(3) CLASSICAL – HERO: ACHILLES

 

“Sing, Muse, of the wrath of Achilles”.

 

“Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles

Who would not live long” –

The Shield of Achilles, W.H. Auden

 

It’s all classical mythology from here on in for my top three heroes. The villains of classical mythology may have been outranked by those of (two) other pantheons, but no one did heroes like classical mythology.

This is not surprising given that, as I noted in my introduction, the very word hero comes from Greek – as indeed many of our concepts or narratives of heroism originate from those of classical mythology, albeit somewhat at odds with the competing heroic narratives of moral idealism in Biblical mythology or Judeo-Christianity”.

A classical hero was a ‘warrior who lives and dies in the pursuit of honor’ and asserts their greatness by ‘the brilliancy and efficiency with which they kill'”.

And no hero illustrates that better than Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior and central character of the Iliad – of whose wrath the Muse sings in its opening line.

When people think of the Iliad, they usually think of all the things that aren’t actually in it – the whole mythos of the Trojan War in what is usually referred to as the Trojan Cycle, where in actuality it is an incredibly brief snapshot of the Trojan War – a few weeks or so in the final year of a legendary ten year war.

However what is definitely in the Iliad is the wrath of Achilles and his unmatched skill as the greatest warrior in the Trojan War – unmatched by Greek or Trojan, reflected in his feat of slaying the greatest Trojan warrior Hector, or perhaps even by the gods in face-to-face combat of arms. After all, he was only taken down by an arrow in the heel by the Trojan prince Paris – and even then Paris had the divine aid of Apollo.

As usual in classical mythology, there are different and competing versions – in this case for the weakness of Achilles at his heel, which has since lent itself to the proverbial phrase Achilles’ heel for a particular weak spot or area of vulnerability.

The version that perhaps looms largest in popular culture or imagination is that his mother, the nereid or sea nymph Thetis, had dipped him in the underworld river Styx as an infant to make him invulnerable – except that she held him by one of his heels, so that it was left untouched by the water and hence remained invulnerable.

Of course, that version is difficult to reconcile with the need for the divine armor and shield made for him by Hephaestus, as he would hardly need it if he was invulnerable. So there’s the competing version is that the arrow found his heel as the part that his armour left vulnerable, not his mother sticking him in the Styx.

None of this is in the Iliad, which is concerned more with the wrath of Achilles than his death – and it opens with the greatest Greek warrior Achilles sulking in his tent, because the Greek leader Agamemnon deprived him of the booty, in both senses of the word, of a Trojan girl taken captive. Until of course Achilles’ companion Patroclus is killed by the greatest Trojan warrior Hector – at which time, it’s personal, in turn until Achilles kills Hector and the Trojan king Priam begs Achilles if the latter could please stop dragging Hector’s dead body behind him while doing victory laps in his chariot.

The Greeks revered Achilles, with his tomb as focus of their reverence – venerated not only by Greeks but also “by Persian expeditionary forces, as well as by Alexander the Great and the Roman emperor Caracalla. Achilles’ cult was also to be found at other places…accounting for an almost Panhellenic cult to the hero”. I seem to recall one myth even pairing up Achilles with Helen in the afterlife, because it was only fitting that the greatest warrior should be with the most beautiful woman.

Others have taken a less favorable view of Achilles – “the Romans, who traditionally traced their lineage to Troy, took a highly negative view of Achilles”, essentially that of “man-slaying Achilles” – a savage and merciless butcher of men” or even “ruthlessly slaying women and children”. This carried over to medieval writers and others since, who have favored Hector as the true hero of the Iliad.

 

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

Achilles readily fits into the Superman end of the scale as divine or divinely powered superman, as opposed to the Batman of my next hero place entry.

 

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

Well, yes and no – or rather no and yes. Achilles doesn’t punch out any eldritch abominations rather than other warriors, but he totally could have.

 

PARTY ROCK RANKING

Well perhaps not when he’s sulking in his tent…

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER)