The story of Achilles

Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus and immortal Thetis. He was the hero of Homer's Iliad.

Thetis wanted to make her son immortal. She held the young Achilles by the heel and dipped him in a magic river.

Everything the sacred waters touched became immortal, but the heel remained dry and so unprotected.

When Achilles was a boy, Calchas, the prophet, said that the city of Troy could not be taken without his help.

But Thetis knew that if her son went to Troy, he would die so she sent him to the island of Skyros. There he was hidden, disguised as a young girl.

Odysseus revealed Achilles' disguise and took him to Troy. There he became a great warrior and when his best friend Patroclus died, he was so angry that he killed Hector, the son of the King Priam of Troy and refused to give his body to be buried.

Achilles days were then numbered. The other son of Priam, Paris, with the help of God Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow. Achilles died of the wound.

BY

Antigoni, Ilias, Maria, Vasia