Achilles is the strongest and swiftest of the Greek heroes, protagonist of Homer's Iliad, which opens with the word "wrath": Sing, goddess, the wrath of Peleus's son Achilles. He was the son of King Peleus of Phthia, in Thessaly, and the sea nymph Thetis.
The heel
To make him immortal, according to a later myth, Thetis dipped the baby in the waters of the Styx, the river of the underworld, holding him by the heel: his whole body became invulnerable except that spot. Hence the expression Achilles' heel, meaning someone's weak point. In other versions Thetis placed him in fire to burn away his mortal part, until Peleus, alarmed, stopped her.
Education and choice
Achilles was taught by the wise centaur Chiron, who taught him hunting, medicine and music. His mother knew her son had two possible fates: a long life without glory, or a short life and eternal glory. To keep him from the war she hid him on Skyros among the king's daughters, dressed as a girl, but Odysseus unmasked him with a trick: he offered gifts to the girls, including weapons, and had a war trumpet sounded. Achilles seized the sword at once. He chose glory.
The wrath
In the tenth year of the Trojan War, Agamemnon took from him the young captive Briseis. Insulted, Achilles withdrew from battle with his warriors, the Myrmidons, and the Greeks began to lose. His dearest friend, Patroclus, put on Achilles's armour to frighten the Trojans but was killed by Hector.
Revenge
In despair, Achilles returned to battle with new armour forged by Hephaestus, including a marvellous shield. He faced Hector before the walls of Troy, chased him three times round the city and killed him; then he dragged the body behind his chariot. Only when old King Priam came to his tent by night to beg, kissing his hands, was Achilles moved to return the body: one of the most human scenes in literature.
Death
Achilles died soon after at the gates of Troy, struck in the heel by an arrow from Paris guided by Apollo. After his death Odysseus and Ajax quarrelled over his armour. In the Odyssey, when Odysseus meets Achilles's ghost in Hades, the hero says he would rather be the lowest servant on earth than king of all the dead.
See also the Trojan War and myths and words.