2 Achilles in the Trojan War

2.1 Telephus

When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in MysiaMysia is a region in the north-west of Asia Minor. It is located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. In ancient times, it was inhabited by the Mysi. It was bounded by Lydia and Phrygia on the south, by Bithynia on the north-east, and by the Proponti, ruled by King TelephusA Greek mythological figure, Telephus referred to two different people. One was the father of Cyparissus. The other was much more famous. He was the husband of Astyoche and father of Eurypylus. Telephus (#2) was featured in works by Euripides and Ennius a. In the battle, Achilles wounded Telephus. The wound would not heal and Telephus asked an oracle who stated that "he that wounded shall heal".

According to others' reports about EuripidesEuripides (c. 480 BC 406 BC) was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles; he was the youngest of the three and was born c. His mother's name was Cleito, and his father's either Mnesarchus or Mnesarchides.' lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis, pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to help 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 and the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound, and Telephus healed. This is an example of sympathetic magic.

2.2 Achilles in the Court of Lycomedes

An oracle, Calchas, stated that the Greeks would not win without Achilles but his mother, Thetis, knew he would die there. His mother thus hid him at the court of Lycomedes in Scyros, disguised as a woman. There he had an affair with Deidamea resulting in a child, Neoptolemus. He was found out, however, by Odysseus, Ajax the great and Phoenix, who arrived disguised as a peddler with trinkets and weaponry. Achilles was marked out from the other women by admiring the wrong goods. Alternatively, he was found out by a blast of the trumpet, whence instead of cowering he grabbed a spear to ward off the attackers. From there he needed little convincing to go to Troy, accompanied by his best friend (and depending on the source possibly lover as well) Patroclus and his tutor, Phoenix (this is the same Phoenix that accompanied Odysseus to Scyros in a different, much later version).

2.3 During the Trojan War

Achilles is one of the only two people described as "god-like" in the Iliad. This does not just refer to his supreme fighting ability, but also to his attitude. He shows a complete and total devotion to the excellence of his craft and, like a god, has almost no regard for life. Not his own - clearly he does not mind a swift death, so long as it is glorious - and not really of others. His anger is absolute. The humanization of Achilles by the events of the war is the main theme of the Iliad.

Achilles' charioteer's name was Automedon.

2.3.1 Troilus

While this youngest son of Priam and Hecuba (some say that it was Apollo who fathered Troilus on Hecuba) 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 Timbraeus. Achilles pursued him into the sanctuary and decapitated him on the god's own altar. ( Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron) At the time Troilus was said to be a year short of his twentieth birthday, and the legend goes that if Troilus had reached his twentieth year, Troy would have been invincible. ( First Vatican Mythographer )

2.3.2 Agamemnon and the Death of Patroclus

Achilles took twenty-three towns outside Troy, including Lyrnessos , where he captured Briseis to keep as a concubine. Meanwhile, Agamemnon took a woman named Chryseis and taunted her father, Chryses, a priest of Apollo, when he attempted to buy her back. Apollo sent a plague through the Greek armies and Agamemnon was forced to give Chryseis back to her father; however he took Briseis away from Achilles as compensation for his loss. This action sparked the central plot of the Iliad: Achilles becomes enraged and refuses to fight for the Greeks any further. The war goes badly, and the Greeks offer handsome reparations to their greatest warrior; Achilles still refuses to fight in person, but he agrees to allow Patroclus to fight in his place, wearing his armor. The next day Patroclus is killed and stripped of the armor by the Trojan hero Hector, who mistakes him for Achilles. Achilles is overwhelmed with grief for his beloved, and rage at Hector. However, Thetis, his mother, rises from the sea floor and berates him for excessive grief, reminding him it is a fine thing to sleep with women too. She obtains magnificent new armor for him from Hephaestus, and he returns to the fighting, killing Hector. He desecrates the body, dragging it behind his chariot before the walls of Troy three times, and refuses to allow it to receive funeral rites. When Priam, the king of Troy and Hector's father, comes secretly into the Greek camp to plead for the body, Achilles finally relents; in one of the most moving scenes of the Iliad, he receives Priam graciously and allows him to take the body away. The greatness of Achilles lies in not just being the greatest ever Greek fighter, but in knowing the choice provided to him by Destiny. His mother Thetis had prophecied to him that if he pulled out of the Trojan War, he would be spared a long and a happy life, but if he involved himself, he would die before the Walls of Troy but attain everlasting glory and godlike status. He had made the choice, and coming face to face with it showed his greatness.

2.3.3 Xanthus

During the Trojan War, Xanthus, a magical horse, was rebuked by Achilles for allowing Patroclus to be killed. Xanthus responded by saying that a god had killed Patroclus and a god would soon kill Achilles too.

2.3.4 Memnon, Cycnus, Penthesilea, the Death of Achilles

Shortly after the death of Hector, Achilles defeated Memnon of Ethiopia, Cycnus of Colonae and the Amazonian warrior Penthesilia (with whom Achilles also had an affair in some versions). He was very soon after killed by Paris - either by an arrow to the heel, or in an older version by a knife to the back while visiting Polyxena, a Trojan princess. Both versions conspicuously deny the killer any sort of valor, and Achilles remains undefeated on the battlefield. His bones are mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games are held. Like Ajax, he is represented as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube.

2.3.5 The Fate of Achilles' Armor

Achilles' armor was the object of a feud between Odysseus and Ajax the great. They competed for it and Odysseus won. Ajax went mad with grief and vowed to kill his comrades; he started killing cattle (thinking they were Greek soldiers), and then himself.

3 Other Stories About Achilles

After the Trojan War, Achilles sold Lycaon, son of Priam and Laothoe. Lycaon was later killed trying to escape.

In the Odyssey, also by Homer, there is a passage where Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is Achilles, who greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death", responds that he would rather be a slave than be dead. This has been interpreted as a rejection of his warrior life, but also as indignity to his martyrdom being slighted.

The kings of 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 was worshipped as a sea-god in many of the Greek colonies on the Black Sea.

Achilles fought and killed the Amazon Helene.

Some also said he married Medea.

4 The Lost Play of Aeschylus

In early 1990s a lost play by Aeschylus was discovered in the wrappings of a mummy in Egypt. The play, Achilles, was part of a trilogy about the Trojan War. It was known to exist due to mentions in ancient sources, but had been lost for over 2000 years.

5 Achilles on Film

The role of Achilles has been played by:

• Stanley Baker in Helen of Troy ( 1956)
• Arturo Dominici in Guerra di Troia, La ( 1962)
• Steve Davislim in Belle Hélène, La (TV, 1996)
• Joe Montana in Helen of Troy (TV, 2003)
• Brad Pitt in Troy ( 2004)

6 References

Homer, Iliad; Homer, Odyssey XI, 467-540; Apollodorus, Bibliotheke III, xiii, 5-8; Apollodorus, Epitome III , 14-V, 7; Ovid, Metamorphoses XI, 217-265; XII, 580-XIII, 398; Ovid, Heroides III ; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica IV, 783-879;

7 External links

• The Story of Achilles and Patroclus

People who fought in the Trojan War

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