Diomedes was afraid to attack a goddess but Athena urged him bitterly on and Aphrodite fled weeping from the battlefield. While she tended her wound, she thought of another way of helping her Trojans, a way of doing away with Achilles. He had many strengths, but Aphrodite had one of her own, the ability to turn strengths into weaknesses.
She turned to little Eros, who was trying to kiss her cut better. You made Narcissus fall in love with his own reflection. And you brought honour to Aphrodite by making Paris fall in love with Helen, although he had no more than heard of her.
But now I have a real challenge for you. Achilles has sworn never-ending hatred towards Trojans, and promises to kill every last one of them. Do you think you could make him fall in love with a Trojan?
Or is that beyond even your powers? Just name her. The battlefield was empty now, for the sun was setting and the warriors were already in their respective encampments, tending their wounds and preparing for sleep by sharpening their swords so they could resume the fighting in the morning. But one of the Greeks was still at war. For Achilles had hidden himself at a fountain just outside the city walls, the place where Troilus was accustomed to fetch water.
Already the long-haired prince had filled his jar and remounted his magnificent stallion. Achilles leapt from his place of ambush. Troilus dropped the jar, dug his heels into the flanks of his steed and galloped away from him.
For this is one of the horses Zeus himself gave to the house of Priam. Achilles accelerated. Troilus galloped faster. He could not believe that Achilles was actually gaining on him. From the battlements of Troy the night watch saw what was happening down below and quickly summoned Hector and fair Aeneas, the son of Aphrodite. Achilles finally caught up with his quarry outside the sanctuary of Apollo. Running alongside the galloping horse he reached up to the rider, pulling his hair.
After he was born, his mother dipped Achilles into the River Styx to protect him from the dangers of the mortal world. In doing so, she left a vulnerable spot on his heel where she held onto him as she dipped him into the river.
When Achilles got older, he joined the Greeks and entered the Trojan War. His mother, Thetis, asked the blacksmith of Mount Olympus to make Achilles a sword and shield to protect him. While he was not an immortal god, he had some qualities and his armor that made him more powerful than the average Greek man. Achilles and Apollo were very similar even though Achilles was a mortal and Apollo was a god. Because of this, they were enemies, as Apollo sought to remind Achilles that he was not immortal.
He is hidden on the island of Skyros, disguised as a girl at the court of King Lycomedes among his numerous daughters. The Greek kings Odysseus and Diomedes discover his whereabouts and trick him into revealing himself so he can join the troops on the expedition to Troy.
Amongst these goods they place weapons, which Achilles instinctively grabs and is found out. Achilles arrives at Troy with 50 ships. He is the leader of the army known as the Myrmidons and is the best fighter on the side of the Greeks. Troy is a well-defended city and nine long years of siege follow. The epic poem which covered this part of the war the Cypria does not survive, so its events are known in much less detail.
In art, a popular scene was that of Achilles playing a board game with the hero Ajax. The image suggests that the Greek heroes spent many long hours whiling away the time during the siege of Troy. Achilles is initially angry because the leader of the Greek forces, King Agamemnon, takes a captive woman named Briseis from him.
By taking away the prize of honour that has been allocated to Achilles in recognition of his fighting prowess, Agamemnon dishonours him. Achilles withdraws from battle and refuses to fight. When the Trojans make gains in the battle, Agamemnon agrees to send an embassy to Achilles to try to persuade him to re-join the fighting by offering him a wealth of gifts. Patroclus is killed in the bloody fighting by the Trojan prince Hector, who mistakes him for Achilles, and the real Achilles is utterly distraught.
The two sides meet in battle and Hector waits outside the city gates, ready to fight Achilles. Achilles, with his lust for revenge still not satisfied, deliberately mistreats the body of Hector, tying him to his chariot and dragging him behind in the dirt as he drives back to the Greek camp. Their emotional encounter is powerfully depicted on this silver cup, which shows Priam coming to Achilles and kissing his hands.
I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before — I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son. The two men weep together and share a meal. After the death of Hector, the Trojans, with their best fighter dead, call on their allies to help them defeat the Greeks. The Ethiopian King Memnon brings his army to support the Trojans, but is killed by Achilles in battle. Achilles also faces the Amazons — the tribe of female warriors — and fights their leader, Queen Penthesilea.
At the moment Achilles kills her with his spear, their eyes meet and he falls in love with her, too late. Achilles is killed by an arrow, shot by the Trojan prince Paris. In most versions of the story, the god Apollo is said to have guided the arrow into his vulnerable spot, his heel.
In one version of the myth Achilles is scaling the walls of Troy and about to sack the city when he is shot. In other accounts he is marrying the Trojan princess Polyxena and supposedly negotiating an end to the war when Paris fires the shot that kills him.
After his death, Achilles is cremated, and his ashes are mixed with those of his dear friend Patroclus. The Odyssey describes a huge tomb of Achilles on the beach at Troy, and Odysseus meets Achilles during his visit to the underworld, among a group of dead heroes.
For the ancient Greeks he was an archetypal hero who embodied the human condition. Despite his greatness he was still mortal and fated to die. A hero cult for Achilles developed in several areas across Greece where he was venerated and worshipped like a god. For the Romans, Achilles was on the one hand a model of military prowess but also, for poets such as Horace and Catullus, an archetype of brutality.
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