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Achilles

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville (1821–1859) (Musée
   Fabre)
   The Wrath of Achilles, by François-Léon Benouville ( 1821– 1859) (
   Musée Fabre)

   In Greek mythology, Achilles (also Akhilleus or Achilleus) ( Ancient
   Greek: Άχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the central character
   and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad, which takes for its theme, not
   the War of Troy in its entirety, but specifically the Wrath of
   Achilles.

   Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the first century
   AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable on all of his body except for
   his heel. These legends state that Achilles was killed in battle by an
   arrow to the heel, and so an Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's
   only weakness.

   Achilles is also famous for being the most 'handsome' of the heroes
   assembled at Troy, as well as the fleetest. Central to his myth is his
   relationship with Patroclus, characterized in different sources as deep
   friendship or love.

Birth

   Achilles was the son of the immortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons in
   Troy (southeast Thessaly), and the sea nymph Thetis. Zeus and Poseidon
   had been rivals for the hand of Thetis until Prometheus, the
   food-bringer, warned Zeus of a prophecy that Thetis would bear a son
   greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their
   pursuit, and had her wed to Peleus. As with most mythology there is a
   tale which offers an alternate version of these events: in Argonautica
   (iv.760) Hera alludes to Thetis' chaste resistance to the advances of
   Zeus, that Thetis had been so loyal to Hera's marriage bond that she
   coolly rejected him.

   According to the incomplete poem Achilleis written by Statius in the
   first century AD, and to no other sources, when Achilles was born
   Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx.
   However, she forgot to wet the heel she held him by, leaving him
   vulnerable at that spot. (See Achilles' heel, Achilles' tendon.) It is
   not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another
   version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him
   on top of a fire to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was
   interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage.

   However none of the sources before Statius makes any reference to this
   invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad Homer mentions Achilles
   being wounded: in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, son of
   Pelegon, challenged Achilles by the river Scamander. He cast two spears
   at once, one grazed Achilles' elbow, "drawing a spurt of blood."

   Also in the fragmentary poems of the Epic Cycle in which we can find
   description of the hero's death, Kùpria (unknown author), Aithiopis by
   Arctinus of Miletus, Ilias Mikrà by Lesche of Mytilene, Iliou pèrsis by
   Arctinus of Miletus, there is no trace of any reference to his
   invulnerability or his famous (achilles) heel; in the later
   vase-paintings presenting Achilles' death, the arrow (or in many cases
   arrows) hit his body.

   Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mt. Pelion, to be
   raised.

Achilles in the Trojan War

   The Rage of Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
   The Rage of Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

   The first two lines of the Iliad read:

          μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
          οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκεν,

          Rage—sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus,
          the destructive rage that brought countless griefs upon the
          Achaeans...

   Achilles is the only mortal to experience consuming rage (menis). His
   anger is at some times wavering, at other times absolute. The
   humanization of Achilles by the events of the war is an important theme
   of the narrative.

Telephus

   When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in
   Mysia, ruled by King Telephus. In the resulting battle, Achilles gave
   Telephus a wound that would not heal; Telephus consulted an oracle, who
   stated that "he that wounded shall heal".

   According to other reports in Euripides' lost play about Telephus, he
   went to Aulis pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to heal his
   wound. Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge.
   Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for ransom, the ransom being
   Achilles' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear
   had inflicted the wound; therefore, the spear must be able to heal it.
   Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound and Telephus was
   healed. This is an example of sympathetic magic.

Cycnus of Colonae

   According to traditions related by Plutarch and the Byzantine scholar
   John Tzetzes, once the Greek ships arrived in Troy, Achilles fought and
   killed Cycnus of Colonae, a son of Poseidon. Cycnus was invulnerable,
   except for his head.

Troilus

   According to Dares Phrygius' Account of the Destruction of Troy, the
   Latin summary through which the story of Achilles was transmitted to
   medieval Europe, while Troilus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba
   (who some say was fathered by Apollo), was watering his horses at the
   Lion Fountain outside the walls of Troy, Achilles saw him and fell in
   love with his beauty (whose "loveliness of form" was described by
   Ibycus as being like "gold thrice refined"). The youth rejected his
   advances and took refuge inside the temple of Apollo. Achilles pursued
   him into the sanctuary and decapitated him on the god's own altar. At
   the time, Troilus was said to be a year short of his twentieth
   birthday, and the legend goes that if Troilus had lived to be twenty,
   Troy would have been invincible.

In the Iliad

   Achilles sacrificing to Zeus, from the Ambrosian Iliad, a 5th century
   illuminated manuscript.
   Achilles sacrificing to Zeus, from the Ambrosian Iliad, a 5th century
   illuminated manuscript.

   Homer's Iliad is the most famous narrative of Achilles' deeds in the
   Trojan War. The Homeric epic only covers a few weeks of the war, and
   does not narrate Achilles' death. It begins with Achilles' withdrawal
   from battle after he is dishonored by Agamemnon, the commander of the
   Achaean forces. Agamemnon had taken a woman named Chryseis as his
   slave, her father Chryses, a priest of Apollo, begged Agamemnon to
   return her to him. Agamemnon refused and Apollo sent a plague amongst
   the Greeks. The prophet Calchas correctly determined the source of the
   troubles but would not speak unless Achilles vowed to protect him.
   Achilles did so and Calchas declared Chyrsies must be returned to her
   father. Agamemnon consented, but then commanded that Achilles' slave
   Briseis be brought to replace Chryseis. Angry at the dishonor (and as
   he says later, because he loved Briseis) and at the urging of Thetis,
   Achilles refused to fight or lead his Myrmidons alongside the other
   Greek forces.

   As the battle turned against the Greeks, Nestor declared that had
   Agamemnon not angered Achilles, the Trojans would not be winning and
   urged Agamemnon to appease Achilles. Agamemnon agreed and sent Odysseus
   and two other chieftains to Achilles with the offer of the return of
   Briseis and other gifts. Achilles refused and urged the Greeks to sail
   home as he was planning to do.

   Eventually, however, hoping to retain glory despite his absence from
   the battle, Achilles prayed to his mother Thetis, asking her to plead
   with Zeus to allow the Trojans to push back the Greek forces. The
   Trojans, led by Hector, subsequently pushed the Greek army back toward
   the beaches and assaulted the Greek ships. With the Greek forces on the
   verge of absolute destruction, Achilles consented to Patroclus
   (sometimes considered Achilles' lover) leading the Myrmidons into
   battle, though Achilles would remain at his camp. Patroclus succeeded
   in pushing the Trojans back from the beaches, but was killed by Hector
   before he could lead a proper assault on the city of Troy.

Hector versus Achilles

   After receiving the news of the death of Patroclus from Antilochus, the
   son of Nestor, Achilles grieved over his friend and held many funeral
   games in his honour. His mother Thetis came to comfort the distraught
   Achilles. She persuaded Hephaestus to make new armor for him, in place
   of the armor that Patroclus had been wearing which was taken by Hector.
   The new armor included the Shield of Achilles, described in great
   detail by the poet.
   Patroclus and Achilles. Achilles bandages the arm of his friend
   Patroclus. The scene has been interpreted as an act of welfare and
   comradeship, or as a scene with sexual overtones. Ancient Greek culture
   often held the two to be lovers.
   Patroclus and Achilles. Achilles bandages the arm of his friend
   Patroclus. The scene has been interpreted as an act of welfare and
   comradeship, or as a scene with sexual overtones. Ancient Greek culture
   often held the two to be lovers.
   Triumphant Achilles dragging Hector's lifeless body in front of the
   Gates of Troy. (From a panoramic fresco on the upper level of the main
   hall of the Achilleion)
   Triumphant Achilles dragging Hector's lifeless body in front of the
   Gates of Troy. (From a panoramic fresco on the upper level of the main
   hall of the Achilleion)

   Enraged over the death of Patroclus, Achilles ended his refusal to
   fight and took the field killing many men in his rage but always
   seeking out Hector. Achilles even got in a fight with the river god
   Scamander who became angry that Achilles was choking his waters with
   all the men he killed. The god tried to drown Achilles but was stopped
   by Hera and Hephaestus. Zeus himself took note of Achilles' rage and
   sent the gods to restrain him so that he would not go on to sack Troy
   itself, seeming to show that the unhindered rage of Achilles could defy
   fate itself as Troy was not meant to be destroyed yet. Finally Achilles
   found his prey. Achilles chased Hector around the wall of Troy three
   times before Athena, in the form of Hector's favorite and dearest
   brother, Deiphobus, persuaded Hector to fight face to face. Achilles
   got his vengeance, killing Hector with a blow to the neck. He then tied
   Hector's body to his chariot and dragged it around the battlefield for
   nine days.

   With the assistance of the god Hermes, Priam, Hector's father, went to
   Achilles' tent and convinced Achilles to permit him to allow Hector his
   funeral rites. The final passage in the Iliad is Hector's funeral,
   after which the doom of Troy is just a matter of time.

Memnon

   Following the death of Patroclus, Achilles's closest companion was
   Nestor's son Antilochus. When Memnon of Ethiopia killed Antilochus,
   Achilles was once again drawn onto the battlefield to seek revenge. The
   fight between Achilles and Memnon over Antilochus echoes that of
   Achilles and Hector over Patroclus, except that Memnon (unlike Hector)
   is also the son of a goddess (like Achilles). Many Homeric scholars
   argued that episode inspired many details in the Iliad's description of
   the death of Patroclus and Achilles' reaction to it. The episode then
   formed the basis of the cyclic epic Aethiopis, which was composed after
   the Iliad, possibly in the 7th century BC. The Aethiopis is now lost,
   except for scattered fragments quoted by later authors. Quintus of
   Smyrna also gives us an epic treatment of Memnon's mortal death and the
   immortality then bestowed upon him by Zeus as well as lyrical
   description of his countrymen's extreme grief.

Penthesilea, and the death of Achilles

   Achilles dying in the gardens of the Achilleion in Corfu
   Achilles dying in the gardens of the Achilleion in Corfu

   Achilles, after his temporary truce with Priam, fought and killed the
   Amazonian warrior queen Penthesilea.

   As predicted by Hector with his dying breath, Achilles was thereafter
   killed by Paris — either by an arrow (to the heel according to
   Statius), or in an older version by a knife to the back while visiting
   Polyxena, a princess of Troy. In some versions, the god Apollo guided
   Paris' arrow.

   Both versions conspicuously deny the killer any sort of valor owing to
   the common conception that Paris was a coward and not the man his
   brother Hector was, and Achilles remains undefeated on the battlefield.
   His bones are mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games are
   held. He was represented in the lost Trojan War epic of Arctinus of
   Miletus as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth
   of the Danube (see below).

   Paris was later killed by Philoctetes using the enormous bow of
   Heracles.

The fate of Achilles' armor

   Achilles' armor was the object of a feud between Odysseus and
   Telamonian Ajax (Achilles' older cousin). They competed for it by
   giving speeches on why they were the bravest after Achilles and the
   most deserving to receive it. Odysseus won. Ajax went mad with grief
   and anguish and vowed to kill his comrades; he started killing cattle
   or sheep, thinking in his madness that they were Greek soldiers. He
   then killed himself.

Achilles and Patroclus

   Achilles' relationship with Patroclus is a key aspect of his myth. Its
   exact nature has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period
   and modern times. In the Iliad, it is clear that the two heroes have a
   deep and extremely meaningful friendship, but the evidence of a
   romantic or sexual element is equivocal. Commentators from the
   classical period to today have tended to interpret the relationship
   through the lens of their own cultures. Thus, in 5th century BC Athens
   the relationship was commonly interpreted as pederastic. Contemporary
   readers are more likely to interpret the two heroes either as
   non-sexual "war buddies" or as an egalitarian homosexual couple.

The cult of Achilles in antiquity

   There was an archaic cult of Achilles on the White Island, Leuce, in
   the Black Sea off the modern coasts of Romania and Ukraine, with a
   temple and an oracle which survived into the Roman period.

   In the lost epic Aithiopis, a continuation of the Iliad attributed to
   Arktinus of Miletos, Achilles’ mother Thetis returned to mourn him and
   removed his ashes from the pyre and took them to Leuce at the mouths of
   the Danube. There the Achaeans raised a tumulus for him and celebrated
   funeral games.

   Pliny's Natural History (IV.27.1) mentions a tumulus that is no longer
   evident (Insula Achillis tumulo eius viri clara), on the island
   consecrated to him, located at a distance of fifty Roman miles from
   Peuce by the Danube Delta, and the temple there. Pausanias has been
   told that the island is "covered with forests and full of animals, some
   wild, some tame. In this island there is also Achilles’ temple and his
   statue” (III.19.11). Ruins of a square temple 30 meters to a side,
   possibly that dedicated to Achilles, were discovered by Captain
   Kritzikly in 1823, but there has been no modern archeology done on the
   island.

   Pomponius Mela tells that Achilles is buried in the island named
   Achillea, between Boristhene and Ister (De situ orbis, II, 7). And the
   Greek geographer Dionysius Periegetus of Bithynia, who lived at the
   time of Domitian, writes that the island was called Leuce "because the
   wild animals which live there are white. It is said that there, in
   Leuce island, reside the souls of Achilles and other heroes, and that
   they wander through the uninhabited valleys of this island; this is how
   Jove rewarded the men who had distinguished themselves through their
   virtues, because through virtue they had acquired everlasting honour”
   (Orbis descriptio, v. 541, quoted in Densuşianu 1913).

   The Periplus of the Euxine Sea gives the following details: "It is said
   that the goddess Thetis raised this island from the sea, for her son
   Achilles, who dwells there. Here is his temple and his statue, an
   archaic work. This island is not inhabited, and goats graze on it, not
   many, which the people who happen to arrive here with their ships,
   sacrifice to Achilles. In this temple are also deposited a great many
   holy gifts, craters, rings and precious stones, offered to Achilles in
   gratitude. One can still read inscriptions in Greek and Latin, in which
   Achilles is praised and celebrated. Some of these are worded in
   Patroclus’ honor, because those who wish to be favored by Achilles,
   honor Patroclus at the same time. There are also in this island
   countless numbers of sea birds, which look after Achilles’ temple.
   Every morning they fly out to sea, wet their wings with water, and
   return quickly to the temple and sprinkle it. And after they finish the
   sprinkling, they clean the hearth of the temple with their wings. Other
   people say still more, that some of the men who reach this island, come
   here intentionally. They bring animals in their ships, destined to be
   sacrificed. Some of these animals they slaughter, others they set free
   on the island, in Achilles’ honour. But there are others, who are
   forced to come to this island by sea storms. As they have no
   sacrificial animals, but wish to get them from the god of the island
   himself, they consult Achilles’ oracle. They ask permission to
   slaughter the victims chosen from among the animals that graze freely
   on the island, and to deposit in exchange the price which they consider
   fair. But in case the oracle denies them permission, because there is
   an oracle here, they add something to the price offered, and if the
   oracle refuses again, they add something more, until at last, the
   oracle agrees that the price is sufficient. And then the victim doesn’t
   run away any more, but waits willingly to be caught. So, there is a
   great quantity of silver there, consecrated to the hero, as price for
   the sacrificial victims. To some of the people who come to this island,
   Achilles appears in dreams, to others he would appear even during their
   navigation, if they were not too far away, and would instruct them as
   to which part of the island they would better anchor their ships”.
   (quoted in Densuşianu)

   The heroic cult of Achilles on Leuce island was widespread in
   Antiquity, not only along the sealanes of the Pontic Sea but also in
   maritime cities whose economic interests were tightly connected to the
   riches of the Black Sea.

   Achilles from Leuce island was venerated as Pontarches the lord and
   master of the Pontic (Black) Sea, the protector of sailors and
   navigation. Sailors went out of their way to offer sacrifice. To
   Achilles of Leuce were dedicated a number of important commercial port
   cities of the Greek waters: Achilleion in Messenia ( Stephanus
   Byzantinus), Achilleios in Laconia ( Pausanias, III.25,4) Nicolae
   Densuşianu (Densuşianu 1913) even thought he recognized Achilles in the
   name of Aquileia and in the north arm of the Danube delta, the arm of
   Chilia ("Achileii"), though his conclusion, that Leuce had sovereign
   rights over Pontos, evokes modern rather than archaic sea-law."

   Leuce had also a reputation as a place of healing. Pausanias
   (III.19,13) reports that the Delphic Pythia sent a lord of Croton to be
   cured of a chest wound. Ammianus Marcellinus (XXII.8) attributes the
   healing to waters (aquae) on the island.

The cult of Achilles in modern times: The Achilleion in Corfu

   In the region of Gastouri (Γαστούρι) to the south of the city of Corfu
   Greece, Empress of Austria Elisabeth of Bavaria also known as Sissi
   built in 1890 a summer palace with Achilles as its central theme and it
   is a monument to platonic romanticism. The palace, naturally, was named
   after Achilles: Achilleion (Αχίλλειον). This elegant structure abounds
   with paintings and statues of Achilles both in the main hall and in the
   lavish gardens depicting the heroic and tragic scenes of the Trojan
   war.

The name of Achilles

   Achilles' name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος (akhos) "grief"
   and λαός (Laos) "a people, tribe, nation, etc." In other words,
   Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, grief being a
   theme raised numerous times in the Iliad (frequently by Achilles).
   Achilles' role as the hero of grief forms an ironic juxtaposition with
   the conventional view of Achilles as the hero of kleos (glory, usually
   glory in war).

   Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to
   mean a corps of soldiers. With this derivation, the name would have a
   double meaning in the poem: When the hero is functioning rightly, his
   men bring grief to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief
   of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part
   of leadership.

   Centuries after Homer, his name was turned into the female form of
   Achillia, attested on a relief from Halicarnassus as the name of a
   female gladiator fighting 'Amazonia'. Roman gladiatorial games often
   referenced classical mythology and this seems to reference Achilles'
   fight with Penthesilea, but give it an extra twist of Achilles being
   'played' by a man.

Other stories about Achilles

   Achilles as guardian of the palace in the gardens of the Achilleion in
   Corfu. He gazes northward toward the city. The inscription in Greek
   reads: ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ i.e. Achilles
   Achilles as guardian of the palace in the gardens of the Achilleion in
   Corfu. He gazes northward toward the city. The inscription in Greek
   reads: ΑΧΙΛΛΕΥΣ i.e. Achilles

   Some post-Homeric sources claim that in order to keep Achilles safe
   from the war, Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hides the young man
   at the court of Lycomedes, king of Skyros. There, Achilles is disguised
   as a girl and lives among Lycomedes' daughters, perhaps under the name
   "Pyrrha" (the red-haired girl). With Lycomedes' daughter Deidamia, whom
   in the account of Statius he rapes, Achilles there fathers a son,
   Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus, after his father's possible alias).
   According to this story, Odysseus learns from the prophet Calchas that
   the Achaeans would be unable to capture Troy without Achilles' aid.
   Odysseus goes to Skyros in the guise of a peddler selling women's
   clothes and jewelry and places a shield and spear among his goods. When
   Achilles instantly takes up the spear, Odysseus sees through his
   disguise and convinces him to join the Greek campaign. In another
   version of the story, Odysseus arranges for a trumpet alarm to be
   sounded while he was with Lycomedes' women; while the women flee in
   panic, Achilles prepares to defend the court, thus giving his identity
   away.

   In Homer's Odyssey, there is a passage in which Odysseus sails to the
   underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is Achilles, who
   when greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death", responds that he
   would rather be a slave to the worst of masters than be king of all the
   dead. This has been interpreted as a rejection of his warrior life, but
   also as indignity to his martyrdom being slighted. Achilles was
   worshipped as a sea-god in many of the Greek colonies on the Black Sea,
   the location of the mythical "White Island" which he was said to
   inhabit after his death, together with many other heroes.

   Post- Homeric literature explores a pederastic interpretation of the
   love between Achilles and Patroclus. By the fifth and fourth centuries,
   the deep — and arguably ambiguous — friendship portrayed in Homer
   blossomed into an unequivocal erotic love affair in the works of
   Aeschylus, Plato, and Aeschines, and seems to have inspired the
   enigmatic verses in Lycophron's third century Alexandra that claim
   Achilles slew Troilus in a matter of unrequited love.

   The kings of the Epirus claimed to be descended from Achilles through
   his son. Alexander the Great, son of the Epiran princess Olympias,
   could therefore also claim this descent, and in many ways strove to be
   like his great ancestor; he is said to have visited his tomb while
   passing Troy.

   Achilles fought and killed the Amazon Helene. Some also said he married
   Medea, and that after both their deaths they were united in the Elysian
   Fields of Hades — as Hera promised Thetis in Apollonius' Argonautica.
   In some versions of the myth, Achilles has a relationship with his
   captive Briseis.

Achilles in Greek tragedy

   The Greek tragedian Aeschylus wrote a trilogy of plays about Achilles,
   given the title Achilleis by modern scholars. The tragedies relate the
   deeds of Achilles during the Trojan War, including his defeat of Hector
   and eventual death when an arrow shot by Paris punctures his heel.
   Extant fragments of Myrmidons and other Aeschylean fragments have been
   assembled to produce a workable modern play.

   Another lost play by Aeschylus, The Myrmidons, focused on the
   relationship between Achilles and Patroclus; only a few lines survive
   today.

   The tragedian Sophocles also wrote a play with Achilles as the main
   character, The Lovers of Achilles. Only a few fragments survive.

Spoken-word myths (audio)

                   Achilles myths as told by story tellers
   1. Achilles and Patroclus, read by Timothy Carter
   Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer Iliad, 9.308, 16.2, 11.780, 23.54
   (700 BC); Pindar Olympian Odes, IX (476 BC); Aeschylus Myrmidons,
   F135-36 (495 BC); Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis, (405 BC); Plato
   Symposium, 179e (388 BC-367 BC); Statius Achilleid, 161, 174, 182 (96
   CE)

Achilles in later art

Drama

     * Achilles is portrayed as a former hero, who has become lazy and
       devoted to the love of Patroclus, in William Shakespeare's Troilus
       and Cressida.

Fiction

     * Achilles appears in the novels Ilium and Olympos by science fiction
       author Dan Simmons.
     * Achilles the novel by Elizabeth Cook
     * Achilles appears in Dante's "The Inferno."
     * The Wrath of Achilles is a starship in 'Gene Rodenberry's
       Andromeda'

Film

   The role of Achilles has been played by:
     * Gordon Mitchell in "Achilles" (1962)
     * Piero Lulli in Ulysses (1955)
     * Stanley Baker in Helen of Troy (1956)
     * Arturo Dominici in La Guerra di Troia (1962)
     * Derek Jacobi [voice] in Achilles (Channel Four Television) (1995)
     * Steve Davislim in La Belle Hélène (TV, 1996)
     * Joe Montana in Helen of Troy (TV, 2003)
     * Brad Pitt in Troy (2004)

Television

     * In the animated television series Class of the Titans, the
       character Archie is descended from Achilles and has inherited both
       his vulnerable heel and part of his invincibility.

Music

   Achilles has frequently been mentioned in music.
     * " Achilles Last Stand", by Led Zeppelin; from the album Presence,
       1976, Atlantic Records.
     * Achilles is referred to in Bob Dylan's song, "Temporary Like
       Achilles".
     * "Achilles' Revenge" is a song by Warlord.
     * Achilles Heel is an album by the indie rock band Pedro the Lion.
     * Achilles and his heel are referenced in the song "Special K" by the
       rock band Placebo.
     * "Achilles' Heel" is a song by the UK band Toploader.
     * "Achilles" is a song by the Colorado-based power metal band Jag
       Panzer, from the album Casting the Stones.
     * Achilles is referenced in the Indigo Girls song "Ghost".
     * Song by Melbourne band Love Outside Andromeda called "Achilles (All
       3)".
     * "Achilles, Agony & Ecstasy In Eight Parts", by Manowar; from the
       album The Triumph of Steel, 1992, Atlantic Records.
     * Although not mentioned by name, "Citadel" (about the Siege of Troy)
       by The Crüxshadows mentions Paris' arrow 'landing true'.

Namesakes

     * The Royal New Zealand Navy gave the name HMNZS Achilles to an A
       class destroyer which served in World War II.

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