Achilles' Heel: The Death of Achilles in Ancient Myth

Unknown author

98 citations0/0 files storedClassical Antiquity

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Classical Antiquity Studies Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies Classical Studies and Philology

Abstract

This study examines the death of Achilles in ancient myth, focusing on the hero's imperfect invulnerability. It is concluded that this concept is of late origin, perhaps of the Hellenistic period. Early evidence about Achilles' infancy does not suggest that he was made invulnerable, and early evidence concerning his death apparently indicates that Achilles was wounded more than once. The story of Achilles' heel as we know it is therefore late, though it is demonstrable that certain themes and motifs of earlier traditions about Achilles were preserved in later traditions. What caused the concept of Achilles' imperfect invulnerability to emerge, it is proposed, was the late story in which the hero is ambushed in the temple of Thymbraean Apollo. Certainly Achilles was wounded in the lower leg in early Greek myth. An explanation is needed if this does not reflect the story of his imperfect invulnerability, and the arguments of several scholars are surveyed. The theory that the "swift-footed" hero was first immobilized by a lower wound before being slain is ultimately favored, though it is suggested that invulnerable armor and poison may have played a role. A comparative approach to myth and ritual is employed, with attention given to evidence from various areas (e.g., Scythia, the Near East) and ages (Proto-Indo-European to modern) in an effort to illuminate stories about the infancy and death of Achilles. The study also assesses two alleged reflections in the Iliad of Achilles' death, the death of Patroclus in Book 16 and the wounding of Diomedes in Book 11. The evidence in ancient art and literature about the death of Achilles is often obscure, but this exploration of continuity and innovation in myth about Achilles should assist our understanding of it.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 98 citations exist upstream.

References

1979Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry 1990Greek mythology and poetics 1977The Epic Cycle and the uniqueness of Homer 1985The Iliad : a commentary 1953The Origins of European Thought.1976The Homeric Hymn to Demeter 1984The Mortal Hero 1982Homer on Life and Death

Cited by

2005The Talking Greeks 1997Beyond Neo-Analysis: Problems with the Vengeance Theory 2013ILIAD24 AND THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS 2019Achilles beside Gilgamesh: Mortality and Wisdom in Early Epic Poetry 2017The Tale of Meleager in the Iliad 2019Achilles beside Gilgamesh 2009Hephaestus on Foot in the Ceramicus 1996The Non-Homeric Cypria

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.