Born into a tumultuous period, Achilles would lead a very short but eventful life. Given life by the union of the sea nymph Thetis and Peleus, king of Thessaly, Achilles was naturally set apart from his other mortal contemporaries in that he was a demigod – a creature with the blood of both a mortal and of a god.
Naturally, he’d have innate talents, but his reputable downfall occurred more as a cruel twist of fate than anything else. A soothsayer foretold that Achilles’ destiny would lead him to become a war hero, but that glory would come at the loss of his life in battle.
Averting Fate
Thetis, was a creature of much compassion and couldn’t bear the thought that her son might be lost to the storm of conflict. Her resolution thus became to prepare Achilles in such a way that death would never reach him.
To do so, she voyaged to the river Styx – the boundary between the world of the living and Hades, the realm of the afterlife – where she submerged him, holding the child by its heel, in the river’s waters which were known to grant invulnerability to mortals.
However, Thetis neglected to submerge the heel where she held the boy, resulting in vulnerability in the body of the would-be indestructible man. Her reasoning behind this is questionable, as the river is not known to have any adverse effects on immortals unless the waters are ingested.
In other accounts, Achilles’ invulnerability is due to the process of Thetis literally burning away his mortality and rubbing him with ambrosia, a form of nourishment for gods.
However, when Peleus discovered what deeds she committed towards their son, he entered a fit of rage. Unable to compromise with her son’s father, Thetis abandoned them in order to return to the sea.
A God’s Training
Peleus also wanted the best for his son, sending him to Chiron, a sagacious old centaur who also trained Achilles’ father as well as many other Greek heroes. The education Chiron provided covered a wide range of subjects. He taught Achilles to be brave, built upon his stamina, and trained his fortitude.
Through feasting upon the innards of animals, his bravery was promoted. In the apprenticeship of the centaur, Achilles also learned combative skills, primarily archery and horseback riding, healing techniques, and musical abilities.
Despite an attempted balanced upbringing, Achilles grew rebellious with age and gained an infamous reputation that enlisted the resent of the Centaur community. He often stole from Centaurs and vandalized their property without care of compassion.
Consequently, Chiron offered no debate when Thetis arrived seeking to reclaim her son and place him into proper protection, fearful of how the gears of time would tear him from the world.
The Trojan War
Though Achilles himself was completely unaware, Thetis knew from the onset how the Fates planned on bringing about his demise. The Trojan War had begun, and growing desperate following a denial of assistance from the gods who could not transcend the will of the Fates, Thetis sent Achilles to live with King Lycomedes under the guise of a girl, a farce that the King himself was unaware of.
Nonetheless, the forces of Fate plowed their way through Thetis’ deception. Odysseus, who led the forces of Greece and received a discerning prediction from the seer Calchas, sought the assistance of young Achilles. From the seer, Odysseus came to understand that only with the help of Achilles would Greece reign victorious in the Trojan War.
After discovering where the boy hid, he traveled to the island of Skyros where he gathered the people around.
In a separate account, Odysseus presented war ornaments and weapons to the island’s inhabitants; none of the girls responded with the vigor of the disguised Achilles who displayed great fascination with a shield and spear. This fascination betrayed Achilles’ disguise, leading to his recruitment into the Greek armed forces.
Another account describes Odysseus as having blown a trumpet to which the disguised Achilles responded favorably to from Odysseus’s perspective. Achilles owed no side his service, but the Greeks were the first to approach him and the young warrior sought to test his bravery on the battlefield.
Death of Achilles
At only fifteen years of age, Achilles attained the honor of general. Throughout the war, he slaughtered dozens of significant individuals, effectively confirming Calchas’ predictions that he would save the Greeks from defeat.
Nonetheless, before the war concluded, Achilles was killed after being struck in his vulnerable heel by an arrow fired by Paris and blessed Apollo.
Because of this predicament, we have the term "Achilles' heel" today, which refers to any fatal weakness.
