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 a woman in the court. It was not a full proof disguise though as Achilles courted the daughter of Lycomedes, Deidamia, a courtship which produced a son, Neoptolemus. It was also a disguise that the Greek hero Odysseus saw through.
The Greek forces stopped off at the court of Lycomedes on their way to Troy, and Odysseus tricked Achilles into revealing himself. This was done by the placement of fine dress and jewellery by King Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek forces, amongst the women in the court, at the same time armour and weapons were also put on display. Achilles gave himself away by being the only "woman" in court more interested in armaments over finery. Upon his discovery though Achilles gladly joined the Greek forces as they sailed for Troy, and he was given command of a group of some of the finest soldiers, Myrmidons from his native Aegina.
Most sources about the early life of Achilles have him making a choice about how he would lead his life. The choice was to live a long life without glory or fame, or to have a short life that would see his name live forever. Perhaps as most young people would do, Achilles chose for him the life of glory.
It is after this point that Homer's Iliad becomes the main source of information about the life of Achilles. Upon the landing of the Greek forces in Trojan territory, Achilles immediately started to show himself to be the bravest and most courageous of all of the Greek forces, and he is credited with the capture of over twenty individual Trojan settlements. One of these settlements provided Achilles with a prize in the form of the beauty Briseis, it was though only a prize that Achilles owned briefly as King Agamemnon took her for himself, after the loss of one of his own prizes. This was a slight against Achilles, and so from that point on he refused to fight for the Greek forces again.
Without their greatest warrior the war started to go badly for the Greeks. As Achilles stayed by his tent, fight after fight, and battle after battle were lost, and slowly the Greek forces were diminished and pushed back to their original landing position. Despite the pleas of his fellow Greeks, Achilles though would not come to their rescue. His closest companion, Patroclus, though was allowed to make use of Achilles' armour to fight the advancing Trojans. Patroclus though was no Achilles and in his first battle Patroclus was killed by the Trojan prince Hector. Thinking that the great Achilles had been killed, Hector even stripped the body to take the armour as his own prize.
The death of Patrcolus was enough to move Achilles back into the fight, and he was provided with a new set of armour and weapons by the Greek blacksmith god, Hephaestus. Achilles was ready to fight again and called Hector out of Troy to fight him. Hector was considered a great warrior but he was no match for an angered Achilles, and the fight ended with the death of Hector. Achilles though was hardly gracious in victory, and instead attached the body to the back of a chariot and had it pulled behind him as he circled the city of Troy. Achilles also refused to allow anyone from Troy to collect the body so that it could be given a proper funeral.
Just as Achilles began to lose his greatness though it was saved by an action that showed that as well as being a great warrior was also a great man. King Priam himself, ruler of Troy and father to Hector, made his was alone into the camp of the Greek forces, and begged Achilles to give him the body of his son, something that Achilles then willingly agreed to. Achilles continued to fight killing many of the strongest warriors amongst the Trojans, including Penthesilia, an Amazon warrior.
The fears of Thetis though came true and Achilles was destined to die at Troy. Despite continued victory against Trojan warriors, he was eventually killed by Paris, another son of King Priam, who managed send an arrow that hit Achilles on his heel, the one supposed vulnerable point of the warrior. Although not a killing shot for most men, it proved to be a mortal wound for Achilles.
Unlike the armour of other heroes fallen in battle, it was not given to the victor, mainly because Paris was not held in the same esteem as other Trojan soldiers. The armour of Achilles was instead given to Odysseus after he had defeated Ajax in a debate about who was the greatest warrior after Achilles. Odysseus himself actually gave away the armour to the Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, who put it to good use in later battles for Troy.
The death of Achilles is not quite the end of the hero’s story though as he makes a brief appearance in Homer's Odyssey, where the hero Odysseus travels to the underworld and encounters his old friend. The perception given is that Achilles recognises his choice as a youth for a short life was the wrong one, although at the same time he was proud of the heroic exploits of his son during the fall of Troy.
It is probably not surprising that the one story of Achilles known by most people is one of the least recorded events, that of the vulnerable heel. It is though logical considering that a part of the body was named after that vulnerability. Achilles though was more than a demi-god with virtual invincibility, he was the greatest of all of the Greek soldier, but also showed that he had a human side which could act with the utmost dignity as well.