Achilles: The Greek Tragic Hero

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Do you ever wonder why the back of your heel is called your Achilles? It’s named after the Greek mythological hero who was nearly immortal except for the back of his heel. Even now, all these years later, Achilles has a huge effect on the modern world. He can easily be regarded as one of the most important mythological beings due to his tragic story, great feats in war, and his being described as a hero. The story of Achilles is one of the more tragic ones of Greek mythology. Thetis, his mother, was very concerned about her son’s mortality. She went to many extremes to make him immortal including burning him over fire every night, rubbing his lesions with ambrosial ointment, and dipping him in the Styx River. By using the same variety of ointment as the gods, she hoped to give Achilles some of their qualities such as immortality. The Styx’ water was said to have the ability to grant the quality as well. However, when Thetis dipped her son into the water she gripped him by the foot very tightly. As a …show more content…
In total, he took 12 cities. He had many notable kills including Hector, the Trojan prince. Achilles was in large part the reason the Greeks were able to pull out a win in that war. He was undefeated in battle and never came close to losing. When the tenth year of the war came, an altercation with a fellow Greek left Achilles out of the war for some time. His absence was felt greatly, and without him, the Greeks were losing a lot of ground. The Trojans were no longer afraid to fight because the most feared warrior was no longer on the opposing side. Following the resolution of his conflict, Achilles returned to the battlefield to completely ravage the opponents and win the war. Without him, the Greeks would have quickly lost the war