held by the heel by his mother Thetis when she dipped him in the River Styx as a baby to render his body invulnerable. As the heel by which she held him was not touched by the water, it was his one vulnerable spot (hence the"
"Achilles to return to the fight or don his armor himself. Eurypylus slew no less than four opponents, including the aforementioned Apisaon, Hypsenor, Melanthius and Axion: this makes the account of Hyginus wrong in informing that Eurypylus killed only one defender of Troy. He was also one of the Greeks to enter the Trojan Horse. Eurypylus survived the Trojan War; his further destiny as described by Pausanias was as follows. After the war, Eurypylus got a chest as part of his victory spoils. The chest was abandoned by Aeneas when he fled from Troy, or was intentionally left behind by"
"ambrosia and put him on top of a fire in order to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage. However, none of the sources before Statius make any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the ""Iliad"" Homer mentions Achilles being wounded: in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon, challenged Achilles by the river Scamander. He cast two spears at once, one grazed Achilles' elbow, ""drawing a spurt of blood"". Also, in the fragmentary poems of the Epic Cycle in"
"mother Thetis having treated him with ambrosia and burned away his mortality in the hearth fire except on the heel, by which she held him. Peleus, his father, discovered the treatment and was alarmed to see Thetis holding the baby in the flames, which offended her and made her leave the treatment incomplete. According to a myth arising later, his mother had dipped the infant Achilles in the river Styx, holding onto him by his heel, and he became invulnerable where the waters touched him—that is, everywhere except the areas of his heel that were covered by her thumb and"
"the day, but Peleus discovered her actions and stopped her. According to some versions of this story, Thetis had already killed several sons in this manner, and Peleus' action therefore saved his son's life. Other sources state that Thetis bathed Achilles in the Styx, the river that runs to the underworld, making him invulnerable wherever he was touched by the water. Because she had held him by the heel, it was not immersed during the bathing and thus the heel remained mortal and vulnerable to injury (hence the expression ""Achilles heel"" for an isolated weakness). He grew up to be"
"Thymbra – an area outside Troy where there is a temple of Apollo. It is the fleeing Troilus whom swift-footed Achilles catches, dragging him by the hair from his horse. The young prince takes refuge in the nearby temple. But the warrior follows him in, and beheads him at the altar before help can arrive. The murderer then mutilates the boy's body. The mourning of the Trojans at Troilus' death is great. This sacrilege leads to Achilles’ own death, when Apollo avenges himself by helping Paris strike Achilles with the arrow that pierces his heel. The earliest surviving literary reference"
"Achilles (opera) Achilles is a ballad opera by John Gay, first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in 1733, a year after Gay's death, with Gay's associate John Rich as producer. The opera is a burlesque parody of the story of Achilles on Skyros, based on legends of Achilles as related by Bion, Ovid, and Statius (notably the latter's ""Achilleid""). Unsuccessful attempts were made at the time to interpret the work as a political satire (as was Gay's ""The Beggar's Opera"") but no convincing case has been made for this. Unlike ""The Beggar's Opera"" and Gay's other ballad opera,"
"The Anger of Achilles The Anger of Achilles is an 1819 painting by Jacques-Louis David, now in the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. One of the last of David's history paintings, it shows the moment in Greek myth when Agamemnon reveals to Achilles that he has not actually brought his daughter Iphigenia to him as a bride, but rather intends to sacrifice her in order to appease the goddess Artemis. Achilles begins to draw his sword in anger upon hearing this, while Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, looks on in grief and sadness with her hand on her daughter's shoulder. David"
"mad with drugs, or deceived him into believing that she would make him immortal by removing the nail. In ""Argonautica"", Medea hypnotized him from the ""Argo"", driving him mad with the ""keres"" she raised, so that he dislodged the nail, and ""the ichor ran out of him like molten lead"", exsanguinating and killing him. Peter Green, translator of ""Argonautica"", notes that the story is somewhat reminiscent of the story regarding the heel of Achilles. In ""Argonautica"", Apollonius notes that ""the ichor... ran out like molten lead"". A. B. Cook first suggested that the single vein closed by a nail or"
"expression ""Achilles' heel"") and he was eventually killed by a poison dart to the heel. The name thus also refers to the particularly disabling and painful effect of an injury to this tendon. The first closed rupture was described by Ambroise Pare in the sixteenth century. The Achilles tendon is also known as the ""tendo calcaneus"" (). Because eponyms (names relating to people) have no relationship to the subject matter, most anatomical eponyms also have scientifically descriptive terms. The term calcaneal comes from the Latin ""calcaneum"", meaning heel. Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the"
"Agenor of Troy In Greek mythology, Agenor (; Ancient Greek: Ἀγήνωρ) was the son of Antenor and Theano, and was a Trojan hero. When Achilles was routing the entire Trojan army, Agenor was the first Trojan to collect his wits and stop fleeing from Achilles' rampage. Agenor felt ashamed that he was fleeing from a man who was supposedly just as mortal as anyone so he turned to face Achilles. As the Greek hero approached Agenor the latter threw his spear at him, but only hit Achilles' greaves. After that Achilles sprang at Agenor, but at that moment Apollo carried"
"each claims Achilles' magical armor, which had been forged on Mount Olympus by the smith-god Hephaestus, for himself as recognition for his heroic efforts. A competition is held to determine who deserves the armor. Ajax argues that because of his strength and the fighting he has done for the Greeks, including saving the ships from Hector, and driving him off with a massive rock, he deserves the armor. However, Odysseus proves to be more eloquent, and with the aid of Athena, the council gives him the armor. Ajax, ""Unconquered"", and furious, becomes crazed and slaughters the Achaians' herds of captured"
"even Achilles admits in Book 23 that Agamemnon is ""the best in strength and in throwing the spear."" That claim is further proven by the fact that Agamemnon was the only major warrior on either side to never need the gods' direct intervention to increase his strength or give him any unfair advantages in battle and yet he still caused incredible destruction almost on the scale of Achilles. The ""Iliad"" tells the story about the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. Following one of the Achaean Army's raids, Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, one of"
"asserts his status as the foremost Achaean hero after Achilles. Next, he fought with great Ajax in an armed sparring contest where the winner was to draw blood first. Ajax attacked Diomedes where his armour covered his body and achieved no success. Ajax owned the biggest armour and the tallest shield which covered most of his body leaving only two places vulnerable; his neck and armpits. So, Diomedes maneuvered his spear above Ajax's shield and attacked his neck, drawing blood. The Achaean leaders were scared that another such blow would kill Ajax and they stopped the fight. Diomedes received the"
"which one can find description of the hero's death (i.e. the ""Cypria"", the ""Little Iliad"" by Lesches of Pyrrha, the ""Aithiopis"" and ""Iliou persis"" by Arctinus of Miletus), there is no trace of any reference to his general invulnerability or his famous weakness at the heel; in the later vase paintings presenting the death of Achilles, the arrow (or in many cases, arrows) hit his body. Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mount Pelion, to be reared. Thetis foretold that her son's fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful"