What is the moral of Achilles story?
The lesson, it seems, is that everyone has their weakness, capable of bringing them down. This is born out by Achilles' inner character: he is a great warrior and a passionate fighter, but his passion is, in many ways, also his 'Achilles heel'.
When Patroclus puts on Achilles' armor, he essentially becomes “the best of Greeks.” The problem was, he was already the best of Greeks, and putting on the armor only makes him Achilles. As Achilles, he lets pride get the best of him, pushes too far, and pays his life for it.
In his final battle, at the very gates of Troy, Paris (guided by the god Apollo) launched the arrow that fatally struck Achilles in his vulnerable heel (Figure 2). Achilles was cremated and his ashes buried in the same urn as those of his friend Patroclus.
Throughout the novel, Patroclus metaphorically represents compassion and love due to his constant care of others like Briseis, whereas Achilles represents glory and war due to his lust for eternal recognition, but despite these differences, the end of the novel has the two lovers reunite in death, sending a powerful ...
Achilles is driven primarily by a thirst for glory. Part of him yearns to live a long, easy life, but he knows that his personal fate forces him to choose between the two. Ultimately, he is willing to sacrifice everything else so that his name will be remembered.
Table of Contents. The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. According to legend, Achilles was extraordinarily strong, courageous and loyal, but he had one vulnerability–his “Achilles heel.” Homer's epic poem the Iliad tells the story of his adventures during the last year of the Trojan War.
The Iliad, the story of the Trojan War, offers several moral lessons to its readers, including the importance of leaders treating their soldiers with respect, the importance of accepting apologies, and the need for respecting family bonds.
Achilles knows that if he stays and enters the battle, he will be remembered forever for his exploits, but will die in battle, never to return home. If he returns home instead of entering the battle, he will live a long life but his legacy will die with him.
Though never specified it can be inferred that Patroclus is gay. Deidama was heartbroken and jealous of Achilles's love for Patroclus, Deidameia summons Patroclus to have sex with her, which he does; he notes that she seemed to want something more from him, which he was unable to provide. .
From the first pages of Homer's The Iliad, Achilles is portrayed as vengeful, proud, and petty. As the book progresses, the image of Achilles as a spiteful child is sharpened dramatically. Towards the end of the epic; however, Achilles begins to exhibit qualities that are considered heroic even in today's society.
What is the meaning of Achilles?
1. : the greatest warrior among the Greeks at Troy and slayer of Hector. 2. : achilles tendon.
Honor, pride, loyalty, courage, and vengefulness are the fundamental traits of Achilles' character that determine his behavior and manifest themselves in his speech and actions. Pride and honor are the fundamental characteristic of Achilles, and there are several key episodes that can prove it.
In Greek Mythology, the river Styx was located in the Underworld and had special powers. Achilles became invulnerable everywhere but at his heel where his mother held him. Because Achilles was a half-god, he was very strong and soon became a great warrior.
It is located on the back of your leg and connects your calf muscle to your heel bone. That makes it a very important part of your body, and if something goes wrong with it, it can affect many other important functions of your body.
Achilles is determined to avenge Patroclus' death at any cost and announces that he is ending his anger against Agamemnon and will re-join the fighting. The two sides meet in battle and Hector waits outside the city gates, ready to fight Achilles.
Achilles' only weakness was his heel. According to legend, his mother had taken him to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invincibility, and dipped his body into the water. Because she held him by the heel, it was not washed over by the water of the magical river (see Figure 1).
In Book XVIII of the Iliad, Homer describes the construction of Achilles' shield by Hephaestus, god of technology. This shield is the symbol of Achilles, the central hero of the Homeric epic. At the same time, the shield constitutes a totality, wider than the epic itself.
Why was Achilles considered a hero? Achilles was considered a hero because he was the most successful soldier in the Greek army during the Trojan War. According to post-Homeric myths, Achilles was physically invulnerable, and it was prophesied that the Greeks could not win the Trojan War without him.
An Achilles' heel (or Achilles heel) is a weakness in spite of overall strength, which can lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, idiomatic references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to downfall are common.
Other men cannot even aspire to be like him. At his most resplendent, men cannot even bear to look at him. He is just above and beyond. Achilles in short, is a hero and taps into a need that most of us have to worship and admire.
What is the moral lesson or theme of the story?
A theme is the central idea on which the work is based on throughout the story, book, or movie. A moral lesson is that message or the lesson that the author, developer, or maker of the work wants you to get from their work.
Yet The Iliad still has much to say about war, even as it is fought today. It tells us that war is both the bringer of renown to its young fighters and the destroyer of their lives. It tells us about post-conflict destruction and chaos; about war as the great reverser of fortunes.
The Iliad concludes with Priam ransoming his son Hector's body from Achilles and then returning to Troy with the corpse in tow. Stricken with grief, the Trojans move through a twelve-day mourning process that culminates with the hero's burial.
The healer (anima, the giver of life) is the antithesis of the warrior's act of inflicting wounds (animus, the soldier of death). Achilles, as the best, represents a balance between his status as a great warrior and his status as a cultural icon of civility, hospitality, and medicinal knowledge.
Achilles has known throughout that his fate is either to live a short, glorious life at Troy or a long, obscure life back in Phthia.
The one-on-one combat ends with Achilles killing Hector. Still pulsing with anger and needing to satisfy his revenge and grief for having lost Patroclus, Achilles allows Achaean soldiers to stab and mutilate Hector's corpse.
Additionally, we know he is a Greek and hails from Opus, where he was a prince and the son of Menoetius. However, he never mentions his race or the color of his skin. Thus, while the audience knows that he has, generally, a dark coloring, his race is left up to the imagination.
Many people deny the possibility of Patroclus and Achilles being together romantically but “The Song of Achilles” relays the answer that Homer leaves untouched: they couldn't have been anything but in love due to the utmost dedication and loyalty they had for each other.
Robin Lane Fox, another one of the most influential and knowledgeable historians of ancient Greece, sums it up by saying, “There is certainly no evidence in the text of the Iliad that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers” (The Tribal Imagination: Civilization and the Savage Mind, pg.
120-125). Again, Achilles explicitly states that his grief and anger over Hector's slaying of Patroclus has transformed him into something like unto death itself for the Trojans, and that only the gods can prevent him from carrying out his intent.
Is Achilles to blame for Patroclus death?
His determination to avenge his friend is so intense because he realizes that he is responsible for Patroklos' death, and he is angry with himself as well as with the Trojans.
According to legend the weak spot of Achilles, a mighty warrior who survived many battles, was his heel. Supposedly, he was hit in the heel by an arrow that made him plummet to his death. Achilles tendon pain can be excruciating and downright depressing. The crippling pain may render you unable to even walk.
While there have been varying opinions over the story of Achilles and Briseis, in The Iliad, Achilles loves her and refers to her as his wife.
Some post-Homeric sources claim that in order to keep Achilles safe from the war, Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hid the young man dressed as a princess or at least a girl at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros.
Thetis left her son and fled, and Peleus entrusted him to Cheiron, who educated and instructed him in the arts of riding, hunting, and playing the phorminx, and also changed his original name, Ligyron, i. e. the "whining," into Achilles.
Achilles' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow.
Honor, pride, loyalty, courage, and vengefulness are the fundamental traits of Achilles' character that determine his behavior and manifest themselves in his speech and actions. Pride and honor are the fundamental characteristic of Achilles, and there are several key episodes that can prove it.
He is a killer, arguably a rapist, certainly a pillager. He is sulky, high-strung and oh boy, is he temperamental. He can be pitiless – actively enjoying the iron in his heart – and he can be murderously cruel.
In the Iliad, Priam and Achilles both cry after the death of Hector, the Trojans' prince and greatest fighter, who dies in single combat with Achilles.
Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' insult. After the deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse.
Is Achilles a villain or a hero?
For the ancient Greeks he was an archetypal hero who embodied the human condition. Despite his greatness he was still mortal and fated to die. A hero cult for Achilles developed in several areas across Greece where he was venerated and worshipped like a god.
Achilles' only weakness was his heel. According to legend, his mother had taken him to the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invincibility, and dipped his body into the water. Because she held him by the heel, it was not washed over by the water of the magical river (see Figure 1).
