Who killed Achilles? Ancient Greek Mythology

This ancient Greek hero, who came with a hundred-thousand-strong army under the walls of Troy, and became the central character of the poem of Homer the Iliad, in abundance there was everything that from time immemorial is the pride of this man. The gods generously rewarded him with strength, courage, beauty and nobility. He was only deprived of happiness in life.

Mortal descendants of the inhabitants of Olympus

About who Achilles is known to us 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 somehow or other have earned this honor.

If you believe the ancient legends, from such unions only heroes appeared who combined 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 mortals.

Son of the earthly king and sea goddess

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

Wanting to fill this gap, Thetis resorted to the old and proven means, dropping it right after birth in the waters of the Styx River, which flowed in the underworld. From this, the entire body of the baby was covered with an invisible but impenetrable shell that could not hit any weapon. The exception was only the heel, for which the mother held it, lowering it into the water.

She became his only vulnerable place, and it was kept secret. But getting ahead, it should be said that the one who killed Achilles, and he finished his life, despite all the efforts of Thetis, as a mere mortal, knew about it. The name of the murderer will be named only at the end of the narrative, so as not to violate the laws of the genre and not reduce the severity of the plot intrigue.

Mentors of the young prince

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

Unlike his fellow tribesmen - cunning and insidious 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 easily killed the wild boars with his bare hands and overtook the deer.

Flight to the island of Skyros

When the war began, in which the Greeks and their numerous allies came to the walls of Troy, where Queen Elena, who was recognized as the most beautiful woman of all times and nations, ruled, our hero turned fifteen. By the way, this detail allows us to determine with certain accuracy, in what year Achilles lived. The beginning of the Trojan War historians date from the XIII and XII centuries BC, hence, it was born approximately 1215 BC. E or so.

The goddess Thetis, in spite of the fact that, having lowered her son into the waters of Sixx, made him almost immortal, allowed, nevertheless, the possible death of Achilles. She decided not to take risks and save him from the campaign in which he was obliged to take part. To this end, the goddess moved her son by magic power to the island of Skyros, where he was hiding in the women's clothes from the call-up to the army among the daughters of the local king Likomed, who naively relied on his chastity.

The trick of Odysseus

However, soon the leader of the Greeks Agamemnon learned the whereabouts of Achilles and sent Odysseus behind him. Before his messenger there was a rather piquant task - to recognize among the young prelests of the one who hid his masculine nature under the women's attire. And Odysseus coped with it brilliantly.

Dressing as a merchant, he spread out before the princesses luxurious fabrics, jewelry, and other things to which women always had weakness, and between them, as if by accident left the sword. When, on his command, the servants issued a battle cry, all the girls shrieked with a squeal, and only one of them grabbed for the weapon, revealing a man and a warrior.

Escorted the recruit to march all island. Sincerely grieved King Lycomedes, and his young daughter Diodamia burst into tears, in the womb of which the son of Achilles (the hero in the whole hero) had already gained strength for the sixth month.

A hero that horrifies the enemy

Under the walls of Troy Achilles, not one arrived, but accompanied by a hundred-thousandth army, sent by his father, King Peleus, who was deprived of the opportunity to personally take part in the siege of the city in old age. He gave his son his armor, forged by him once by God Hephaestus and possessed magic properties. The warrior dressed in them became invincible.

In his poem "Iliad" Homer tells how, taking advantage of his father's gift, his son fought for nine years, horrifying the Trojans, and capturing one city after another. Thanks to the magic powers given him by the Styx waters, as well as to 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 for a time.

Envy, captivated warrior soul

The countless exploits of Achilles earned him a great reputation among ordinary warriors and became the cause of the jealousy that their commander-in-chief Agamemnon consumed. It is known that this low feeling at all times pushed people to baseness, and sometimes even to crimes. The Greek commander was no exception.

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

Soon the unhappy priest appeared in the camp of the Greeks and offered a rich ransom for his daughter, but was refused. In despair, he summoned Apollo himself, who, 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 Calhant, who was among them, communicated with the gods, said that death will not fail until Chris receives his daughter, and Apollo has rich sacrifices.

Agamemnon had to submit, but in retaliation, he took away from Achilles his beloved Briseid and that it was sacrificed to the deity. The same hero was abused and insulted in the presence of soldiers subordinate to him. This act was unexpected for all, since before the commander-in-chief had a reputation not only for a brave but also quite noble person. There is no doubt that there could not have been any magic either. Even more, it is possible that the evil spell was sent to him by the one who killed Achilles at the end of the poem that we recited. But his name will be named a little later.

A disgraced envious person

Innocently affronted and devoid of his best slave, Achilles refused to continue his participation in the war, which made the Trojans, who were tremendously excited by one of his species, ineffably happy. Upon appearing on the seashore, he summoned from his depths his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, and, hearing his story, she begged the supreme god Zeus to help the Trojans defeat the army of Agamemnon and show him that without Achilles they are awaited by death.

So it all happened. The pliable Zeus gave strength to the Trojans, and they began to ruthlessly crush their enemies. The catastrophe seemed imminent, and the vile envious man had nothing to do, publicly, in the presence of all the same warriors, to bring his apologies to Achilles and to give him some of the most beautiful female slaves as compensation for the ruined Briseid.

The last exploits of Achilles

After this, the generous Achilles forgave his abuser and began to smash the defenders of the city with even greater frenzy. This period includes one of his most famous feats - a victory in a duel with the leader of the Trojans, Hector. Achilles not only managed to turn him to flight, but forced three times to run around the walls of Troy, and only then pierced with a spear.

But the gods did not want to make Achilles witness to the fall of Troy, and it was their will that was executed by the one who killed Achilles. Shortly before his death, he committed his last feat - defeated the army of beautiful, but cunning and evil Amazons, who came to the aid of the Trojans, led by their leader Penfesileia.

The death of Achilles

Ancient authors, in many respects contradicting each other, in the life of Achilles are nevertheless unanimous in the depiction of his last hour. According to their testimony, one day he tried to break into the besieged city through his main gate. Suddenly, he blocked the way, none other than Apollo himself, who had not quite 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 fed shameful jealousy and jealousy towards a mortal man, considered, like him, the standard of beauty. The perniciousness of this low feeling among people has already been discussed in our story, in this case they were tainted with the name of the deity.

Blocking Achilles' road, but expecting, nevertheless, respectful treatment, he instead received a rough shout and a threat to be pierced by a spear, if he did not get out of the way this very hour. Offended, Apollo stepped aside, but only to immediately commit his revenge.

Further, the authors diverge somewhat in the description of what happened. According to one version, Apollo himself launched a fatal arrow after the offender, and he was the one who killed Achilles. On the other, this envious deed was entrusted by the envious God to Paris, the son of the Trojan king, who was nearby. But since the arrow hit Achilles in his only vulnerable place, which only Apollo knew, there is no doubt that it was he who directed her flight. The one who killed Achilles on the heel, could not but know his secrets. Therefore, the murder of the hero is attributed to Apollo - the most beautiful of the gods, but unable to overcome the low and shallow feelings.

The history 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, the greatest glory among them was earned by Homer with his famous poem "Iliad". The very death of Achilles gave birth to a winged expression - "Achilles' heel", denoting a weak, vulnerable place.