Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained- in today’s video, we’re going to be discussing
Achilles. Achilles was the son of Peleus and Thetis. Pelus was the king of Phthia,
which was either a city or district in Thessaly, and the grandson of Zeus,
making Achilles the great-grandson of Zeus. Thetis was a sea-goddess and one of 50 Nereids,
a group of sea-nymphs who were the daughters of Nereus, who was a sea-god and the son of Gaia,
the personification of the earth, and of Pontus, the personification of the sea.
When Zeus found out that any children he sired by Thetis would be more powerful than himself,
he decided to marry off Thetis to Peleus, a mortal man, to forestall any such eventuality.
Another version has Zeus marry Thetis to a mortal after she rejects his advance.
Thetis and Peleus’ marriage is a very important piece of this story, for it was the impetus that
catalyzed the Trojan War, the conflict that would claim Achilles' life. You could say that
it was the marriage of Achilles’ own parents that was the architect of the hero’s own doom.
The wedding was a grand affair. All of the gods were in attendance. That is, all of the gods
except for Eris, the goddess of strife, who was intentionally snubbed by not being extended an
invitation. Being deliberately excluded didn’t sit well with Eris, and so she devised a subtle and
insidious plan. Her invitation be damned, she showed up at the wedding. She brought with her
a golden apple inscribed with the words, “for the fairest”. Three goddesses, Hera, Athena,
and Aphrodite, strode forward to claim the gift for their own, each goddess asserting
that it was she who was the most beautiful and, thus, the rightful recipient of the apple.
This dispute was a matter of deep contention between the three, so it was decided that Paris,
a prince of Troy, was to be the arbiter who would adjudicate. Each goddess attempted to bribe him.
Hera offered an expansive kingdom, Athena, victory in war, and Aphrodite,
the most beautiful woman in all the world. Paris was most seduced by Aphrodite’s offer,
and so it was she who was declared most beautiful. The prince promptly set sail for Sparta where he
took Helen back to Troy with him, either willingly or unwillingly, depending on the version.
This theft precipitated the Trojan war. Menelaus, Helen’s husband, and Agamemnon
rallied all of Greece’s armies, setting sail with a thousand ships to assail the walls
of Troy. And it would be this war that would prove the defining chapter of Achilles’ life.
When Achilles was but an infant, his mother contrived to make him immortal. There are two
versions of this. The first is that she placed him atop fiery embers at night and then anointed him
with ambrosia during the day. Peleus, fearing that his son would be burned to death, put an
end to this process before the transformation was complete, leaving Achilles mortal. The second
version is perhaps the better known of the two. It entails Achilles’ mother holding him by his heels
and dipping him into the river Styx, one of the rivers of the underworld.
This was done successfully, but the process was ultimately flawed; for it left Achilles
with two vulnerable areas, two chinks in his otherwise impervious body: his heels.
In his early years Achilles was tutored by the centaur Chiron, who was quite the renaissance man,
being a prodigious healer, gifted in prophecy, and learned in many arts and disciplines,
including music and gymnastics. The divine twins, Apollo and Artemis were said to have taught him.
It was common for young, would-be heroes to be sent to Chiron for tutelage.
Others mentored by him include Jason, Actaeon, Asclepius, and the twins Castor and Pollux.
Menelaus and Agamemnon galvanized all of Greece. Every chieftain answered the call to war except
for two, Odysseus and Achilles, which was an issue because Greece would need every man of arms
that could be mustered, especially two heroes and leaders. Odysseus didn’t see the profit
in departing his harvest and his family to fight overseas on account of one man’s unfaithful wife.
Achilles went into hiding, for his mother knew that he was fated to die should he go
to Troy and fight. Odysseus was first targeted. He feigned madness so as to appear unfit for war,
but his deception was seen through. Odysseus was ploughing his fields
when a messenger appeared to implore him to join the war. The messenger placed
Odysseus' son in the path of the plough so that Odysseus was forced to veer out of the way,
proving Odysseus to be sane. Achilles was sent by his mother to the court of the Lycomedes. There,
Achilles wore women’s clothing and hid among the maidens. Odysseus, having already been recruited
by the Greeks to fight the Trojans, disguised himself as a peddler. He brought with him all
manner of goods: many fine trinkets and baubles and also many fine weapons. Of all the maidens,
only Achilles was interested in the weapons, for though, ostensibly, he was a woman, he could
not entirely conceal his true nature. Odysseus, shrewd as always, knew Achilles at once. And so,
though both Odysseus and Achilles attempted to avoid the war. Their efforts were in vain.
For years the Trojan War had raged, both sides winning many victories and suffering many defeats,
neither able to definitively overmatch the other and gain a war-winning advantage. Achilles had
proven himself to be the greatest warrior in all the war. No one could withstand the
fury of his attack. His blade felled men by the score, and he captured or razed many fortresses.
The focus of the iliad is on events that transpired in the final year of the Trojan war,
which was a protracted slog that apparently lasted for 10 years.
The closing events of Achilles’ life were largely dictated by a quarrel between Achilles
and Agamemnon. One of Apollo’s priests had been abducted and given to Agamemnon as a prize. Apollo
rained down fiery arrows of pestilence upon the Greeks as punishment for this offence. Achilles
gathered the other chiefs in council, explaining to them that there was no hope of victory
while they were also besieged by a god’s wrath. Achilles suggested that they return the priest,
which Agamemnon was forced to do. Now bereft of his prize, Agamemnon seized the maiden Briseis,
who was Achilles' prize, for his own, an impulsive and petty act Agamemnon would come to rue.
The slight dealt to him caused Achilles to feel deeply dishonored,
so he refused to fight the Trojans, sidelining himself and his men. The days
following Achilles withdrawal were marked by Trojan victory after Trojan victory.
The war had become so dire for the Greeks that they were driven back to their own ships,
fighting within their own camp. The situation came to a head when Patroclus, Achilles dearest friend,
could no longer remain idle, abiding Achilles’s orders to abstain from combat.
Here’s a quote from the Iliad in which Achilles addresses Patroclus during this grim hour:
“Go. Take my armor, my men, too, and defend the ships. I cannot go. I am a man dishonored.
For my own ships, if the battle comes near them, I will fight.
I will not fight for men who have disgraced me.”
Achilles’ resolve in his withdrawal from combat might have held if his dear friend had not been
slain. Patroclus fought like a man possessed, almost emulating the man whose armor he wore.
But even on his finest day, Patroclus was no match for Hector, who stripped the body and took
Achilles armor for himself after his opponent was slain. Tethis had Hephaestus fashion new,
divine armor for Achilles, who was nigh-unkillable while his body was protected by what the smith-god
had wrought. A fire burned within Achilles, who had become onslaught incarnate. Slaughtering
men the whole way, he drove the Trojans back to their walls until he and Hector were face to face.
Hector fought valiantly, pushing Achilles harder than any man had before,
but in the end, Achilles' fury was too much for the prince of Troy. Consumed by rage, Achilles
stripped Hector’s corpse, pierced his feet so that they could be lashed to the back of his chariot,
and then dragged the mangled corpse around the walls of Troy,
parading this morbid display - the husk of his fallen enemy - for all to see.
Such abject defilement of a corpse, especially the corpse of one such as Hector, did not sit
well with the gods. Guided by Hermes, King Priam was able to walk through the Greek camp unnoticed
and enter Achilles’ tent. Priam went down on his knees and kissed Achilles’ hands, the hands
that had just killed and mutilated his eldest son. Achilles' wrath turned to sorrow - for his friend,
for what he had done - and he and the old king shared a moment of mourning.
With Hector dead, Achilles knew that his own death loomed near. Prince Memnon of Ethiopia arrived
with a large army to fight alongside Troy, greatly reinforcing its ally. Though Hector was gone,
the Greeks were still pitted against a powerful enemy, one recently replenished with fresh swords
and fresh spears. Losses continued to mount on both sides, but with Achilles on their side,
the Greeks could not be defeated. The Trojans were once again driven back to their walls.
Achilles and Memnon locked in an epic melee, both displaying incredible prowess, blades clashing.
But Memnon, like countless others, eventually fell,
almost as if it was an inevitability. Achilles joined him not long after. Paris fired an arrow,
and guided by Apollo, it pierced Achilles. It was said that after being burned,
Achilles blackened bones were placed in the same urn as those of his beloved friend, Patroclus.
And that’s it for this video! If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video
and SUBSCRIBE to the channel.
Comment your video requests down below