Achilles.
Glory with a mortal price
Achilles: Greek Hero, the Trojan War and His Heelis the foremost Greek warrior in the , a son of and Peleus. His anger, grief, and brief prospect of glory give the poem its central movement, long before later retellings focus on his heel.
More than a myth.
Why Achilles leaves the fighting
’s seizure of Briseis, a captive woman allotted to , turns a dispute over status into a military crisis. Achilles withdraws and asks to appeal to . The examines the disastrous public effects of that anger while exposing the system in which captured people are treated as prizes and symbols of male honor.
Patroclus, Hector, and Priam
enters battle in ’s armor and is killed by after divine and human attacks have weakened him. Achilles returns to avenge his companion, wearing new armor made by . He kills Hector and abuses the body, but eventually receives and returns his son for burial. The final encounter makes grief shared across enemy lines briefly possible.
What the Iliad says about Achilles’s heel
The does not narrate ’s death or the familiar childhood dipping in . Those details belong to other and later traditions. The poem’s hero is mortal and knows that killing will bring his own death closer. His vulnerability is therefore fundamental even without the later image of one unprotected heel.
Questions about Achilles
Who killed Achilles?
In the wider epic tradition summarized by the ’s Epitome, and cause his death. The itself ends with ’s funeral, before dies.
Is Achilles immortal?
No. Although his mother is a goddess, is mortal. His awareness of a short life is central to the .
It’s a family affair.
The stories of Achilles.
Ancient voices.
Enduring stories.
Myths have many tellings. These are the ancient works behind this profile, linked to freely available English translations.
Iliad
Book 1 · the quarrel
Iliad
Book 22 · Hector’s death
Iliad
Book 24 · Priam and Achilles
Library · Epitome
Epitome 5.3 · Achilles’s death