In What Way Would You Define Achilles Heel? An Achilles’ heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to the physical vulnerability of Achilles.
In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is explicitly described as the most handsome and physically striking of all the Greek warriors, a complex Greek hero driven by rage, immense pride, and a quest for eternal glory, making him more of a brutal antihero by modern moral standards.
Achilles, in Greek legend, was the greatest warrior among the Greeks at the siege of Troy. At the beginning of Homer’s Iliad, Achilles quarrels with Agamemnom, the Greek leader, and retires to his tent, refusing to fight. But when his friend Patroclus is killed by the Trojan hero Hector, Achilles storms into battle and kills Hector. Popular myth places this on the battlefield, while later stories say it happened inside a temple of Apollo during a trap or wedding negotiation.
Achilles was supposed to be invulnerable to weapons because his mother, Thetis, dipped him in the River Styx as a baby. She held him by his heel — the only part of him that could be injured. From this comes the phrase ‘Achilles heel’, a person’s weak point. The lesson, it seems, is that everyone has their weakness, capable of bringing them down.
Content for this question contributed by Sandy Hollstegge, resident of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA
