Achilles

Achilles, said to be a hero of the Trojan war. In fact, he was the greatest of all the Greek warriors. He is the central character of Homer’s Iliad. His parents were King Peleus of Phthia and the Nereid Thetis. One of his most notable feats was the slaying of Hector, a Trojan prince. Legends foretold of his weakness; that he was slain by Paris through an arrow to the heel - as when he was little, Thetis dipped him in the river Styx and held him by one heel. The term ‘Achilles’ Heel’ means a point of weakness. The ‘Achilles Tendon’ is also named after him.

His name is analysed as a combination of ‘áchos’, meaning distress, pain, sorrow or grief, and ‘laós’, meaning people, soldiers or nation, and is a proto-form for ‘Akhí-lāuos’; he who has the people distressed. The subject of grief and distress of the people is mentioned numerous times in the Iliad.