Achilles (Akhilleus) was a famous hero in ancient Greek mythology and one of the central figures in Homer's Iliad, and his mother was Thetis, the goddess of the oceans. This goddess looks like a flower and jade, and is one of the best beauties in the divine world, with the special titles of "Hair Goddess" and "Silver Foot Goddess". Zeus, the mercurial king of the gods, and Poseidon, the sea king, had wanted to marry Thetis, but when they heard that Thetis was destined to give birth to a child more powerful than his father, they immediately abandoned this plan. Not only that, but they also forbade Thetis to marry other gods, allowing her to marry mortals. This was obviously because he was afraid that Theseis' genes were too strong, so he asked her to neutralize with mortals.
When the Malays heard about this, they sent their pupil Peleus to propose to Thetis. Thetis did not call Peleus at all, turning into water, fire, lions, snakes, and other things to escape him. But Peleus clung to the goddess and refused to give up. Eventually Thetis was touched by Peleus's sincerity, no, by the strength of his arm and agreed to marry him.
[Peleus proposes to Thetis]
Thetis and Peleus held a grand wedding ceremony and invited the gods to their wedding, but did not invite the quarreling goddess Eris. Who wants to invite a goddess who specializes in quarrels to a wedding? Isn't this a prayer after two mouthfuls of prayer and quarreling every day? However, on the day of the wedding, Eris came uninvited, and gave full play to his professional expertise, secretly leaving a golden apple engraved with the words "To the most beautiful goddess" during the banquet. As a result, the queen of heaven, Hera, the goddess of wisdom, Athena, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, all considered herself to be the most beautiful goddess, and there was a strong quarrel over the golden apple.
Zeus then asked Prince Paris of Troy to adjudicate who the Golden Apple belonged to. Parris finally awarded the Golden Apple to Aphrodite. In exchange, Aphrodite promised to give Paris the most beautiful woman in the world. Later, Aphrodite fulfilled her promise and helped Paris abduct Helen, the spartan queen, which led to the Trojan War.
After their marriage, Thetis and Peleus gave birth to a son, Achilles. However, as soon as Achilles was born, he was prophesied that he would die in the Battle of Troy. To prevent the prophecy from coming true, Thetis carried Achilles to the Styx, grabbed one of his ankles, and immersed him head down in the water. Anyone who has soaked in this water can become invisible, but the heel of the foot of the foot that Achilles was caught did not get wet, which became the only weakness in his whole body. However, the Iliad deleted this point of Achilles' sword and gun.
Thetis immersed Achilles in the Styx
Thetis then fed Achilles with celestial dew, and at night threw Achilles into the fire to exercise. As a result, one of Achilles' ankles was burned. Later, Peleus discovered that Theseis had thrown his son into the fire every night behind his back, and jumped into the fire to save Achilles. Thetis was enraged by Peleus's actions and went back to her mother's house.
Peleus then sent Achilles to his teacher, the Centaur Chiron, for training. As I have described in previous articles, Chiron was erudite and proficient in warfare, medicine, art, etc., and many of the heroes of ancient Greek mythology came from his disciples. Chiron first performed an operation on Achilles, curing his burned foot. He then taught Achilles the skills of warfare, hunting, medicine, and music. Achilles then studied tactics and oratory with another teacher, Fenix.
【Chiron and Achilles】
When Achilles was 9 years old, there were prophecies that the Trojan War would break out, and without Achilles participating in the war, the Greek coalition could not have taken Troy. The goddess Thetis, not wanting Achilles to be involved in the war, dressed him up as a girl and sent him to hide in the palace of King Lycomedes of Sculros.
After the outbreak of the Trojan War, Odysseus was ordered to invite Achilles to join the war. When he learned that Achilles was living in seclusion on Sculros disguised as a woman, he disguised himself as a merchant and went to the island to sell cosmetics and weapons. As a result, when all the women were choosing cosmetics, only Achilles was selecting weapons, and was disguised by Odysseus on the spot. Thus Achilles had to join the Combined Hellenic Army. When Thetis learned of Achilles' enlistment, he had no choice but to build a pair of armor for Achilles, the god of fire and craftsmanship.
[Odysseus uses a trick to debunk Achilles' disguise]
In the war, Achilles was invincible, and everywhere he went, the enemy was terrified. But then he clashed with coach Agamem Farmers. The cause was that the Allies had looted the temple of Apollo in the city of Clementa, and Agamemnon had taken the sacrificial daughter Cleiseis captive as a slave girl. This infuriated the sun god Apollo, who sent down poisonous snow. As soon as the Allied soldiers got wet with the snow, they immediately fell seriously ill. Seeing this, Achilles and some other generals persuaded Agamemnon to return Cleusseys. Agamemnon, on the other hand, struck back and said to the crowd, "It is okay if I want to return Cleuseis, as long as Achilles must give me his most beloved slave girl." Agamemnon actually passed on his problems to Achilles. At this time, if Achilles did not agree, it became his lust for beauty and delayed the overall situation.
As a result, Achilles was forced to give up female slaves, and he was discouraged and refused to fight. At the same time, he asked his mother, Thetis, to go to heaven and ask Zeus to put the coalition forces into a bitter battle. Zeus owed Thetis a favor. Hera, Athena, and Poseidon had conspired to overthrow Zeus, but when Theseis learned of this, he invited the hundred-armed giant Briarus to protect Zeus, foiling the plot of Hera and other gods. So Zeus acceded to Thetis' request and left the Allied forces at a disadvantage.
Realizing that the war could not be won without Achilles, Agamemnon quickly apologized to Achilles, not only promising to return his slave girls, but also willing to marry his daughter to him and offer him a rich dowry. But Achilles had already made up his mind not to assist the Allies anymore.
At this time an accident occurred that changed Achilles' mind. When Achilles withdrew from the battle, Achilles' cousin and close friend Patroclus, seeing that he could not be persuaded, begged him to lend him his armor. Patroclus then put on his armor and pretended to be Achilles to fight the enemy on the battlefield. Unexpectedly, he encountered the Trojan prince Hector and died under the latter's sword.
Upon learning of Patlockros' death, Achilles was furious and vowed to take revenge on Hector. The clash between the two was also a key battle that determined the outcome of the Battle of Troy. Hector was the commander-in-chief, and it was because of his wise command that Troy was able to hold out for 10 years, and he was undoubtedly the strongest wall of Troy. But fate had long been predestined, and Achilles was the one who destroyed it. In the end, Hector died at the hands of Achilles.
[Achilles vs. Hector, and although Apollo assisted Hector in the air, he could not save his fate]
Achilles brought Hector's body back to the barracks, crossed a rope at his feet, and dragged his body in a carriage three times a day for 12 days in a row around Patlockros's grave. The gods of the heavens could not bear to see this, and the sun god Apollo shielded Hector's body with a shield. Zeus sent the rainbow goddess Iris to sneak into Achilles' tent in the middle of the night with the Trojan king Priamus and ransom Hector's body with a large sum of money. Due to Zeus's orders and the sincerity of Priamus, Achilles agreed to let Priamus take the body and promised not to attack Troy during hector's funeral.
After that, Achilles also defeated many powerful opponents on the battlefield, such as: The Amazon Queen Pentsyllea, and Mennon, son of the goddess of dawn.
There are several theories about the death of Achilles, all related to Apollo or Parris. One of the most common accounts is that Achilles died in the hands of Apollo and Paris. Paris falsely proposed peace to Achilles and said that he would give his sister to Achilles. As Achilles entered the city of Troy to negotiate peace, Paris fired an arrow at Achilles. The arrow, guided by Apollo, was impartially centered on Achilles' heel.
【Death of Achilles】
Generally speaking, the foot is not the key to the human body, and shooting the foot will not kill on the spot. Come to think of it, the arrow that hit Achilles should be a poisoned arrow, or an arrow that was enchanted by Apollo. As for why Apollo killed Achilles, according to Apollodorus' Mythological Selection, it was because Apollos killed Apollo's son Troy Ross during the war.
After Achilles' death, the Greek allied heroes Aeas the Great and Odysseus recaptured his body. The Greek coalition mourned Achilles for 17 days and cremated him on the 18th. Later, Troy was captured by Odysseus's Trojan horse and declared his demise.
According to the Odyssey, after death, Achilles' soul, like all others, entered the underworld. However, according to other accounts, his soul was taken by Thetis to the island of Lucius, where he was reborn. And married Helen, or Iphigenia, or Medea.