Achillies Essay Research Paper AchillesAchilles was one

Achillies Essay, Research Paper Achilles Achilles was one of the many, numerous heroes of the great Trojan War. He has a great story that goes along with his adventures. A man who wrote poems about wars named Homer tells his story in the Iliad. He was a great warrior of the Trojan War because of what his parents did to him when he was young. Because of what his parents did when he was young, he could not be defeated and was a major threat to other enemies, but was a great asset to the country he fought for. Achilles had two parents like most people. His mother was a Nereid named Thetis. She was a sea nymph. Thetis was an immortal nymph. The mortal Peleus fell in love with her, but she avoided him by turning herself into various slippery animals. She turned herself into

various slippery animals to try to avoid him because she didn t want to have anything to do with him and she didn t like to be around him. Eventually Peleus caught Thetis. She was very well known for her many inventions. She was well known by both gods and mortals because she made inventions for both the mortals and the gods. An example of her helping gods and mortals is when Hephaestus was cast by Zues from Heaven, and fell into the sea. When hephaestus was cast from Heaven, Thetis had to help him and get her out of the sea. She married Peleus and their wedding indirectly brought on the Trojan War. All the gods except for the goddess of Discord, Eris had been invited by Zues to the wedding of Achilles parents. Eris was jealous so to get even, Eris tossed a golden apple in the

midst of the gathering, and labeled it To the Fairest . A fight soon ensued between the beautiful goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena, as to who the rightful recipient of the golden apple should be. The decision was left to a Shepherd named Paris, who awarded the apple to Aphrodite on the promise of winning the hand of Helen. Helen was considered to be the most beautiful mortal. Aphrodite caused Helen to fall in love with Paris, and when he abducted her and they ran away to Troy, the Greeks launched the Trojan War. The Trojan s did not fight the war in the city but yet they fought the war outside the city against the Greek s. They wanted to remove the Greek s so that they could recover the beautiful Helen for the Trojan s. Achilles had a tremendous amount of power. When

Achilles was born, he was half god, from Thetis, and half mortal, from Peleus. His mother wished to make him completely immortal. When he was young she dipped him in the waters of the infernal river Styx, found in the Underworld. The river was supposed to annoit the person who was in it to be immortal. When he was dipped in the river Styx, he became invulnerable. The only place he was not immortal was his heel. His heel was then the only place where he could be killed. It was the only part because it was the only part that didn t touch the water because that is where his mother held him when she dipped him in the river Styx. Some believed that for Achilles to remain immortal, Thetis would nightly hold him over the fire to get rid of the mortal elements inherited from Peleus, and

that in the daytime she would anoint his body with Ambrosia. Later Peleus took Achilles to be mentored by the Centaur Cheiron, who was a famous mentor and teacher of many heroes. For a long time, Achilles was fed meat from lions and wild boars, and the marrow of bears, to give him courage and to prepare him to become a great Greek warrior for when he grows up. A diet of honeycomb and fawn s marrow made him a swift runner also to prepare for his soon future when he would become a great Greek warrior. Cheiron taught Achilles the arts of riding, hunting, archery, pipe playing, healing and more. The Muse Calliope taught him to sing. By the time he was done, Achilles had the best qualities of a warrior, with the soul of a poet. He killed his first boar when he was only six years old