ACHILLES, one of the greatest heroes of ancient
Greece, was the son of Peleus and Thetis. He was
a native of Phthia, in Thessaly. His mother, it is said,
in order to consume every mortal part of his body, used
to lay him every night under live coals, anointing him
with ambrosia, which preserved every part from burn-
ing but one of his lips, owing to his having licked it.
She dipped him also in the waters of the river Styx;
by which his whole body became invulnerable, except
that part of his heel by which she held him. But this
opinion is not universal, nor is it a part of his char-
acter as drawn by Homer; for in the Iliad (B. xxi.
161.) he is actually wounded in the right arm, by the
lance of Asteropeus, in the battle near the river Scam-
ander. Thetis afterwards intrusted him to the care of
the centaur Chiron, who, to give him the strength ne-
cessary for martial toil, fed him with honey and the
marrow of lions and wild boars. To prevent his going
to the siege of Troy, she disguised him in female appar-
el, and hid him among the maidens at the court of
King Lycomedes: but Ulysses discovering him, per-
suaded him to follow the Greeks. Achilles distinguished
himself by a number of heroic actions at the siege.
Being disgusted, however, with Agamemnon for the
loss of Briseis, he retired from the camp. But return-
ing to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, he slew
Hector, fastened his corpse to his chariot, and dragged
it round the walls of Troy. At last Paris, the brother
of Hector, wounded him in the heel with an arrow,
while he was in the temple treating about his marriage
with Philoxena, daughter of King Priam. Of this
wound he died, and was interred on the promontory of
Sigæum; and after Troy was taken, the Greeks sacri-
ficed Philoxena on his tomb, in obedience to his desire,
that he might enjoy her company in the Elysian fields.
It is said, that Alexander, seeing this tomb, honoured
it by placing a crown upon it; at the same time cry-
ing out, that "Achilles was happy in having, during
his life, such a friend as Patroclus; and, after his death,
a poet like Homer." Achilles is supposed to have
died 1183 years before the Christian era.