by Tim Harry

Created on: March 18, 2009   Last Updated: January 26, 2012

Achilles is one of the most famous of all heroes of Greek mythology. His fame though is not necessarily because of his deeds, unlike someone like Heracles, but because of the body part named after him, the Achilles heel.

Achilles was a central figure in many works from antiquity, and although a great deal of his story is told in Homer's Iliad, to get a full story of his life and death, it is necessary to bring together a number of other sources from Greek literature, including the likes of Hesiod.

Achilles was a demi-god, meaning that he was the offspring of one mortal parent and an immortal, unlike many demi-gods though Achilles was born to a human father. The birth came as a result of a union between Peleus, the King of Aegina and the inhabitants known as the Myrmidons, and the water nymph Thetis.

Thetis had once been the love interest of both Zeus and Poseidon, but a prophecy stating that the offspring of Thetis would prove greater than the father had cooled both their interests. Instead Thetis was married off by Zeus to the most eligible of mortals.

The early life of Achilles is actually a confusing one, and although Achilles is most famous for his almost total immortality, it is a fact totally ignored by Homer. Homer in fact tells of how Achilles receives a wound to his arm during one fight, hardly a sign of invulnerability. There are though other sources that give two different versions to the attempts of Achilles' mother Thetis to make him immortal.

The most famous of these attempts is the one where Thetis holds Achilles by one heel and then dips him in and out of the River Styx, one of the rivers in Hades. The water running in the Styx was said to be sacred in Greek times, and would provide invincibility to those immersed in it, the heel of Achilles though was of course not. This version of the story only survives into modern times from one ancient source, as written by Statius. A second version of the search for immortality has Thetis anointing ambrosia and placing him in a pyre to rid him of all mortal parts of his body.

Some sources written after Homer had died also tell of how Achilles grew into maturity away from his father's court. This split from his father came about because of a prophecy made by Calchas, which said that Troy would never be taken without the aid of Achilles. Thetis though knew that her son would die if he went to Troy so had him hidden away in Lycomedes' court in Scyros. To aid the hiding ploy, Achilles was also disguised as

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