Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles (/əˈkɪliz/, uh-KILL-eez; Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. His mother was the immortal nymph Thetis, and his father, the mortal Peleus, was the king of the Myrmidons. Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Alluding to these legends, the term "Achilles heel" has come to mean a point of weakness, especially in someone or something with a strong constitution. 2Etymology Achilles' name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος (akhos) "grief" and λαός (laos) "a people, tribe, nation." In other words, Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, grief being a theme raised numerous times in the Iliad (frequently by Achilles). Achilles' role as the hero of grief forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of Achilles as the hero of κλέος kleos ("glory", usually glory in war). Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean "a corps of soldiers", a muster. With this derivation, the name would have a double meaning in the poem: when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring grief to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of wa