Achilles
Achilles,son of Peleus and Thetis; greatest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War; central character of Homer's Iliad.
His name may be of Mycenaean Greek origin, meaning ‘a grief to the army’. If so, the destructive Wrath of Achilles, which forms the subject of the Iliad, must have been central to his mythical existence from the first. He was the recipient of hero-cults in various places, but these no doubt result from his prominence in the epic, and do nothing to explain his origins.
In Homer he is king of Phthia, or ‘Hellas and Phthia’, in southern Thessaly, and his people are the Myrmidons. As described at Iliad 2. 681–5 the size of his kingdom, and of his contingent in the Trojan expedition (50 ships), is not outstanding. But in terms of martial prowess, which is the measure of excellence for a Homeric hero, Achilles' status as ‘best of the Achaeans’ is...
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