The Death of Achilles
After becoming the greatest Greek warrior at Troy, Achilles finally meets the death long associated with his heroic fate.
The Story
Achilles survived many of the greatest battles of the Trojan War.
He killed Hector, defeated Penthesilea and overcame Memnon.
But Achilles had never been destined to survive the war.
His mother Thetis had long known that his heroic path would bring extraordinary fame at the cost of a short life.
After the death of Memnon, Achilles' own end drew near.
The Iliad itself does not narrate his death.
Later epic and mythological traditions describe Paris as the mortal figure responsible.
Paris shot Achilles with an arrow, and Apollo was frequently associated with guiding or assisting the fatal attack.
Achilles died before Troy finally fell.
Later tradition became especially famous for locating his vulnerability in the heel.
That detail eventually produced the expression 'Achilles' heel' for a single point of weakness.
The earliest surviving traditions are less uniform about the precise location of the fatal wound.
What remained constant was the larger pattern of Achilles' life.
He had chosen or accepted a destiny in which brief life and everlasting fame were bound together.
His death removed the greatest Greek warrior from the battlefield, but his presence continued to shape the final stages of the war.
His armour became the object of the dispute that destroyed Ajax, and his son Neoptolemus was later brought to Troy as the Greeks sought the conditions required for victory.
Key Figures
Why It Matters
Achilles' death completes the central heroic trajectory of the greatest Greek warrior and leads directly into several final-war traditions, including the contest for his armour and the arrival of Neoptolemus.
Traditions & Variations
The Iliad foretells Achilles' death but does not narrate it. Later traditions commonly make Paris the attacker and Apollo a divine participant. The famous heel wound became especially prominent in later tradition.