Achilles

One of the most famous of all legendary heroes and central figure of the Iliad.

Son of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the Nereid Thetis, Achilles was brought up by his mother in Phthia (southern Thessaly) together with Patroclus. Educated by Phoenix and the centaur Chiron, he led the Myrmidons in 50 ships to Troy, and during the first nine years of the war was responsible for the capture of 12 Trojan cities. In the tenth year Agamemnon, being obliged to surrender his captive Chryseis, made good his loss by depriving Achilles of a favourite slave-girl, Briseis. Achilles withdrew from active service to sulk in his quarters, and the Greeks were so hard pressed in consequence that they sent a deputation proposing to restore Briseis with additional rewards. Achilles rejected their offer. At length, however, he agreed to lend his arms and armour to Patroclus, who was killed by Hector in the ensuing fight. Moved to fury by the death of his friend, Achilles made peace with Agamemnon, obtained new armour from Hephaestus and eventually killed Hector.

In the Iliad Achilles is already doomed to die before the Scaean Gate of Troy, and in the Odessy there is a reference to his funeral. The non-Homeric poems of the Trojan Cycle narrate other legends of his life and death; but these have no place in the Homeric text, and many bear the stamp of tales familiar in folklore everywhere.

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