Achilles

Also known as: Ligyron · Family: Greek · Role: son of Peleus and Thetis · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 3.13

🌐 Also appears in: The Iliad (as Achilles) · The Odyssey (as Achilles) · The Aeneid (as Achilles) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Achilles) · Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (as Achilles) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Achilles) · The Divine Comedy (as Achilles)

Achilles, also known as Ligyron, was born to Peleus and Thetis. When Thetis abandoned him, Peleus brought him to Chiron, who received and fed him, naming him Achilles. After Patroclus fled to Peleus’ house, he became Achilles’ companion. At nine, Achilles was hidden by Thetis in Lycomedes’ court, disguised as a maiden; there he had an intrigue with Deidamia, who bore his son Neoptolemus, also called Pyrrhus. Odysseus exposed him with a trumpet blast, and Achilles went to Troy.

At Troy, Calchas had declared that the city could not be taken without Achilles, who served as admiral under Agamemnon. He healed Telephus with his spear, killed Tenes, and was linked to a promised marriage with Iphigenia. He fought Troilus, Lycaon, Asteropaeus, and Hector, killing Hector in single combat and dragging his body to the ships. After Priam ransomed Hector’s body, Odysseus, Phoenix, and Ajax son of Telamon urged Achilles to fight again; he laid aside his anger, recovered Briseis, received armor from Hephaestus, and returned to war.

Achilles killed Penthesilia after she slew many in battle, then fell in love with her after her death, and killed Thersites for jeering at him. He killed Memnon, while Paris and Apollo later shot him in the ankle at the Scaean gate. After his death, Polyxena was slaughtered on his grave, while it was said that Achilles consorted with Medea in the Isles of the Blest.