Achilles' heel

The classical myth

Although the death of Achilles was predicted by Hector in Homer's Iliad, it does not actually occur in the Iliad, but was described in later Greek and Roman poetry and drama concerning events after the Iliad, later in the Trojan War. In the myths surrounding the war, Achilles was said to have died from a wound to his heel, ankle, or torso, which was the result of an arrow—possibly poisoned—shot by Paris. The Iliad may have purposefully suppressed the myth to emphasise Achilles' human mortality and the stark chasm between gods and heroes.

Some later Hellenistic-era myths record Thetis trying to make her son immortal by anointing him with ambrosia and burning away his mortality in the hearth fire, but Peleus, his father, discovered the treatment and was alarmed to see Thetis holding the baby in the flames, which disrupted the ritual and thus made Thetis leave the treatment incomplete. According to a myth arising later, his mother had dipped the infant Achilles in the river Styx, holding onto him by his heel, and he became invulnerable where the waters touched him—that is, everywhere except the areas of his heel that were covered by her thumb and forefinger.

As expression

As an expression meaning "area of weakness, vulnerable spot", the use of "Achilles' heel" dates only to 1840, with implied use in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Ireland, that vulnerable heel of the British Achilles!" from 1810 (Oxford English Dictionary).

Anatomy

The large and prominent tendon of the gastrocnemius, soleus, and plantaris muscles of the calf is called the tendo achilleus or Achilles tendon. This is commonly associated with the site of Achilles's death wound. The oldest-known written record of the name is in 1693 by the Flemish/Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen. In his widely used text Corporis Humani Anatomia he described the tendon's location and said that it was commonly called "the cord of Achilles".{{Citation |author-link=Philip Verheyen |access-date=12 Mar 2018

References

References

1. "Achilles' heel {{!".
2. "Achilles heel {{!}} meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary".
3. "Achilles heel {{!}} Definition of Achilles heel by Lexico".
4. E.g. [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 12.580–619.
5. (2019-10-15). "Who was Achilles?".
6. "Ancient History".
7. "Apollodorus, Epitome, book e, chapter 5, section 3".
8. See P. J. Heslin, ''The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Statius’'' Achilleid, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2005, 166–169.
9. Nelson, Thomas J.. (2021). "Achilles' Heel: (Im)mortality in the ''Iliad''". Omnibus.
10. [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' 4.869–872
11. Statius, Achilleid 1.122f., 269f., 480f.
12. "Home : Oxford English Dictionary".
13. (April 2007). "The early history of tendo Achillis and its rupture". The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. British Volume.
14. (2013). "Achilles' death: anatomical considerations regarding the most famous trauma of the Trojan War". J Trauma Acute Care Surg.