Made immortal, the Gods shudder -
My only weakness - my heel will make me dead!
Lived in disguise as Pyrrha, the redhead.
A Lemnian, a Trojan bedded,
& yet no love wedded.
A cousin dead, a son lost to fates
Loyal, brave Myrmidons my only mates...
I am a law unto my own,
No king, no ruler I have known!
Apollo enraged, an arrow unguided by name,
Surpassing my creator in my fame -
Undefeated yet dying because of war,
A Trojan Princess my ghost demands by far!
Her quiet sagacity and honor, my beacon
Her sacrifice the final one I reckon.
Achilles - the greatest of all warriors in Greek mythology had but one weakness - his heel. It is said his mother - Thetis upon his birth had dipped him in the river Styx to make him immortal. But where she held the baby from, that part didn't immerse in the waters of Styx and hence the vulnerability.
ReplyDeleteZeus and Poseidon, were both enamored by the sea nymph Thetis, till they heard from Prometheus, the fire-bringer that Thetis will bear a son greater than his father. They hurriedly married her off to Peleus, king of Aegina and Endeis.
Thetis had heard two outcomes of Achilles fate, either he would stay alive to live a long, happy, properous life or he would live a short one but with glory untold or unheard. Wanting her son to live long, she hid him in the disguise of a girl in the kingdom of Lycomedes under the name of Pyrrha or the red haired girl. Here he meets and has a son by Deidamia (the Lemnian) known as Neoptolemos or Pyrrhus.
During the Trojan war, he is given Briseis as war spoils. (He even contemplates leaving the war for her, as it is he is a free spirit not succumbing to the whims of Agamemnon.) He advises his loyal and brave followers - the Myrmidons to set sail back for Greece, but re-enters the war once his cousin (lover?), Patroclus is killed by Hector.
Achilles had enraged Apollo, by desecrating the sun-God's statue. To avenge himself, Apollo guides Paris' arrow to hit Achilles heel, thereby bringing upon his death. Once the war is over after the defeat of Troy, Achilles ghost demands for Polyxena's sacrifice before letting the Greeks set sail back. His son, Neoptolemos adheres to his father's wishes and the virginal princess of Troy and one of the last survivors of the royal family of Troy dies at Achilles grave by a slit throat.