Achilles
Publié le 22/02/2012
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Greek The son of Peleus and Thetis;
married to Deidamia; father of Neoptolemus. Achilles
is the central figure of Homer's Iliad, the story of
the Trojan War, a 20-year battle between the Greeks
and the Trojans after the abduction of Helen by Paris.
Writers after Homer further developed the story of
Achilles, and around this figure grew a series of great
legends. A soothsayer prophesied that without the aid
of Achilles the Greeks would never defeat the Trojans.
Achilles went bravely into battle and indeed the
Greeks won the war. Achilles was a hero in battle, and
he has become a symbol of the fighting man doomed
to die in war but glorying in the fulfillment of heroism
and achievement. He is a vivid character, given to
rages and revenge, such as his barbarous treatment of
the body of the slain Trojan hero Hector.
The Childhood of Achilles Thetis, the mother
of Achilles, was a sea Nymph who had been wooed by
Zeus and Poseidon. She reluctantly married Peleus and
left him soon after the birth of Achilles. Knowing that
Achilles was destined to be a hero who would win glory
but also die in battle, she bathed the infant in the river
Styx, trying to make him invulnerable to wounds. But
the heel by which she held the child remained dry, and
it was from an arrow wound in that heel that Achilles
eventually died. The arrow was shot by either Apollo
or Paris, in a battle near the end of the Trojan War.
As Achilles grew, Thetis put him in the care of
Chiron, the gentle and wise Centaur. Chiron fed
the lad the entrails of lions and the marrow of bears
to make him brave, and taught him the arts of riding
and hunting as well as of music and healing.
When the Greek leaders began to prepare for war
with Troy, Peleus, knowing that Achilles faced certain
death in Troy, hid his son in the court of Lycomedes,
king of Scyros, and disguised him as a girl. However,
since the seer Calchas had prophesied that without
Achilles the Trojans would never be defeated in the
war, the Greeks were determined to seek out the young
man. Odysseus, another Greek hero, sent presents to
the "girl," among them a superb spear and shield. When
Achilles promptly and expertly took up these objects in
a battle alarm, the Greeks recognized him for the man
that he was and they led him off to the battlefield.
Achilles at War Achilles had early training in the
art of war (as well as of music and healing) from Chiron.
When he went to war against the Trojans, Achilles
led his own army, unlike the rest of the Greeks, who
acknowledged Agamemnon as their leader. It had been
prophesied that without Achilles the Trojans would
triumph over the Greeks. Therefore there was much
dismay when Agamemnon and Achilles quarreled over
the beautiful captive Briseis, who had been stolen
away from Achilles by Agamemnon. In a fury, Achilles
withdrew his army from the war, with disastrous results
for the Greeks. This is the quarrel from which the
events described in the Iliad commence.
When the Greeks began to lose ground in the
battle against the Trojans, Achilles finally sent his
troops back into war under the leadership of Patroclus,
his dearest friend. Patroclus was killed by the
Trojan hero Hector. Achilles then went back into the
war and routed the Trojans. He slew Hector. Despite
the anguished pleas of Priam (king of the Trojans and
father of Hector), Achilles dragged Hector's body
around the wall of Troy and the tomb of Patroclus.
Achilles finally gave Hector's mutilated body to Priam
in return for the warrior's weight in gold.
Liens utiles
- Sagen des klassischen Altertums: Der Tod des Achilles - Anthologie.
- Myrmidons Greek Warlike people of ancient Thessaly, in the eastern part of the Greek mainland, who accompanied the hero Achilles into battle in the Trojan War.
- Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) Greek Son of Achilles and Deidamia.
- Patroclus Greek The close friend of the hero Achilles.
- Peleus Greek Son of King Aecus; brother of Telamon; husband of Thetis; father, with Thetis, of the hero Achilles.