We all have an Achilles tendon, both literally and figuratively. In the first case, we actually have two, one on each leg.
Achilles tendons are tough bands of fibrous tissue that connect the calf muscles to the heel bone. When the calf muscles are flexed, the Achilles tendon pulls on the heel and this movement allows us to stand on tiptoe when walking, running or jumping.
The Achilles tendons are the biggest and strongest in the body—which is curious, as we use the term “Achilles heel” to designate the weakness of something or a person. But this, like so much else, owes to the marvelous imagination of the ancient Greeks.
menacing prophecy
There are several versions of the story of Achilles, the greatest of all Greek heroes of the Trojan War. But in all these versions, his life is marked by prophecies, even before he was born.
Achilles’ mother, Thetis, was a nymph or sea goddess with whom Zeus — the king of the gods — and Poseidon — the king of the seas — had fallen in love and were doing everything possible and impossible to conquer her.
One version tells that Thetis rejected the two gods; Zeus was so enraged that he decided she would never marry anyone.
Another version says that Themis —the goddess of “good advice”, the embodiment of divine order, laws and customs— and Prometheus —the titan “friend” of mortals— knew as fundamental to order on Olympus as neither Zeus nor Poseidon, if they married Thetis.
But what is the reason? Because it was written that “the goddess of the sea would have a son who would become a prince, stronger than his father, whose hand would wield a weapon mightier than lightning and the invincible trident.” In other words, the nymph’s son would be more extraordinary than his father and none of the gods of Olympus would be happy about it.
Themis and Prometheus alerted the gods in time. Zeus was about to sleep with Thetis when he learned of the prophecy. He was so concerned that he arranged for Thetis to marry a mortal so that her son could never challenge the divine power.
The chosen one was Peleus, king of the famous warriors called myrmidons. To the gods, he had several points in his favor: he was the most pious man on the planet, worthy enough to have a divine wife, and, most important, he was mortal, so he could not bear an immortal child. In other words, no matter how great your son was, his greatness would one day come to an end.
Imperfect invulnerability
The only deity who wasn’t satisfied with the decision was Thetis, who couldn’t accept that one day her son would be taken so cruelly by the merciless Death—which she, being a goddess, would not.
So she did everything possible to avoid the greatest pain a mother can feel, the death of her child.
Some narrators tell that the goddess of the sea tried to immortalize Achilles with a great purification ritual, which consisted of burning his mortality bit by bit in fire every night, anointing his body with ambrosia. But Peleus surprised her just before she completed the task. He was so horrified to see her put her son in the fire that he didn’t even want to listen to his wife’s explanations.
Another, milder version indicates that Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx, which marked the boundary between the world of the living and the dead.
To make him invincible, invulnerable, and immortal, the goddess dipped her baby into the waters of the river, whose name (Styx) means “tremor” and expresses disgust at death. The only part of Achilles’ body that remained vulnerable was his heel, for it was by holding him that Thetis lifted him to bathe him in the magical waters.
more prophecies
This was not the only precaution taken by Achilles’ parents to prevent the boy’s death. They ensured that their son was educated by none other than Chiron, “the wisest and fairest of all centaurs”, mentor to many of the great heroes of mythology, such as the argonauts Jason and Peleus, as well as Aesculapius, the god of healing and medicine.
Under Chiron’s care, Achilles ate a diet that included entrails from lions and wild pigs and marrow from wolves, to fortify him as he learned hunting techniques, as well as music and intellectual pursuits.
And, according to some scholars of myth, when Peleus received the message from the oracle that his son would die fighting in Troy, he hid Achilles in the court of Lycomedes on the island of Esquirus, disguised as a girl among the king’s many daughters, to prevent he was called to battle.
But destiny was written and another prophecy took charge of fulfilling it. When the soothsayer Calchas told the Greeks that they could not win the war to rescue Helen from Prince Paris of Troy without the help of Achilles, they sought him out and found him.
how fate fulfilled
What happened next was epic, as Homer recounted in the 8th century BC.
The 51 days of the last year of the war, narrated in the Iliad, begins with a fierce dispute between Agamemnon, “the Atrida, king of men, and the divine Achilles”, and ends with the funeral of Hector, eldest son of King Priam and the greatest hero. celebrated from Troy, killed by Achilles in a duel and dragged for days, tied to his cart.
Homer tells us a great deal about Achilles’ heroism, strength, camaraderie, and even fury, but he does not mention his death—although Hector has foreseen it in his last moments and the Odyssey does mention his funeral. Likewise, the Greek dramatist never mentions the hero’s heel.
The account of Achilles’ death was carried out by other poets, who narrated, for example, that he faced King Memnon of Ethiopia, who had come to help the Trojans and killed Achilles in battle.
Other poets have told that the hero fell in love with the queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea, when their gazes locked as the queen’s spear pierced him… but it was too late. Still others said that Achilles died from an arrow fired by the Trojan prince Paris—the same one whose flight with the beautiful (and married) Helen had sparked the war against the Greeks.
In perhaps the most famous version of its end, the hero died on the battlefield against the Trojans. In another version, he was scaling the walls of Troy, about to invade the city, when he died.
And there are still other accounts that Achilles had fallen so deeply in love with Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, that he agreed to defect to the Trojan side if the king accepted his marriage. This was done, but when Achilles went to the temple to confirm his commitment in the eyes of the gods, Paris, who was in hiding, killed the hero.
But most sources guarantee that it was the god Apollo — who supported the Trojans — who guided, in battle, a poisoned arrow to Achilles’ vulnerable point: the heel. Only in this way was it possible to defeat the warrior who appears in the first verse of the Iliad, whose wrath moves the whole story – the murderous, marauding, moody, temperamental, merciless and cruel demigod, but also always the fastest, most insightful, greatest, brightest, most important and most beautiful of men.
Although his immortal mother will likely continue to mourn her death, Achilles has lived on in the collective memory for some 28 centuries.
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