Achilles biography. Achilles is a hero of ancient Greek mythology

We know who Achilles is from the works of many ancient authors, the most famous and authoritative of which is Homer. From the pages of his immortal poem, we learn that the Greek gods who inhabited the summit of Olympus used to descend to earth and marry mortal people who, in one way or another, deserved this honor.

According to ancient legends, only heroes were born from such unions, combining an endless list of virtues that placed them above all other inhabitants of the earth, into whose lives they brought order and harmony. And only one problem deprived them of the fullness of happiness - they were born mortal.

Son of an earthly king and a sea goddess

It so happened that the Phthian king Peleus once turned the head of the sea goddess Thetis. He found a way to the heart of the mistress of the depths, and the legendary Achilles became the fruit of her momentary weakness, who inherited from his mother all the virtues inherent in the gods, but remained mortal by his father.

Wanting to fill this gap, Thetis resorted to an old and proven remedy, lowering him immediately after birth into the waters of the river Styx, which flowed in the underworld. From this, the entire body of the baby was covered with an invisible, but impenetrable shell, which no weapon could hit. The only exception was the heel, for which the mother held him, lowering him into the water.

She became his only weak point, and this was kept secret. But looking ahead, it should be said that the one who killed Achilles, and he ended his life, despite all the efforts of Thetis, as a mere mortal, knew about this. The name of the killer will be named only at the end of the story, so as not to violate the laws of the genre and not reduce the sharpness of the plot intrigue.

The tutors of the young prince

To educate the future hero, his father picked up two mentors for him. One of them was the old and wise Phoenix, who taught the boy decent manners, medicine and the composition of poems, without which in those days one could be considered ignorant and boorish. The second was a centaur named Chiron.

Unlike his fellow tribesmen - cunning and treacherous creatures, he was distinguished by openness and friendliness. All his pedagogy, however, boiled down to the fact that he fed Achilles with bear brains and fried lions. But such a diet clearly benefited the boy, and at the age of ten he already easily killed wild boars with his bare hands and overtook deer.

Escape to Skyros

When the war began, in which the Greeks with their many allies approached the walls of Troy, where Queen Helen ruled, recognized as the most beautiful woman of all times and peoples, our hero was fifteen years old. By the way, this detail allows us to determine with a certain accuracy in what year Achilles lived. Historians date the beginning of the Trojan War at the turn of the 13th and 12th centuries BC, which means that he was born around 1215 BC. e or so.

The goddess Thetis, despite the fact that by lowering her son into the waters of Six, made him almost immortal, nevertheless allowed the possible death of Achilles. She decided not to risk and save him from the campaign in which he was obliged to take part. To this end, the goddess, by the power of magic, transferred her son to the island of Skyros, where he, in women's clothes, was hiding from being drafted into the army among the daughters of the local king Lykomed, who naively hoped for his chastity.

Cunning Odysseus

However, soon the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon, found out the whereabouts of Achilles and sent Odysseus after him. His envoy faced a rather piquant task - to recognize among the young charmers the one who hid his masculine nature under a woman's outfit. And Odysseus handled it brilliantly.

Disguised as a merchant, he laid out in front of the princesses luxurious fabrics, jewelry, and other things for which women have always had a weakness, and between them, as if by accident, he left a sword. When, at his command, the servants issued a battle cry, all the girls fled with a screech, and only one of them grabbed her weapon, betraying a man and a warrior in herself.

They escorted the recruit on a campaign throughout the island. King Lycomedes sincerely grieved, and his young daughter Diedamia shed tears, in whose womb the son of Achilles was gaining strength for the sixth month (the hero is a hero in everything).

A hero who terrifies the enemy

Under the walls of Troy, Achilles arrived not alone, but accompanied by a hundred thousandth army, which was sent with him by his father, King Peleus, who, due to his old age, was deprived of the opportunity to personally take part in the siege of the city. He presented his son with his armor, once forged for him by the god Hephaestus and possessing magical properties. A warrior wearing them became invincible.

In his poem The Iliad, Homer tells how, using the gift of his father, the son fought for nine years, terrifying the Trojans, and capturing one city after another. Thanks to the magical powers granted to him by the waters of the Styx, as well as his father's armor, he was invulnerable to the enemy, but the one who killed Achilles in the Trojan War (which will be discussed below) knew his weak point, and remained in the shadows until the time.

Envy that captivated the soul of a warrior

The countless feats accomplished by Achilles earned him great fame among ordinary warriors and became the cause of envy that consumed their commander-in-chief Agamemnon. It is known that this low feeling at all times pushed people to meanness, and sometimes even to crimes. The Greek military leader was no exception.

One day, returning from another raid, Achilles, among other prey, brought a beautiful captive, whose father Chris was a priest of Apollo. Agamemnon, taking advantage of his position, took her away from Achilles, to which he did not object, since he was then carried away by another slave named Briseida.

Soon the unfortunate priest appeared in the Greek camp and offered a rich ransom for his daughter, but was refused. In desperation, he called for the help of Apollo himself, and he, having entered the position of his servant, sent a pestilence to the offenders of his daughter. The Greeks did not have time to bury the dead. The soothsayer Kalhant, who was among them, after talking with the gods, said that death would not recede until Chris received his daughter, and Apollo received rich sacrifices.

Agamemnon had to obey, but in retaliation, he took away his beloved Briseis from Achilles and it was she who was sacrificed to the deity. He vilely scolded and insulted the hero himself in the presence of his subordinate warriors. This act came as a surprise to everyone, since before the commander-in-chief had a reputation not only as a brave, but also quite a noble person. There is no doubt that there was magic here too. Moreover, it is possible that the evil spell was cast on him by the one who killed Achilles at the end of the poem we are retelling. But his name will be called a little later.

Confounded envious

Innocently offended and deprived of his best slave, Achilles refused to continue participating in the war, which indescribably delighted the Trojans, who trembled at the very sight of him. Appearing on the seashore, he called his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, from its depths, and, having heard his story, she begged the supreme god Zeus to help the Trojans defeat the army of Agamemnon and show him that without Achilles, inevitable death awaits them.

That's how it all happened. The accommodating Zeus gave strength to the Trojans, and they began to ruthlessly crush their enemies. The catastrophe seemed inevitable, and the vile envious had no choice but to publicly, in the presence of all the same soldiers, apologize to Achilles and, as compensation for the ruined Briseis, give him several beautiful slaves.

The Last Labors of Achilles

After that, the magnanimous Achilles forgave his offender and, with even greater frenzy, began to smash the defenders of the city. One of his most famous feats belongs to this period - a victory in a duel with the leader of the Trojans, Hector. Achilles not only managed to put him to flight, but forced him to run around the walls of Troy three times, and only after that he pierced him with a spear.

But the gods were not pleased to make Achilles a witness to the fall of Troy, and it was their will that the one who killed Achilles fulfilled. Shortly before his death, he accomplished his last feat - he defeated the army of beautiful, but treacherous and evil Amazons, who came to the aid of the Trojans, led by their leader Penthesilea.

The death of Achilles

Ancient authors, in many respects contradicting each other, in the biography of Achilles, nevertheless, are unanimous in depicting his last hour. According to their testimony, one day he tried to break into the besieged city through its main gate. Suddenly, his path was blocked by none other than Apollo himself, who had not yet fully reconciled with the Greeks after the story with the daughter of his priest.

Apollo, of course, knew who Achilles was. The fact is that, crowned with the glory of the most beautiful of the celestials, he harbored shameful envy and jealousy towards a mortal man, who, like him, was considered the standard of beauty. The perniciousness of this low feeling among people has already been discussed in our story, but in this case the name of the deity was tarnished by it.

Blocking Achilles's way, but, nevertheless, expecting, nevertheless, a respectful treatment, he instead received a rude shout and a threat to be pierced by a spear if he did not get out of the way immediately. Insulted, Apollo stepped aside, but only to immediately take his revenge.

Further, the authors differ somewhat in the description of what happened. According to one version, Apollo himself fired a fatal arrow after the offender, and it was he who killed Achilles. According to another, the envious god entrusted this vile business to Paris, the son of the Trojan king, who happened to be nearby. But since the arrow hit Achilles in his only vulnerable spot, which only Apollo knew about, there is no doubt that it was he who directed her flight. The one who killed Achilles in the heel could not help but know his secrets. Therefore, the murder of the hero is attributed to Apollo - the most beautiful of the gods, but who could not overcome the low and petty feelings in himself.

The story of Achilles inspired a whole galaxy of ancient poets who dedicated their works to him, some of which have survived to this day. Many of them are recognized as the best examples of ancient Greek poetry. Undoubtedly, Homer won the greatest fame among them with his famous poem "Iliad". The very death of Achilles gave rise to a popular expression - "Achilles' heel", denoting a weak, vulnerable place.

Looked at Troy again. Then I thought, why is it all with beards, and Brad Pitt, who is Achilles - without a beard? It seems that among the Greeks, it was indecent for a mature husband to sparkle with his bare chin. I went to re-read the Iliad, various articles on the topic and dictionaries. Found... I don't know how widely known it is, but I put together everything that interested me.
Still, it's funny when they try to fashion something big and whole from different sources.

Achilles and Elena the Beautiful.
Achilles - (I will focus on this Latinized version of his name, which is more familiar to me) is the youngest of the heroes of the Trojan War, therefore, in the vast majority of images, he is drawn without a beard. The story with the bone of contention, with which, in fact, the whole war began, happened not just anywhere, but at the wedding of King Peleus and the nymph Thetis, the parents of Achilles. Achilles himself was not yet in the project.

At this time, Paris in the American film, the young and also beardless Orlando Bloom, no longer only pastured the flocks, but also lived a non-Platonic life with the nymph Oenone. I mean, he was about 15 years old. But, judging by the story with the apple, he didn’t have a lot of brains, or he thought of something completely different. Well, would a sane person agree to exchange a goddess who loves him, then a simple shepherd, for a simple mortal woman who was already kidnapped once and who already had at least two men before him and whom he had not even seen, just because some then another goddess said that she was the most beautiful of all! And to believe that there is something even more beautiful after the three great goddesses, among whom was the goddess of beauty herself, appeared to him in the costume of Eve!
By the way, Oenone continued to love him even after Paris cheated on her with Elena and committed suicide when he died. Enona was also involved in the death of Paris, because she could save, but did not want to. But, there is nothing else to think about when you ask for help from your ex.

All the Achaean leaders, except for Achilles, at one time managed to woo Elena the Beautiful and were once her suitors. And they went to Troy because they were bound by an oath to uphold the honor of Elena's future husband. This oath was invented by the cunning Odysseus, so that Elena's suitors would not cut each other out of jealousy.
Among the suitors of Helen, a friend of Achilles Patroclus is also called. Although in the film he is slightly younger than Achilles and is even his student, the Iliad suggests that he was older. And, going to Troy, he received an order from his father in case of emergency to slow down the too young and hot Achilles. It is also mentioned there that Achilles, a pupil of Chiron, introduced Patroclus to the medical knowledge that the centaur revealed to him. Their ability to heal wounds and knowledge of medicinal herbs was very useful in the war.
It seems that despite the passing years, Elena remained just as beautiful, so after her death the gods decided to give her to Achilles as a wife, although he did not ask them at all about it, and there were more than enough others who wanted to. She was 20 years older than him, if not more, and had already been married three times, and if her return to Menelaus is considered a separate marriage, then four times.

Age of Achilles.
How old was Achilles? As already mentioned, he and his son Neoptolem are the youngest heroes of the Trojan War. Despite the abundance of many powerful men in the Achaean camp, for some reason their soothsayers could not imagine victory without the participation in the war of the teenager Achilles and the almost child Neoptolemus. And the local Katsura named Odysseus is doing everything so that they find themselves near Troy and, in pursuit of glory, personally killed almost half of its population. This does not include the surroundings.
Unlike the rest of the heroes, Achilles still wore long hair - a youthful hairstyle. On the day of his coming of age, he had to cut them off and sacrifice them to the local river god. (The Sperchy River in Thessaly, where he was born.) But when he went to war, he was not yet of age, so he promised to give his hair to God when he returned. He did not fulfill his promises, cutting off his hair as a sign of mourning for Patroclus and putting it in the hand of a deceased friend before burning it. I didn’t find anywhere what time the majority came of age in Phthia, but it is known that in Athens this was at 18 years old, in Crete - at 17.
One more nuance. The nymph Thetis hid Achilles from the war on the island of Skyros among the daughters of King Lycomedes, and Odysseus sent to search for him could not identify him among the girls. This means that by the beginning of the Trojan War, Achilles looked tender and graceful enough to look like a girl. But at the same time, he had already matured enough for Deidamia, one of the daughters of Lycomedes, to be able to conceive a child from him.
The Iliad says that 10 years have also passed since the abduction of Helen until the arrival of the Greeks near Troy. It took Menelaus and Agamemnon so many years to gather troops and find a way to Troy. The war itself lasted ten years. This means that Achilles was 14-15 years old when Odysseus came to call him to the war, 15-17 years old when it began, and 24-27 years old when he died. But these are my personal teapot calculations. The Russian version of the wiki, for example, believes that he was 35 at the time of his death.
From the moment of the story with the apple to the kidnapping, at least 8-10 years also passed. This figure is derived from the age of Achilles' son, Neoptolemus. Achilles went to war when he was not yet born. The Trojan War lasted 10 years, but at the end he managed to take part in it, and his father’s armor turned out to fit him. Even assuming that Neoptolemus was an accelerator, he must have been no less than thirteen years old. We add up the smallest probable age of father and son, subtract the twenty years that have passed from the abduction of Helen to the fall of Troy. It turns out seven or eight years, at least. It took Aphrodite so much to reward Paris. However, "the gods have nowhere to hurry, they have ahead - eternity."

Achilles and women.
With women, as I understood, Achilles was usually kind and gentle, but women were terribly unlucky with him.
- The already mentioned daughter of Likomed Deidamia, gave birth to a son to the hero and raised him alone. When the son grew up a little, he also went to war. The return of her lover Deidamia did not wait.

As a reward for future participation in the war, King Agamemnon promised Achilles his daughter Iphigenia as his wife. But Artemis was angry with Agamemnon. Priest Kalhant said that there would be no fair wind to Troy until Iphigenia was sacrificed. Reluctantly, Agamemnon summoned his daughter under the pretext of a wedding with Achilles. Upon learning of the impending murder, the young man tried to save the bride, promising to kill anyone who touches her. To avoid strife among the Achaeans, Iphigenia herself ascended the sacrificial altar. At the last moment, Artemis spared the girl, replacing her with a doe, she herself was transferred to Tauris in the Crimea, where she made her priestess, whose duties included sacrificing all foreigners who fell into those parts. She never saw Achilles again.
It was assumed that in return for Iphigenia and to strengthen ties after the victory over Troy, Achilles would marry one of the three remaining daughters of Agamemnon. But he did not live up to this happiness.

Achilles was in love (according to another version she fell in love at first sight) Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons who fought on the side of Troy. Perhaps this love during their duel with Achilles prevented her from winning, the Achaean pierced her chest with a spear. Having removed the helmet from the dead girl, he saw her beauty (according to other versions, he recognized in her that unknown girl whom he had recently met and fell in love with) and was very sad. Achilles cut off the head of the freak and half-witted Thersites, who dared to laugh at him and desecrated the body of Penthesilea. However, there are later versions of the myth, where Penthesilea kills Achilles in love, but Zeus, at the request of Thetis, resurrects him. As for Thersites, he was a freak only because the ancient Greeks were simply unable to imagine a bastard with a beautiful body.

Henry Justice Ford. Achilles and Penthesilea.

Near Troy, Achilles met the daughter of King Priam Polyxena and killed her little brother before her eyes. According to another version, he did not kill anyone, but simply met and fell in love with her, was going to marry and stop the war. But either Agamemnon ruined everything again, or the Trojans killed Achilles, who they hated, during an attempt at peace negotiations. Be that as it may, after the fall of Troy, the shadow of Achilles appeared to the Achaeans and demanded that Polyxena be sacrificed to him, which was done by his son Neoptolem. Polixena calmly met death, seeing in it deliverance from slavery and a possible union with Achilles. According to one version, she took her own life.

There is not much to say about Briseis, and everyone knows that its seizure from Achilles (Agamemnon tried again) led to the fact that the Trojans killed almost all the Greeks and almost burned their ships. Achilles did not plan to marry her. She was loved, but only a concubine. It seems that after the death of Achilles, her fate was also unenviable.

In addition, other women are mentioned who became the military booty of the hero, lived in his tent, performed various chores and served for the pleasure of the owner of the tent, his friends and guests. For example, in the absence of Briseida, "... Achilles rested inside a strong-leaved bush. A lesbian, captured by him, lay down with him ..." And having returned Briseida, Agamamnon gives Achilles 7 more lesbian girls, skilled in needlework. Gee, in the 19th century the last word was still used in its original meaning. In the same one, in which the words "Muscovite" or "Parisian" are used. For 10 years of standing near Troy, the warlike Achaeans actively ravaged neighboring cities and environs. They also visited the nearby island of Lesbos, so lesbian slaves were found in the Achaean camp in great numbers.

What else can be said about Achilles?
He's not a demigod, he's a 3/4 god. If not more. His paternal great-grandparents were Zeus himself and the nymph Aegina. And according to one of the mythical versions, Poseidon could have been a great-great-grandfather.

As in the film, in the Iliad, Achilles was blond and Hector was brunette. Translators call Achilles's hair "blond curls", but on Skyros, where Achilles was hiding under the guise of a girl, he bore the female name "Pyrrha", which means "Red-haired". The name "Pyrrhus" - "Red" was the original name of his son Neoptolemus.

According to the Iliad, Achilles had an increased fluffiness. In Veresaev's translation, "shaggy chest" is mentioned, while Gnedich's translation refers to "the hero's hairy chest."

As for the Achilles' heel, in the early versions of the myth, the invulnerable hero actually dies from a wound in the heel. In later and more realistic versions, the arrow of Paris, which hit Achilles in the heel, only immobilizes him, and he dies from a second arrow aimed at the chest. Just like in the movie, when Paris, having wounded him in the heel, then shoots him in cold blood.

Fulfilling the prediction of the Delphic oracle, Achilles healed the unhealed wound of Teleph, the king of Mysia, which he himself once inflicted with his spear, simply by applying this spear to the wound. In gratitude, Telef showed the Achaeans the way to Troy.

Achilles and company sailed near Troy on black ships. Just like Matthew Perry's squadron to Japan.

Unlike Achilles, the horses that carry his chariot are immortal. Once they were titans, and their mother was a harpy. Under the guise of horses, they hide from the revenge of their own kind. Poseidon gave them to Peleus for his wedding. The horses are called Xanth (the name means "red, brown, light golden") and Baliy ("spotted"). Xanth, moreover, can speak and has the gift of prophecy. After Xanthus said that it was not they who were to blame for the death of Patroclus, but the vengeful gods, and prophesied a quick death to Achilles, the hero became angry, and the evil Erinyes forever shut up the talking horse. From now on, Xanth preferred to keep quiet.
Only Achilles himself, his friend Patroclus and another of his friends, Automedon, who was Achilles' charioteer, could manage the immortal horses. The latter became so famous for his dashing driving of a vehicle that his name became a household name.
Hector's horse was also called Xanth, but no oddities were noticed behind him.

Homer's Achilles has a constant epithet "swift-footed", but during the pursuit of Hector, when they ran around the walls of Troy four times, he was never able to close the gap and catch up with the enemy. And they ran a lot. Even if Troy were as small as the Moscow Kremlin, they would cover about 9 kilometers. And if there was at least a kilometer between the opposite walls, then this distance would increase to 12 - 16 km. Achilles could not catch up with the enemy, despite the fact that he was running in a narrower circle, trying to push Hector away from the wall, from which the Trojans could shoot him, Achilles. Hector ran along the outer path. He was not afraid of the enemy's arrows, because Achilles forbade his own to shoot and steal the glory of victory from him. However, fleet-footed Achilles could not catch up not only with Hector. He didn't even catch the turtle. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_and_tortoise
By the way, about constant epithets. Hector remains helmet-shiny even when he puts on his head a trophy helmet belonging to Achilles. Achilles' helmet did not shine. Maybe Hector had chalked him before going out to fight?

The overgrown child Achilles constantly complains about his misfortunes to his mother - the goddess. Mom immediately appears, pats him on the head, consoles him, and then begins to correct the situation. Considering that her connections are more abrupt than those of the ladies from the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, those who offended Achilles afterwards are terribly sorry.

From the age of nine, Achilles knew that without him the victory at Troy was impossible. From early childhood and almost until his death, all fortunetellers and soothsayers, including the talking horse, told him that he would die under Troy. He has no personal interests in Ilion. He needs only fame, and for some reason he prefers this fame to a long life.
Achilles, the character of the Iliad, almost resigned himself to the fact of his imminent death. Therefore, he does not value his life. Just like the lives of other people. "Ah, anyway, sooner or later we'll all be there." Bitterness at the death of his best friend makes him even more cruel.
In later versions of the myth, the hero looks much more humane.

Avenge the death of Patroclus! Achilles heard about the death of a friend, and inexpressible grief took possession of him; he fell to the ground and from grief began to tear the hair on his head. He wanted only one thing now: to slay Hector, to avenge the death of Patroclus. Thetis came out of the sea to him, persuaded, tried to console, - Achilles did not listen to anything, his heart longed for revenge.

Meanwhile, the battle continued, the Greeks had a hard time, Ajax barely held the onslaught of Hector, the Trojans had completely captured the body of Patroclus. Achilles found out about this and went to the wall of the Greek camp. He was without weapons, but the Trojans of one of his kind were afraid; when he uttered a terrible cry, horror seized the enemies, they turned back and fled. The Greeks carried the body of Patroclus out of the battle, put it on a stretcher, and with loud weeping carried it to the tent of Achilles. They washed Patroclus, anointed him with expensive incense, and laid him on a richly decorated couch. All night Achilles mourned his friend.

Hephaestus forges armor for Achilles. Thetis realized that her son urgently needed armor, rushed to Olympus, to the palace of Hephaestus. He was an unsurpassed blacksmith, he respected and honored Thetis. She once saved this god from the wrath of Hera and knew that he would not refuse her anything. She asked Thetis to forge armor for her son during the night. God agreed, immediately set to work. By morning the armor was ready; people have never seen anything like it. They shone like a bright flame, and on the shield were depicted earth and sky, sea and stars, cities, people, animals. Only God could create such beauty.

As soon as dawn broke, Thetis brought armor to Achilles. He decided to immediately go into battle with the Trojans. But before that, he gathered the Greeks to a popular assembly, and there they reconciled with Agamemnon. The king admitted that he was wrong before Achilles, handed over all the gifts that he had promised, and returned Briseis.

The start of the fight. The Greeks went out into the field, their ranks were formidable and courageous. Achilles also rode into the field in his chariot, his eyes burned with anger, but his heart was filled with sadness. Zeus and the gods allowed to participate in the battle: Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes and Hephaestus immediately joined the Greeks; Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo took the side of the Trojans.

And so the troops converged. There has never been such a battle under the walls of Troy! After all, not only people fought in it - the gods themselves fought with each other! Like a wild fire, Achilles raged. His hands were covered with blood, shields, helmets, and bodies were crushed under the hooves of his horses. He did not know mercy, no one could escape the destructive spear of Achilles. He could not meet only with Hector, - every time Apollo enveloped the Trojan hero in darkness and deflected blows from him. But the hour of Hector struck, Apollo was unable to change his fate and stepped aside.

One on one was Hector with Achilles. Fear seized the son of Priam, and he rushed to run around the walls of Troy; Achilles followed him like a hawk. Three times the heroes ran around the city, and then Pallas Athena appeared to Achilles, ordered to stop and promised victory over Hector. She took the form of Deiphobe, Hector's brother, and convinced him to fight Achilles, promising to help in the battle. Hector stopped, turned to meet his mortal enemy. But before starting the fight, he said, turning to Achilles: “One of us is destined to die in a duel. I promise not to dishonor your body if the thunderer gives victory. Promise me too!” Achilles answered him menacingly: “No! An agreement between us is impossible, just as it is impossible between people and lions or sheep and wolves! There is no salvation for you! You will pay me for the shed blood of Patroclus!”

Achilles wins. With a powerful hand, Achilles threw a spear at Hector, but the Trojan hero crouched to the ground and avoided a deadly blow. In turn, Hector's spear flew at Achilles, but bounced off the shield forged by Hephaestus, like a light reed. Hector stretched out his hand to Deiphobus to take another spear, but his hand remained empty, there was no one behind him, he was face to face with a formidable enemy. Hector understood that the gods had condemned him to death, but the mighty hero did not want to die ingloriously; grabbed a sword from its scabbard and rushed at Achilles. Achilles rushed to meet him with a spear in his hand. Hit! And the helmet-shining Hector falls to the ground. He was wounded to death by the spear of Achilles. Hector only had time to say: “I conjure you, Achilles, with your life and your relatives: do not give my body to be torn to pieces by dogs, return it to your father and mother, they will give you an uncountable ransom for it.” “In vain do you beg me! Achilles replied. “I myself would have torn you to pieces if I had succumbed to the anger burning in me!” No one will drive away the dogs from your body, your father Priam and mother Hecuba will never mourn him!

He tied the body of Hector by the legs to his chariot and, with a cry of victory, drove it along the walls of Troy. All the Trojans sobbed loudly, seeing how the stones were tearing apart the body of the one who until recently was the support of Troy, her main hope.

Priam asks for Hector's body. Having defeated Hector, Achilles arranged a magnificent funeral for Patroclus. The funeral pyre of the hero burned all night long, the Achaeans poured a high mound over his ashes. And Hector's body remained unburied. The gods did not like this, - Achilles acted wickedly with the defeated enemy. And so Zeus sent Thetis to his son to convey the will of the immortals, so that he would give the body of Hector to his parents. At the same time, the messenger of Zeus, Irida, went to Priam and ordered Achilles to carry a rich ransom. Hermes himself led Priam to the Greek camp, making him invisible to the Greeks. Priam entered the tent of Achilles, fell on his knees in front of him and prayed: “Oh, great Achilles! Remember your father, an old man like me! Maybe his city is now besieged by enemies, and there is no one to protect him. I have lost almost all my sons, so Hector is slain by your hand! Have pity on me! I am already killed and humiliated, because there is no torment worse than kissing the hands of the killer of my children!”

Here Achilles remembered his father, thought that he himself was soon destined to die. Achilles wept bitterly, and the two of them wept, each about his own grief.

And then he ordered Achilles to wash the body of Hector and dress him in precious clothes. He promised Priam that the Greeks would not resume battles for as long as the Trojans needed to bury their greatest hero, and released the Trojan king in peace. The Trojans sobbed loudly when Priam, with the body of his son on a chariot, entered the city gates. Everyone cried, even Elena herself! No one loved her in Troy, only from Hector she did not hear a single evil word, and now her only friend died. The Trojans buried their mighty protector, and it became clear that the days of the great city were numbered.

Death of Achilles. Achilles burned with terrible anger, he fought daily with the Trojans, sent the souls of many heroes to gloomy Hades, but he was not destined to take the city. Shortly after the death of Hector, when Achilles exterminated the Trojans at the very fortress gates, Apollo appeared to Paris. The prince did not participate in the battle, he was afraid of Achilles. He stood on the city wall with a bow in his hands and from there struck the Achaeans with arrows. Many fell from the arrows fired by Paris. They did not take only one Achilles: after all, he was invulnerable. Apollo knew that Achilles could be struck down only in the heel, and directed the flight of an arrow to the right place. She whistled through the air and pierced the hero in the heel. Achilles fell to the ground. The Trojans rushed at him, but the hero managed to rise and destroy many more enemies, and then his last forces left him; and he fell again, this time forever. A fierce slash boiled around his body. Just as Patroclus was recently carried out of battle, so now Achilles was also carried out. The mighty Ajax carried it, and Odysseus defended it, fighting off the Trojans.

Achilles was buried in the same place as Patroclus; the Muses themselves sang a funeral hymn in his memory. A mound was piled even higher, it was far visible from the sea, testifying to the glory of the heroes who died under it.

Dispute over the armor of Achilles. Wonderful armor remained after Achilles. Thetis commanded to give them to the one who distinguished himself the most, protecting his body. But to whom - Ajax or Odysseus? A dispute arose between the heroes, and they decided to judge it with the help of lots. Menelaus and Agamemnon cheated, changed the lot of Ajax, and Odysseus received the armor. Ajax was upset. He went to his tent, thinking to take revenge on the offenders.

At night, when the entire Achaean camp was plunged into deep sleep, he left his tent with a drawn sword in his hand and went to the tents of Agamemnon and Menelaus, intending to kill them. But at that moment, Athena Pallas, who did not want the death of her favorites, let loose on him, and the mighty Ajax mistook a herd of bulls for her enemies. Ajax furiously attacked the bulls and began to exterminate, thinking that he was torturing the offenders. When morning came, the mind of the hero cleared up. He saw that his tent was filled with dead animals. Ajax was horrified and decided to wash away the shame with blood. He retired to the seashore and there threw himself on the sword. At first, Agamemnon and Menelaus did not want to arrange a solemn burial of Ajax, but Odysseus convinced them not to harbor evil after the death of the hero who had rendered so many services to the Greeks. A new burial mound grew next to the mound of Achilles and Patroclus, the ashes of the mighty Ajax rested under it.

Achilles(ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς, Achilleus) (lat. Achilles) - in the heroic tales of the ancient Greeks, he is the bravest of the heroes who undertook a campaign against Troy under the leadership of Agamemnon. Name a-ki-re-u(Achilleus) is recorded in ancient Knossos, it is worn by ordinary people.

Myths about Achilles

Childhood of Achilles

Heroes were born from the marriages of the Olympian gods with mortals. They were endowed with great strength and superhuman abilities, but did not possess immortality. The heroes were supposed to fulfill the will of the gods on earth, to bring order and justice into people's lives. With the help of their divine parents, they performed all sorts of feats. Heroes were highly revered, legends about them were passed down from generation to generation.

Thetis dipping Achilles in the waters of the Styx
(Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640)

Legends unanimously call Achilles the son of a mortal - Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, while his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, belongs to the host of immortals. The earliest versions of the birth of Achilles mention the furnace of Hephaestus, where Thetis, wanting to deify Achilles (and make him immortal), put her son, holding him by the heel. According to another ancient legend that Homer does not mention, the mother of Achilles, Thetis, wanting to test whether her son was mortal or immortal, wanted to dip the newborn Achilles in boiling water, just as she did with her former children, but Peleus opposed this. Later legends tell that Thetis, wanting to make her son immortal, plunged him into the waters of the Styx or, according to another version, into the fire, so that only the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable; hence the proverb that is still used today - "Achilles' heel" - to indicate someone's weak side.

Baby Achilles is handed over to Chiron to be raised

As a child, Achilles bore the name Pyrrisius (translated as "Ice"), but when the fire burned his lips, he was called Achilles ("lipless"). According to other authors, Achilles was called Ligiron as a child. Such a change of a child's name to an adult, associated with trauma or a feat, is a relic of an initiation ritual (cf. the change of the child's name "Alkid" to "Hercules" after the hero killed the Cithaeron lion and defeated King Ergin).

Teaching Achilles (James Barry (1741-1806)

Achilles was brought up by Chiron on Pelion. He was not Helen's fiancé (as only Euripides calls him). Chiron fed Achilles with the bone marrow of deer and other animals, hence supposedly from a-chylos, and his name "feedless" came about, that is, "not breastfed." According to one interpretation, Achilles found an herb that can heal wounds.

The education of Achilles and the beginning of the war for Troy

Achilles was raised by the Phoenix, and the centaur Chiron taught him the art of healing. According to another legend, Achilles did not know the art of medicine, but nevertheless healed Telef.

At the request of Nestor and Odysseus and according to the will of his father, Achilles joined the campaign against Troy at the head of 50 ships (or 60), and took with him his tutor Phoenix and childhood friend Patroclus (some authors call Patroclus Achilles' lover). According to Homer, Achilles arrived in the army of Agamemnon from Phthia. According to Lesha's poem, a storm brought Achilles to Skyros.

Identification of Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes (Bray)

The legend of the post-Homer cycle conveys that Thetis, wanting to save her son from participating in a fatal campaign for him, hid him from Lycomedes, the king of the island of Skyros, where Achilles in women's clothes was between the royal daughters. The cunning trick of Odysseus, who, under the guise of a merchant, laid out women's jewelry in front of the girls and, having added weapons to them, ordered to suddenly raise a battle cry and noise, discovered the floor of Achilles (who immediately grabbed his weapon), as a result, the exposed Achilles was forced to join the campaign of the Greeks.

According to some authors, at the beginning of the campaign, Achilles was 15 years old, and the war lasted 20 years. The first shield of Achilles was made by Hephaestus, this scene is depicted on vases.

During the long siege of Ilion, Achilles repeatedly launched raids on various neighboring cities. According to the existing version, he wandered the Scythian land for five years in search of Iphigenia.

At the beginning of the war, Achilles tried to take the city of Monia (Pedas), and a local girl fell in love with him. “There is nothing strange in the fact that he, being amorous and intemperate, could zealously study music.”

Achilles in the Iliad

The protagonist of the Iliad.

In the tenth year of the siege of Ilion, Achilles captured the beautiful Briseis. She served as a bone of contention who had to return her captive Astinoma to her father Chris, and therefore claimed the possession of Briseis.

Achilles receives ambassadors from Agamemnon
(Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)

Enraged, Achilles refused to take further part in the battles (compare with the similar refusal to fight the offended Karna, the greatest hero of the Indian legend "Mahabharata"). Thetis, wanting to take revenge on Agamemnon for the offense inflicted on her son, begged Zeus to grant victory to the Trojans.

Angry Achilles (Hermann Wilhelm Bissen (1798-1868)

The next morning, Thetis brought her son new armor, forged by the skillful hand of Hephaestus himself (in particular, the shield is described in the Iliad as a marvelous work of art, a description of great importance for the original history of Greek art). ; Hector alone dared to oppose him here, but nevertheless he fled from Achilles.

Achilles duel with Hector

Pursuing the killer of his friend, Achilles forced Hector three times to run around the walls of Troy, finally overtook and killed him, tied him naked behind him to the Greek camp. Magnificently celebrating the funeral feast for his fallen friend Patroclus, Achilles returned the corpse of Hector to his father, King Priam, who came to the hero’s tent to pray for this for a rich ransom.

Priam asking Achilles for the body of Hector, 1824
(Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806-1858)

In the Iliad, 23 Trojans were killed by Achilles, named after them, for example, Asteropey. Aeneas crossed arms with Achilles, but then fled from him. Achilles fought Agenor, who was saved by Apollo.

Death of Achilles

The legends of the epic cycle tell that during the further siege of Troy, Achilles killed in battle the queen of the Amazons and the Ethiopian prince, who came to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles killed Memnon in revenge for his friend Antilochus, the son of Nestor. In Quintus' poem, Achilles killed 6 Amazons, 2 Trojans, and the Ethiopian Memnon. According to Hyginus, he killed Troilus, Astynomus, and Pilemenes. In total, 72 soldiers fell at the hands of Achilles.

Having slain many enemies, Achilles in the last battle reached the Scaean gates of Ilion, but here the hero died. According to some authors, Achilles was directly killed by Apollo himself, or by the arrow of Apollo, who took the form of Paris, or by Paris, who hid behind the statue of Apollo Fimbreysky. The earliest author to mention the vulnerability of Achilles' ankle is Statius, but there is an earlier depiction on a 6th-century amphora. BC e., where we see Achilles, wounded in the leg.

The death of Achilles

Later legends transfer the death of Achilles to the temple of Apollo in Fimbra, near Troy, where he appeared to marry Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam. These legends report that Achilles was killed by Paris and Deiphobes when he wooed Polixena and came to negotiate.

According to Ptolemy Hephaestion, Achilles was killed by Helen or Penthesilea, after which Thetis resurrected him, he killed Penthesilea and returned to Hades

Later traditions

According to the existing version, the body of Achilles was redeemed for an equal weight of gold from the gold-bearing river Paktol.

Shield of Achilles

The Greeks erected a mausoleum for Achilles on the banks of the Hellespont, and here, in order to appease the shadow of the hero, they sacrificed Polixene to him. For the armor of Achilles, according to the story of Homer, Ajax Telamonides and Odysseus Laertides argued. Agamemnon awarded them to the latter. In the Odyssey, Achilles is in the underworld, where Odysseus meets him. Achilles was buried in a golden amphora (Homer), which Dionysus presented to Thetis (Lycophron, Stesichorus).

But already “Ethiopida”, one of the epics of the epic cycle, tells that Thetis took her son away from the burning fire and transferred him to the island of Levka (called the Serpent Island at the mouth of the Istra Danube), where he continues to live in the company of other deified heroes and heroines . This island served as the center of the cult of Achilles, as well as the mound that rises on the Sigeian hill in front of Troy and is still reputed to be the tomb of Achilles. The sanctuary and monument of Achilles, as well as the monuments of Patroclus and Antilochus, were at Cape Sigei. His temples were still in Elis, Sparta and other places.

Philostratus (born in 170) in his work “On Heroes” (215) cites a dialogue between a Phoenician merchant and a winegrower, which tells about the events on the Serpent Island. With the end of the Trojan War, Achilles and Helen entered into marriage after death (the marriage of the bravest with the most beautiful) and live on the White Island (Levka Island) at the mouth of the Danube on Ponte Euxinus. One day, Achilles appeared to a merchant who sailed to the island and asked him to buy a slave girl for him in Troy, indicating how to find her. The merchant fulfilled the order and delivered the girl to the island, but before his ship had sailed far from the coast, he and his companions heard the wild cries of the unfortunate girl: Achilles tore her apart - she, it turns out, was the last of the descendants of the royal family of Priam. The screams of the unfortunate woman reach the ears of the merchant and his companions. The role of the owner of the White Island, performed by Achilles, becomes understandable in the light of the article by H. Hommel, who showed that even in the 7th century. BC e. this character, long turned into an epic hero, still acted in his original function as one of the afterlife demons.

It is called "reigning over the Scythians." Demodoc sings a song about him. In Troy, the ghost of Achilles appeared, hunting animals.

The spear of Achilles was kept in Phaselis in the temple of Athena. The cenotaph of Achilles was in Elis, in the gymnasium. According to Timaeus, Periander erected a fortification of Achilles against the Athenians from the stones of Ilion, which is refuted by Demetrius of Scepsis. The statues of naked ephebes with spears were called Achilles.

Origin of the image

There is a hypothesis that initially in Greek mythology, Achilles was one of the demons of the underworld (which included other heroes, for example, Hercules). The assumption about the divine nature of Achilles was expressed by H. Hommel in his article. He shows on the material of Greek early classical texts that even in the 7th century. BC e. this character, long turned into an epic hero, still acted in his original function as one of the afterlife demons. Hommel's publication caused an active discussion, which has not yet been completed.

Image in art

Literature

The protagonist of the tragedies of Aeschylus "Myrmidons" (fr.131-139 Radt), "Nereids" (fr.150-153 Radt), "Phrygians, or the Ransom of the body of Hector" (fr.263-267 Radt); satyr dramas by Sophocles "Achilles Admirers" (fr.149-157 Radt) and "Companions" (fr.562-568 Radt), Euripides' tragedy "Iphigenia in Aulis". The tragedies "Achilles" were written by Aristarchus of Tegey, Jophon, Astidamant the Younger, Diogenes, Karkin the Younger, Cleophantus, Evaret, Chaeremon had a tragedy "Achilles the killer of Tersitas", from Latin authors Livy Andronicus ("Achilles"), Ennius ("Achilles according to Aristarchus ”), Actions (“Achilles, or the Myrmidons”).

art

The plastic art of antiquity repeatedly reproduced the image of Achilles. His image has come down to us on many vases, bas-reliefs with individual scenes or a whole series of them, also on the pediment group from Aegina (kept in Munich, see Aegina art), but there is not a single statue or bust that could be attributed to him with certainty.

One of the most remarkable busts of Achilles is kept in St. Petersburg, in the Hermitage. The sad and at the same time indignant head is crowned with a helmet, which ends in a crest hanging forward, mounted on the back of the sphinx; behind this crest curls with a long tail. On both sides of the crest, a fingerboard is carved in flat relief, they are separated by a palmetto. The front forehead plaque of the helmet, ending on both sides with curls, is also decorated with a palmette in the middle; on either side of it are a pair of sharp-faced, thin-tailed dogs with long flattened ears, in collars (apparently a pair of hunting dogs sniffing the ground). The facial expression resembles a bust kept in Munich. It must be assumed that here the moment is captured when the hero was already put on the armor shackled by Hephaestus, and now his face was already on fire with anger, a thirst for revenge, but sadness for a dear friend still trembles on his lips, like a reflection of inner heart anguish. This bust, apparently, dates back to the 2nd century AD. e. to the era of Hadrian, but his idea is too deep for this era, poor creative thought, and therefore it remains only to assume that this head, like the Munich head, is an imitation, the original of which could be created no later than Praxiteles, that is, no later than IV-III in. BC e.

In cinema

In 2003, the two-part television film "Helen of Troy" was released, where Joe Montana played Achilles.

Brad Pitt plays the role of Achilles in the 2004 film Troy.

In astronomy

The asteroid (588) Achilles, discovered in 1906, is named after Achilles.

This ancient Greek hero, who came along with a hundred thousandth army under the walls of Troy, and became the central character of Homer's poem Iliad, had in abundance everything that from time immemorial has been the pride of a real man. The gods generously rewarded him with strength, courage, beauty and nobility. He was deprived of only one thing in life - happiness.

Mortal descendants of the inhabitants of Olympus

We know who Achilles is from the works of many ancient authors, the most famous and authoritative of which is Homer. From the pages of his immortal poem, we learn that those who inhabited the top of Olympus used to descend to earth and marry mortal people who, in one way or another, deserved this honor.

Son of an earthly king and a sea goddess

Wanting to fill this gap, Thetis resorted to an old and proven remedy, dropping him immediately after birth into the waters flowing in the underworld. From this, the entire body of the baby was covered with an invisible, but impenetrable shell, which no weapon could hit. The only exception was the heel, for which the mother held him, lowering him into the water.

The tutors of the young prince

Escape to Skyros

When the war began, in which the Greeks with their many allies approached the walls of Troy, where Queen Helen ruled, recognized as the most beautiful woman of all times and peoples, our hero was fifteen years old. By the way, this detail allows us to determine with a certain accuracy in what year Achilles lived. Historians date the beginning at the turn of the 13th and 12th centuries BC, which means that he was born around 1215 BC. e or so.

Cunning Odysseus

A hero who terrifies the enemy

Under the walls of Troy, Achilles arrived not alone, but accompanied by a hundred thousandth army, which was sent with him by his father, King Peleus, who, due to his old age, was deprived of the opportunity to personally take part in the siege of the city. He gave his son his armor, forged for him once and possessing magical properties. A warrior wearing them became invincible.