Unfortunately, the wife in question—Helen, the daughter of Zeus—was already married to someone else: Menelaus, the king of Sparta. Menelaus vowed revenge. When the Iliad begins, the Trojan War has been going on for nine years. He has met with great success—in fact, he is undefeated in battle—but the war itself has reached a stalemate.
In a battle that took place before the poem begins, Agamemnon had taken as a concubine a young Trojan woman named Chryseis. Enraged, Apollo punished the Greek armies by sending a plague to kill the soldiers one by one.
As his ranks thinned, Agamemnon finally agreed to allow Chryseis to return to her father. Achilles did as his commander asked and relinquished his bride.
He gathered his belonging and refused to come out of his tent. The Greeks lost one battle after another. That way, the Trojans would think that Achilles had returned to battle and would retreat in fear. He helped the Trojan prince Hector to find and kill Patroclus. Achilles vowed to take revenge. Thetis asked the divine blacksmith Hephaestus to make a sword and shield that would keep him safe. Achilles chased Hector back to Troy, slaughtering Trojans all the way.
When they got to the city walls, Hector tried to reason with his pursuer, but Achilles was not interested. He stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him. Hector had begged for an honorable burial in Troy, but Achilles was determined to humiliate his enemy even in death. The Odyssey describes a huge tomb of Achilles on the beach at Troy, and Odysseus meets Achilles during his visit to the underworld, among a group of dead heroes.
For the ancient Greeks he was an archetypal hero who embodied the human condition. Despite his greatness he was still mortal and fated to die. A hero cult for Achilles developed in several areas across Greece where he was venerated and worshipped like a god. For the Romans, Achilles was on the one hand a model of military prowess but also, for poets such as Horace and Catullus, an archetype of brutality. By the medieval period, Achilles provided a model of how not to behave. Changes to the narrative in the markedly pro-Trojan versions of the myth that were dominant at this time made Achilles into a cowardly scoundrel who destroyed himself through his lustful passions.
In the Renaissance, when there was a renewal of interest in the classical world accompanying the reintroduction of Greek texts into western Europe, Achilles regained interest as a more complex character.
By the early 19th century, the period of Romanticism, he was the perfect hero, embodying a life given over to emotion, and beauty doomed to ruin. A neoclassical sculpture of the period, The Wounded Achilles , shows the perfection of his body even in his dying moments. Achilles has also served as a heroic justification for the sacrifice of soldiers as well as a symbol of the destruction and brutality of war.
Achilles may be a killing machine but he is nevertheless deeply human and that is, perhaps, why his story is still compelling after more than 3, years. Buy the book accompanying the exhibition here. Map Data. Terms of Use. Report a map error. Exhibitions and events Who was Achilles? The Greek hero Achilles is one of the most famous figures in Greek myth and a key character in the Trojan War.
British Museum 15 October Achilles was the son of Peleus, a Greek king, and Thetis, a sea nymph or goddess. Terracotta relief showing Peleus and Thetis, c. Thetis tries to resist marriage to Peleus by transforming her body into powerful elements such as fire and wild beasts, here a lion. Why was Achilles raised by a centaur? Achilles instructed by Chiron in the Management of the Javelin.
Print after Giovanni Battista Cipriani, I have loved the ancient Greek myths since I was a child, and studied Latin and Greek throughout high school, college, and graduate school. My professors gave me an incredible and electrifying education in ancient history and literature, and all of it helped provide the foundation for the book—though at the time, of course, I had no idea that I would one day use it for fiction.
Once I started writing the novel, I inevitably discovered that I needed to know more: What exactly did ancient ship sails look like? What kind of flora and fauna does Homer mention? My background in Classics helped there too; I had a lot of the answers already on my bookshelf, or I knew where to go to find the information I needed. It was also extremely helpful that I had spent time in parts of Greece and Turkey.
His reaction is shocking in its intensity. The great half-god warrior—who carelessly defies rules, and condemns a whole army to death—comes completely unglued, desperate with grief and rage.
I wanted to understand what it was about Patroclus and their relationship that could create that kind of crisis. Who was Achilles? And why did he love Patroclus so much? Writing the novel was my way of answering that question. How did you come up with your theory that their friendship grew into love? The idea that Patroclus and Achilles were lovers is quite old. Many Greco-Roman authors read their relationship as a romantic one—it was a common and accepted interpretation in the ancient world.
There is a lot of support for their relationship in the text of the Iliad itself, though Homer never makes it explicit. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights.
Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Ancient History and Latin Expert. Gill is a Latinist, writer, and teacher of ancient history and Latin. Updated March 03, Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Gill, N.
0コメント