Achilles
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"Achilleus" redirects here. For the emperor with this name, see Achilleus (emperor). For other uses, see Achilles (disambiguation).
The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée Fabre)
In Greek mythology, Achilles (Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς, Akhilleus, pronounced [akʰillěu̯s]) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War,
the central character and the greatest warrior ofHomer's Iliad.
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. As he died
because of a small wound on his heel, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's principal
weakness.
Contents
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2 Birth
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12 Notes
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[edit]Etymology
Achilles' name can be
analyzed as a combination of ἄχος (akhos) "grief" and λαός (Laos
The name Achilleus was a
common and attested name among the Greeks soon after the 7th century BC.[2] It was also turned into the female
form Ἀχιλλεία (Achilleía) attested in Attica in the 4th century BC (IG II²
1617) and, in the form Achillia,
on a stele in Halicarnassus as the name of a female gladiator
fighting an "Amazon". Roman gladiatorial games often referenced
classical mythology, and this seems to reference Achilles' fight with
Penthesilea but gives it an extra twist of Achilles' being "played"
by a woman.
[edit]Birth
This
is an oil painting of the Goddess Thetis dipping her son Achilles into the
River Styx, which runs through Hades. In the background, the ferryman Charon
can be seen taking the dead across the river in his boat. The scene was painted
by Peter Paul Reubens around 1625.
Achilles was the son of the nymph Thetis and Peleus, the king
of the Myrmidons. Zeus andPoseidon had been rivals for the hand of Thetis
until Prometheus,
the fore-thinker, warned Zeus of a prophecy that Thetis would bear a son
greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit,
and had her wed Peleus.[3]
As with most mythology,
there is a tale which offers an alternative version of these events: inArgonautica (iv.760) Zeus' sister and wife Hera alludes to Thetis' chaste resistance
to the advances of Zeus, that Thetis was so loyal to Hera's marriage bond that
she coolly rejected him. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was also
brought up by Hera, further explaining her resistance to the advances of Zeus.
The Education of Achilles (ca. 1772), byJames Barry
According to the Achilleid,
written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to no surviving previous sources,
when Achilles was born Thetis tried to make him immortal, by dipping him in the
riverStyx.
However, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him,
his heel[4](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 ambrosia and put him on top of a fire, to burn
away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned
both father and son in a rage.[5]
However, none of the
sources before Statius makes 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 which we can find description of
the hero's death, Cypria (unknown author),Aithiopis by Arctinus of Miletus, Little Iliad by Lesche of Mytilene, Iliou persis by Arctinus of Miletus, there is no trace of any
reference to his general invulnerability or his famous weakness (heel); in the
later vase paintings presenting Achilles' death, the arrow (or in many cases,
arrows) hit his body.
[edit]Achilles in the Trojan War
The Rage of Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
The first two lines of the Iliad read:
μῆνιν
ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
οὐλομένην,
ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκεν,
Sing,
Goddess, of the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
the
accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans.
Achilles' consuming
rage is at times wavering, but at other times he cannot be cooled. The
humanization of Achilles by the events of the war is an important theme of the
narrative.
According to the Iliad, Achilles arrived at Troy
with 50 ships, each carrying 50 Myrmidons (Book 2). He appointed five leaders
(each leader commanding 500 Myrmidons): Menesthius, Eudorus, Peisander, Phoenix
and Alcimedon (Book 16).
[edit]Telephus
When the Greeks left
for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in Mysia, ruled by KingTelephus.
In the resulting battle, Achilles gave Telephus a wound that would not heal;
Telephus consulted an oracle, who stated that "he that wounded shall
heal". Guided by the oracle, he arrived at Argos, where Achilles
healed him in order that he might become their guide for the voyage to Troy.
According to other
reports in Euripides'
lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis pretending
to be a beggar and asked Achilles to heal his wound. Achilles refused, claiming
to have no medical knowledge. Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for
ransom, the ransom being Achilles' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted
the wound; therefore, the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear
were scraped off onto the wound and Telephus was healed.
[edit]Troilus
According to the Cypria (the part of the Epic Cycle that tells
the events of the Trojan War before Achilles' Wrath), when the Achaeansdesired
to return home, they were restrained by Achilles, who afterwards attacked the
cattle of Aeneas, sacked
neighboring cities and killed Troilus.[7]
According to Dares Phrygius' Account of the Destruction of Troy,[8] the Latin summary through which the
story of Achilles was transmitted to medieval Europe, Troilus was a young Trojan prince, the
youngest of King Priam's (or sometimes Apollo) and Hecuba's five
legitimate sons. Despite his youth, he was one of the main Trojan war leaders.
Prophecies linked Troilus' fate to that of Troy and so he was ambushed in an
attempt to capture him. Yet Achilles, struck by the beauty of both Troilus and
his sister Polyxena,
and overcome with lust, directed his sexual attentions on the youth – who
refusing to yield found instead himself decapitated upon an altar-omphalos of
Apollo. Later versions of the story suggested Troilus was accidentally killed
by Achilles in an over-ardent lovers' embrace. In this version of the myth,
Achilles' death therefore came in retribution for this sacrilege.[9] Ancient writers treated Troilus as the
epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents. Had Troilus lived to adulthood,
the First Vatican Mythographer claimed Troy would have been
invincible.
[edit]Achilles in the Iliad
Main article: Iliad
Achilles sacrificing to Zeus, from theAmbrosian Iliad,
a 5th-century illuminated manuscript
Homer's Iliad is the most famous narrative of
Achilles' deeds in the Trojan War. Achilles' wrath is the central theme of the
book. The Homeric epic only covers a few weeks of the war, and does not narrate
Achilles' death. It begins with Achilles' withdrawal from battle after he is
dishonored by Agamemnon,
the commander of the Achaean forces. Agamemnon had taken a woman
named Chryseis as his slave. Her father Chryses,
a priest of Apollo, begged
Agamemnon to return her to him. Agamemnon refused and Apollo sent a plague
amongst the Greeks. The prophet Calchas correctly determined the source of the
troubles but would not speak unless Achilles vowed to protect him. Achilles did
so and Calchas declared Chryseis must be returned to her father. Agamemnon
consented, but then commanded that Achilles' battle prize Briseis be brought to replace Chryseis. Angry
at the dishonor (and as he says later, because he loved Briseis)[10] and at the urging of his mother
Thetis, Achilles refused to fight or lead his troops alongside the other Greek
forces. At this same time, burning with rage over Agamemnon's theft, Achilles
prayed to Thetis to convince Zeus to help the Trojans gain ground in the war,
so that he may regain his honor.
As the battle turned
against the Greeks, thanks to the influence of Zeus, Nestor declared
that the Trojans were winning because Agamemnon had angered Achilles, and urged
the king to appease the warrior. Agamemnon agreed and sent Odysseus and two other chieftains, Ajax and Phoenix, to Achilles with the offer of the
return of Briseis and other gifts. Achilles rejected all Agamemnon offered him,
and simply urged the Greeks to sail home as he was planning to do.
The Trojans, led by Hector,
subsequently pushed the Greek army back toward the beaches and assaulted the
Greek ships. With the Greek forces on the verge of absolute destruction, Patroclus led the Myrmidons into battle wearing Achilles' armor,
though Achilles remained at his camp. Patroclus succeeded in pushing the
Trojans back from the beaches, but was killed by Hector before he could lead a
proper assault on the city of Troy.
Triumphant Achilles dragging Hector's lifeless body in
front of the Gates of Troy (from a panoramic fresco on the upper level of the main hall of
the Achilleion).
After receiving the
news of the death of Patroclus from Antilochus,
the son of Nestor, Achilles grieved over his beloved companion's death and held
many funeral games in his honor. His mother Thetis came to comfort the
distraught Achilles. She persuaded Hephaestus to make a new armor for him, in place
of the armor that Patroclus had been wearing which was taken by Hector. The new
armor included the Shield of Achilles, described in great detail
by the poet.
Enraged over the
death of Patroclus, Achilles ended his refusal to fight and took the field
killing many men in his rage but always seeking out Hector. Achilles even
engaged in battle with the river god Scamander who became angry that Achilles was
choking his waters with all the men he killed. The god tried to drown Achilles
but was stopped by Hera and Hephaestus. Zeus himself took note
of Achilles' rage and sent the gods to restrain him so that he would not go on
to sack Troy itself, seeming to show that the unhindered rage of Achilles could
defy fate itself as Troy was not meant to be destroyed yet. Finally, Achilles
found his prey. Achilles chased Hector around the wall of Troy three times
before Athena, in the
form of Hector's favorite and dearest brother, Deiphobus,
persuaded Hector to stop running and fight Achilles face to face. After Hector
realized the trick, he knew the battle was inevitable. Wanting to go down fighting,
he charged at Achilles with his only weapon, his sword, but missed. Accepting
his fate, Hector begged Achilles –not to spare his life, but to treat his
body with respect after killing him. Achilles told Hector it was hopeless to
expect that of him, declaring that "my rage, my fury would drive me now to
hack your flesh away and eat you raw – such agonies you have caused me".[11] Achilles then got his vengeance.
With the assistance
of the god Hermes, Hector's
father, Priam, went to Achilles'
tent to plead with Achilles to permit him to perform for Hector his funeral
rites. The final passage in the Iliad is Hector's funeral, after which the
doom of Troy was just a matter of time.
[edit]Penthesilea
Achilles, after his
temporary truce with Priam, fought and killed the Amazonian warrior queen Penthesilea,
but later grieved over her death. At first, he was so distracted by her beauty,
he did not fight as intensely as usual. Once he realized that his distraction
was endangering his life, he refocused and killed her. As he grieved over the
death of such a rare beauty, a notorious Greek jeerer by the name of Thersites
laughed and mocked the great Achilles. Annoyed by his insensitivity and
disrespect, Achilles punched him in the face and killed him instantly.
[edit]Memnon, and the fall of Achilles
Achilles dying in the gardens of theAchilleion in Corfu
Following the death
of Patroclus, Achilles' closest companion was Nestor's son Antilochus.
When Memnon, king of Ethiopia slew
Antilochus, Achilles once more obtained revenge on the battlefield, killing
Memnon. The fight between Achilles and Memnon over Antilochus echoes that of
Achilles and Hector over Patroclus, except that Memnon (unlike Hector) was also
the son of a goddess.
Many Homeric scholars
argued that episode inspired many details in the Iliad's description of the
death of Patroclus and Achilles' reaction to it. The episode then formed the
basis of thecyclic epic Aethiopis,
which was composed after the Iliad,
possibly in the 7th century B.C. The Aethiopis is now lost, except for scattered
fragments quoted by later authors.
The death of
Achilles, as predicted by Hector with his dying breath, was brought
about byParis with
an arrow (to the heel according to Statius). In some versions, the god Apolloguided
Paris' arrow. Some retellings also state that Achilles was scaling the gates of
Troy and was hit with a poisoned arrow.
Ajax carries off the body of Achilles:Attic black-figure lekythos,
ca. 510 BC, from Sicily (Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich)
All of these versions
deny Paris any sort of valor, owing to the common conception that Paris was a
coward and not the man his brother Hector was, and Achilles remained undefeated
on the battlefield. His bones were mingled with those of Patroclus,
and funeral games were held. He was represented in the lost Trojan War epic of Arctinus of Miletus as living after his death in the
island of Leuke at the mouth of the river Danube (see below).
Another version of
Achilles' death is that he fell deeply in love with one of the Trojan
princesses, Polyxena.
Achilles asks Priam for Polyxena's hand in marriage. Priam is willing because
it would mean the end of the war and an alliance with the world's greatest
warrior. But while Priam is overseeing the private marriage of Polyxena and
Achilles, Paris, who would have to give up Helen if Achilles married his
sister, hides in the bushes and shoots Achilles with a divine arrow, killing
him.
Achilles was cremated
and his ashes buried in the same urn as those of Patroclus.[12]
Paris was later
killed by Philoctetes using the enormous bow of Heracles.
[edit]Fate of Achilles' armor
Achilles' armor was
the object of a feud between Odysseus and Telamonian Ajax (Ajax the greater). They competed for
it by giving speeches on why they were the bravest after Achilles to their
Trojan prisoners, who after considering both men came to a consensus in favor
of Odysseus. Furious, Ajax cursed Odysseus, which earned 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 armor
to Neoptolemus,
the son of Achilles.
A relic claimed to be
Achilles' bronze-headed spear was for centuries preserved in the temple of
Athena on the acropolis of Phaselis,
Lycia, a port on the Pamphylian Gulf. The city was visited in 333 BC by Alexander the Great, who envisioned himself as
the new Achilles and carried the Iliad with him, but his court biographers do
not mention the spear, which he would indeed have touched with excitement.[13] But it was being shown in the time of Pausanias in
the 2nd century AD.[14]
[edit]Achilles and Patroclus
Main article: Achilles and Patroclus
The exact nature of
Achilles' relationship with Patroclus has been a subject of dispute in both the
classical period and modern times. In the Iliad,
it appears to be the model of a deep and loyal friendship, but commentators
from classical antiquity to the present have often interpreted
the relationship through the lens of their own cultures. In 5th-century BC
Athens, the intense bond was often viewed in light of the Greek custom of paiderasteia.
In Plato's Symposium, the
participants in a dialogue about love debate 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. [15] But ancient Greek had no words to
distinguish "heterosexual" and "homosexual,"[16] and it was assumed that a man could
both desire handsome young men and have sex with women. Although epic decorum
excluded explicit sexuality, the Iliadindicates
that Achilles had sexual relations with women, with no direct evidence of
sexual behaviors with Patroclus. In the 2004 filmTroy,
Achilles and Patroclus were cousins.
[edit]Worship of Achilles in
antiquity
Achilles and Briseis
There was an archaic heroic cult of Achilles on the White Island, Leuce,
in the Black Sea off the modern coasts of Romania and Ukraine,
with a temple and an oracle which survived into the Roman period.[17]
In the lost epic Aithiopis,
a continuation of the Iliad attributed to Arktinus of
Miletos, Achilles’ mother Thetis returned to mourn him and removed
his ashes from the pyre and took them to Leuce at the mouths of the Danube.
There the Achaeans raised a tumulus for him and celebrated funeral games.
Pliny's Natural History (IV.27.1) mentions a tumulus that is
no longer evident (Insula Akchillis tumulo eius viri clara), on the
island consecrated to him, located at a distance of fifty Roman miles from Peuce by the Danube Delta,
and the temple there. Pausanias has
been told that the island is "covered with forests and full of animals,
some wild, some tame. In this island there is also Achilles’ temple and his statue"
(III.19.11). Ruins of a square temple 30 meters to a side, possibly that
dedicated to Achilles, were discovered by Captain Kritzikly in 1823, but there
has been no modern archeological work done on the island.
Pomponius Mela tells that Achilles is buried in the
island named Achillea, between Boristhene and Ister (De situ orbis, II,
7). The Greek geographer Dionysius Periegetus of Bithynia, who lived at the
time of Domitian, writes that the island was called Leuce "because the wild animals which
live there are white. It is said that there, in Leuce island, reside the souls
of Achilles and other heroes, and that they wander through the uninhabited
valleys of this island; this is how Jove rewarded the men who had distinguished
themselves through their virtues, because through virtue they had acquired
everlasting honor" (Orbis descriptio, v. 541, quoted in Densuşianu
1913).
The Periplus of the Euxine Sea gives the following details: "It
is said that the goddess Thetis raised this island from the sea, for her son
Achilles, who dwells there. Here is his temple and his statue, an archaic work.
This island is not inhabited, and goats graze on it, not many, which the people
who happen to arrive here with their ships, sacrifice to Achilles. In this
temple are also deposited a great many holy gifts, craters, rings and precious
stones, offered to Achilles in gratitude. One can still read inscriptions in
Greek and Latin, in which Achilles is praised and celebrated. Some of these are
worded in Patroclus’ honor, because those who wish to be favored by Achilles,
honor Patroclus at the same time. There are also in this island countless
numbers of sea birds, which look after Achilles’ temple. Every morning they fly
out to sea, wet their wings with water, and return quickly to the temple and
sprinkle it. And after they finish the sprinkling, they clean the hearth of the
temple with their wings. Other people say still more, that some of the men who
reach this island, come here intentionally. They bring animals in their ships,
destined to be sacrificed. Some of these animals they slaughter, others they set
free on the island, in Achilles’ honor. But there are others, who are forced to
come to this island by sea storms. As they have no sacrificial animals, but
wish to get them from the god of the island himself, they consult Achilles’
oracle. They ask permission to slaughter the victims chosen from among the
animals that graze freely on the island, and to deposit in exchange the price
which they consider fair. But in case the oracle denies them permission,
because there is an oracle here, they add something to the price offered, and
if the oracle refuses again, they add something more, until at last, the oracle
agrees that the price is sufficient. And then the victim doesn’t run away any
more, but waits willingly to be caught. So, there is a great quantity of silver
there, consecrated to the hero, as price for the sacrificial victims. To some
of the people who come to this island, Achilles appears in dreams, to others he
would appear even during their navigation, if they were not too far away, and
would instruct them as to which part of the island they would better anchor
their ships". (quoted in Densuşianu)
The heroic cult of
Achilles on Leuce island was widespread in antiquity, not only along the sea
lanes of the Pontic Sea but also in maritime cities whose
economic interests were tightly connected to the riches of the Black Sea.
Achilles from Leuce
island was venerated as Pontarches the lord and master of the Pontic Sea,
the protector of sailors and navigation. Sailors went out of their way to offer
sacrifice. To Achilles of Leuce were dedicated a number of important commercial
port cities of the Greek waters: Achilleion in Messenia (Stephanus Byzantinus), Achilleios in Laconia (Pausanias, III.25,4) Nicolae Densuşianu(Densuşianu 1913) even though
he recognized Achilles in the name of Aquileia and in the north arm of the Danube
delta, the arm of Chilia ("Achileii"), though his conclusion, that
Leuce had sovereign rights over Pontos, evokes modern rather than archaic
sea-law."
Leuce had also a
reputation as a place of healing. Pausanias (III.19,13) reports that the Delphic Pythia sent a lord of Croton to be cured of a
chest wound. Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII.8) attributes the healing to
waters (aquae) on the island.
[edit]Worship of Achilles in modern times: The
Achilleion in Corfu
In the region of
Gastouri (Γαστούρι) to the south of the city of Corfu Greece, Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria also known as Sissi built in 1890 a
summer palace with Achilles as its central theme and it is a monument to platonic romanticism.
The palace, naturally, was named after Achilles: Achilleion (Αχίλλειον). This elegant structure
abounds with paintings and statues of Achilles both in the main hall and in the
lavish gardens depicting the heroic and tragic scenes of the Trojan war.
[edit]Other stories
Achilles as guardian of the palace in the gardens of the Achilleion in
Corfu. He gazes northward toward the city. The inscription in Greek reads:
ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ i.e. Achilles
Some post-Homeric
sources claim that in order to keep Achilles safe from the war, Thetis (or, in
some versions, Peleus) hides the young man at the court of Lycomedes,
king ofSkyros.
There, Achilles is disguised as a girl and lives among Lycomedes' daughters,
perhaps under the name "Pyrrha" (the red-haired girl). With
Lycomedes' daughter Deidamia, whom in the account of Statius he
rapes, Achilles there fathers a son, Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus, after his
father's possible alias). According to this story, Odysseus learns from the
prophet Calchas that the Achaeans would be unable to capture
Troy without Achilles' aid. Odysseus goes to Skyros in the guise of a peddler
selling women's clothes and jewelry and places a shield and spear among his
goods. When Achilles instantly takes up the spear, Odysseus sees through his
disguise and convinces him to join the Greek campaign. In another version of
the story, Odysseus arranges for a trumpet alarm to be sounded while he was
with Lycomedes' women; while the women flee in panic, Achilles prepares to
defend the court, thus giving his identity away.[18]
In book 11 of Homer's Odyssey,
Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is
Achilles, who when greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death",
responds that he would rather be a slave to the worst of masters than be king
of all the dead. But Achilles then asks Odysseus of his son's exploits in the
Trojan war, and when Odysseus tells of Neoptolemus' heroic actions, Achilles is
filled with satisfaction. This leaves the reader with an ambiguous
understanding of how Achilles felt about the heroic life. Achilles was
worshipped as a sea-god in many of the Greek colonies on the Black Sea, the location of the
mythical "White Island" which he was said to inhabit after his death,
together with many other heroes.
The kings of the Epirus claimed
to be descended from Achilles through his son, Neoptolemus. Alexander the Great, son of the Epirote
princess Olympias,
could therefore also claim this descent, and in many ways strove to be like his
great ancestor. He is said to have visited the tomb of Achilles at Achilleion while
passing Troy.[19] In AD 216 the Roman Emperor Caracalla,
while on his way to war against Parthia,
emulated Alexander by holding games around Achilles' tumulus.[20]
Achilles fought and
killed the Amazon Helene. Some also said he
married Medea, and that after both
their deaths they were united in the Elysian Fields of Hades – as Hera
promised Thetis in Apollonius' Argonautica.
In some versions of the myth, Achilles has a relationship with his captive Briseis.
[edit]Achilles in Greek tragedy
Main article: Achilleis (trilogy)
The Greek tragedian Aeschylus wrote a trilogy of plays about
Achilles, given the title Achilleis by modern scholars. The tragedies
relate the deeds of Achilles during the Trojan War, including his defeat of Hector and eventual death when an arrow shot
by Paris and guided by Apollo punctures his heel. Extant fragments
of the Achilleis and other Aeschylean fragments have
been assembled to produce a workable modern play. The first part of the Achilleis trilogy, The Myrmidons, focused on the
relationship between Achilles and chorus, who represent the Achaean army and
try to convince Achilles to give up his quarrel with Agamemnon; only a few
lines survive today.[21]In
Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus points out that Aeschylus portrayed Achilles as the
lover and Patroclus as the beloved; Phaedrus argues that this is incorrect
because Achilles, being the younger and more beautiful of the two, was the
beloved, who loved his lover so much that he chose to die to revenge him [22].
The tragedian Sophocles also wrote The Lovers of Achilles, a play
with Achilles as the main character. Only a few fragments survive.
[edit]Achilles in Greek
philosophy
The philosopher Zeno of Elea centered one of his paradoxes on an imaginary footrace between
"swift-footed" Achilles and a tortoise, by which he attempted
to show that Achilles could not catch up to a tortoise with a head start, and
therefore that motion and change were impossible. As a student of the monist
Parmenides and a member of the Eleatic school, Zeno believed time and motion to
be illusions.
[edit]Spoken-word myths (audio)
Achilles myths as told by story tellers
|
[edit]Achilles in later art
[edit]Drama
§
Achilles is portrayed as a former hero
who has become lazy and devoted to the love of Patroclus, in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.
[edit]Fiction
§
Achilles plays a part in the novel, The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
§
In Aaron Allston's Galatea in 2-D, a
painting of Achilles is one of those brought to life.
§
Achilles appears in Dante's Inferno.
§
Achilles is one of the beings who
empower DC Comics hero Captain Marvel, giving him courage and
later invulnerability.
§
The ghost of Achilles appears in the Percy Jackson novel The Last
Olympian, warning Percy that if he enters the river Styx, he will obtain great
strength but also a greater weakness.
§
Achilles is a central character in David Malouf's
novel Ransom (2009).
§
Achilles is a major character in Craig Janacek's novel The Anger of
Achilles Peterson (2011),
an intertextual retelling of the Iliad set in upstate New York during the
1920's.
§
Achilles is a major character in P. C. Cast's
sixth Goddess Summoning novel Warrior
Rising. The novel centers on his relationship with Polyxenaedit
§
Stanley Baker in Helen of Troy (1956)
§
Riley Ottenhof in Something
about Zeus (1958)
§
Arturo Dominici in La Guerra di
Troia (1962)
§
Gordon Mitchell in The Fury of Achilles (1962)
§
Derek Jacobi [voice] in Achilles (Channel Four Television) by Barry Purves (1995)
§
Steve Davislim in La Belle Hélène (TV, 1996)
§
Richard Trewett in the miniseries The Odyssey (TV, 1997)
§
Joe Montana in Helen of Troy (TV, 2003)
[edit]Music
Achilles has
frequently been mentioned in music:
§
"Achilles" is a song by Jag Panzer (Casting the Stones).
§
"Achilles, Agony & Ecstasy In
Eight Parts", by Manowar (The Triumph of Steel, 1992).
§
"Achilles: The Back Breaker"
is a song by The Showdown.
§
Achilles Heel is
an album by Pedro the Lion.
§
"Achilles' Heel" is a song by Toploader.
§
"Achilles Last Stand", by Led Zeppelin (Presence,
1976).
§
"Achilles' Revenge" is a song
by Warlord.
§
"Achilles' Wrath" is a
concert piece by Sean O'Loughlin.
§
Achilles' death is mentioned in the
song "Helen and Cassandra" from the album "Last Days of the
Century" by Al Stewart.
§
Achilles is referred to in Bob Dylan's
song "Temporary Like Achilles".
§
Achilles is mentioned in the song
"Third Temptation Of Paris", by Alesana.
§
Achilles is mentioned in the song
"The Mechanic", by 50 Cent.
§
Achilles is mentioned in the song
"57821", by Janelle Monáe ft. Deep Cotton.
[edit]Television
§
In the animated television series Class of the Titans, one of the seven
heroes, Archie, is descended from Achilles and has inherited both his
vulnerable heel and part of his invincibility.
[edit]Poetry
§
"Achilles in the Trench" is a
famous poem by Patrick Shaw-Stewart.
§
The Triumph of Achilles is Louise Glück's
fourth collection of poetry.
§
"The Shield of Achilles" is a
notable work of W.H. Auden.
§
Achilles is also mentioned in "War
Music" by Christopher
Logue, "Achilles' Song" by Robert Duncan, "Ars Poetica" by Eleanor Wilner,
"Portrait of a Lady" by T.S. Eliot,
and "Vietnam Epic Treatment" by Donald Revell.
[edit]Video games
§
Achilles is central and playable
character in KOEI's Warriors: Legends of Troy. He also
appears as a guest character in KOEI'sMusou Orochi 2
(Warriors Orochi 3).
[edit]Namesakes
§
The name of Achilles has been used for
at least nine Royal Navy warships since 1744. A 60-gun ship of that name served
at the Battle of Belleisle in 1761 while a 74-gun ship served at the Battle of
Trafalgar. Other battle honours include Walcheren 1809. An armoured cruiser of
that name served in the Royal Navy during the First World War and was scrapped
in 1921.
§
HMNZS Achilles was a Leander class cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy in World War II. It became famous for
its part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter.
In addition to earning the battle honour 'River Plate', HMNZS Achilles also
served at Guadalcanal 1942–43 and Okinawa in 1945. The ship was sold to the
Indian Navy in 1948 but when she was scrapped parts of the ship were saved and
preserved in New Zealand.
§
Prince Achileas-Andreas of Greece and
Denmark, the grandson of the deposed Greek king, Constantine II.
§
The character Achilles in Ender's Shadow,
by Orson Scott Card. Achilles shares his namesake's cunning mind and ruthless
attitude.
§
In the Star Trek universe, the Achilles
Class is an advanced type of Federation battleship brought into service at the
outbreak of the Dominion War, though not seen in any of the canon Star Trek TV
series.
[edit]Notes
2. ^ Epigraphical
database gives
476 matches for Ἀχιλ-.The earliest ones: Corinth 7th c.
BC,Delphi 530 BC,
Attica and Elis 5th c. BC.
3. ^ Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 755–768; Pindar, Nemean5.34–37, Isthmian 8.26–47; Poeticon astronomicon (ii.15)
4. ^ Burgess, Jonathan S. (2009). The Death and
Afterlife of Achilles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press. p. 9.ISBN 0-8018-9029-2. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
5. ^ Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.869–879.
7. ^ "Proclus'
Summary of the Cypria". Stoa.org. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
8. ^ "Dares'
account of the destruction of Troy, Greek Mythology Link".
Homepage.mac.com. Archived from the original on 29 December 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
9. ^ James Davidson, "Zeus Be Nice Now" in London Review of Books; 19 July 2007, accessed October 23, 2007
10. ^ Iliad 9.334–343.
11. ^ "The Iliad", Fagles translation.
Penguin Books, 1991, p. 553.
12. ^ Hamilton E. Mythology, New York: Penguin
Books; 1969
13. ^ "Alexander came to rest at Phaselis, a
coastal city which was later renowned for the possession of Achilles' original
spear." Robin Lane Fox, Alexander
the Great 1973.144.
14. ^ Pausanias, iii.3.6; see Christian Jacob and
Anne Mullen-Hohl, "The Greek Traveler's Areas of Knowledge: Myths and
Other Discourses in Pausanias' Description of Greece", Yale French Studies 59: Rethinking History: Time, Myth, and Writing
(1980:65–85) esp. p. 81.
15. ^ Plato, Symposium, translated Benjamin Jowett, Dover Thrift
Edition, page 8
16. ^ Kenneth Dover, Greek Homosexuality (Harvard University Press, 1978, 1989), p. 1 et passim.
17. ^ Guy Hedreen, "The Cult of Achilles in
the Euxine" Hesperia60.3 (July 1991), pp. 313–330.
18. ^ Philostratus
Junior, Imagines i; Scholiast on Homer's Iliad, xix. 326; Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.162ff., Pseudo-Apollodorus,Bibliotheca iii. 13. 8, Statius, Achilleid,
ii. 167ff.
19. ^ Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri 1.12.1, Cicero, Pro
Archia Poeta24.
20. ^ Dio Cassius 78.16.7.
21. ^ Pantelis Michelakis, Achilles in Greek Tragedy, 2002, p. 22
22. ^ Plato, Symposium, translated Benjamin Jowett, Dover Thrift
Editions, page 8
[edit]References
§
Homer, Odyssey XI, 467–540
§
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca III, xiii, 5–8
§
Apollodorus, Epitome III, 14-V, 7
§
Ovid, Metamorphoses XI, 217–265; XII, 580-XIII, 398
§
Ovid, Heroides III
§
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica IV, 783–879
§
Dante Alighieri, The Divine
Comedy, Inferno, V.
[edit]Bibliography
§
Ileana Chirassi Colombo, "Heroes
Achilleus—Theos Apollon." In Il
Mito Greco, ed. Bruno Gentili & Giuseppe Paione, Rome, 1977;
§
Anthony Edwards:
§
"Achilles in the Underworld:
Iliad, Odyssey, and Æthiopis", Greek,
Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 26 (1985): pp. 215–227 ;
§
"Achilles in the Odyssey:
Ideologies of Heroism in the Homeric Epic", Beitrage zur klassischen Philologie,
171, Meisenheim, 1985;
§
"Kleos Aphthiton and Oral
Theory," Classical
Quarterly, 38 (1988): pp. 25–30;
§
Hedreen,
Guy (1991). "The Cult of Achilles in the Euxine". Hesperia (American School of Classical Studies at
Athens) 60 (3): 313–330. doi:10.2307/148068. JSTOR 148068.
§
Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. New York/London: Thames and Hudson.
§
Hélène Monsacré, Les larmes d'Achille. Le héros, la
femme et la souffrance dans la poésie d'Homère, Paris, Albin Michel, 1984
§
Gregory Nagy:
§
The Best of The Acheans:
Concepts of the Hero in Archaic Greek Poetry,
Johns Hopkins University, 1999 (rev. edition);
§
The Name of Achilles:
Questions of Etymology and 'Folk Etymology', Illinois Classical Studies, 19,
1994;
§
Dale S. Sinos, The Entry of Achilles into Greek
Epic, Ph.D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University;
§
Jonathan S. Burgess, The Death and Afterlife of Achilles (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2009).
[edit]External links
 |
Wikisource has the text of the1911 Encyclopædia Britannicaarticle Achilles.
|
 |
Wikimedia
Commons has media related to: Achilles
|
§
Dacia
Preistorică, 1913, I.4 Cult
of Achilles: literary references to the island Leucos in Antiquity Nicolae Densuşianu
|
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