Achilles

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Achilles was a mythical Greek warrior who was most famous for participating in the Trojan War, a conflict traditionally dated around 1200 BCE. A central character of the Iliad, an epic poem by Homer, he is considered the greatest warrior in the story.

Biography

Mythology

According to legend, Achilles was invulnerable throughout his entire body except for one of his heels because when his mother, the Nereid Thetis, dipped him into the river Styx as an infant so that he may become invincible, she held him by one of his heels. In his childhood, his mother hid Achilles in the court of King Lykomedes of Skyros, disguised as one of his daughters, in an attempt to protect him from his foretold fate.

At some point, the centaur Chiron tutored Achilles as a young man.

Achilles' lover and one of his closest friends was the Lokrian Patroklos, who was slain during the Trojan War and later appeared as a ghost to Achilles.

As a consequence of his invulnerability covering everything but his heel, he was ultimately slain by Paris when the Trojan prince loosed an arrow into his vulnerable heel.

Simulation

In a simulation of the Underworld created by the Isu Aletheia, Achilles was one of the four champions Hades tasked the misthios Kassandra with enlisting Achilles to help fill in the late Cerberos' position as a guardian of the Underworld. Tracking him to the Hall of Maniai, Kassandra engaged him in combat and bested him. Achilles then agreed to go and protect the Gate of the Glorious.

Legacy

Classic antiquity

Statue of Achilles outside the Temple of Achilles in Skyros

By the time of the Peloponnesian War, the northern region of the island of Skyros had been named after Achilles and the city hosted a temple dedicated to him on its fortified acropolis. It was also the base of the bandit group known as the Dagger which worshipped him.

According to Barnabas, the captain of Adrestia, Achilles' tomb was located on the island of Andros.

In 48 BCE, a hunter bow named the Achilles Heel Seeker found in Egypt was marketed as based on the design of Paris' bow. The Medjay Bayek of Siwa also found a shield which was claimed to have ultimately belonged to Achilles.

Renaissance

Around 1695, the Genoan painter Gaulli Giovanni Battista made The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles, based on a scene in the Iliad wherein Agamemnon stole Achilles' war prize, a concubine by the name of Briseis.

Modern times

In 1757, the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo made the fresco The Rage of Achilles, inspired by the aftermath of Patrokles' death. In 1778, the French painter Jacques-Louis David made The Funeral Games of Patroclus which depicted the athletic competitions held in Patroklos' honor; 10 years after its making, the French Templars' Grand Master François de la Serre had purchased multiple copies of reproductions that he displayed throughout the family's estate in Versailles.

In 2012, the Assassin Clay Kaczmarek collected details on Achilles' mythical feats while Abstergo Industries held him captive at their Animus Project laboratory in Rome. He then hid the information within the Animus 1.28 in Glyph puzzles for his successor, Desmond Miles, to find. Sometime in early September, Desmond solved the puzzle set titled "Instruments of Power", in which Achilles was excluded from the list of individuals who had wielded Staves of Eden.

Behind the scenes

"Achilles", also spelt "Achilleus" (Ἀχιλλεύς), is an Ancient Greek name derived from ἄχος (áchos) "distress, pain, sorrow, grief" and λαός (laós) "people, soldiers, nation", resulting in a proto-form *Akhí-lāu̯os meaning "he who has the people distressed" or "he whose people have distress".

When playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey as Alexios, the armor set gained by completing The Heroes of the Cult-memory is called the Achilles Set. The belt of that set mentions how it was given to Achilles by his mother, the Nereid Thetis.

The mural featuring Achilles in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is based on the reconstruction of Polygnotos' Nekyia.

Gallery

• 
  Achilles in the Hall of Maniai
• 
  Achilles at the Gate of the Glorious
• 
  A 5th century BCE mural featuring Achilles
• 
  Battista's The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles
• 
  Tiepolo's The Rage of Achilles

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (first appearance) (painting only)
• Assassin's Creed: Unity (painting only)
• Assassin's Creed: Origins (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (painting only)
  • The Fate of Atlantis: Torment of Hades (simulation only)
• Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece