Achilles

American  

[uh-kil-eez] / əˈkɪl iz /

noun

Classical Mythology.

1. the greatest Greek warrior in the Trojan War and hero of Homer's Iliad. He killed Hector and was killed when Paris wounded him in the heel, his one vulnerable spot, with an arrow.

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Achilles British  

/ ˌækɪˈliːən, əˈkɪliːz /

noun

1. Greek myth Greek hero, the son of Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis: in the Iliad the foremost of the Greek warriors at the siege of Troy. While he was a baby his mother plunged him into the river Styx making his body invulnerable except for the heel by which she held him. After slaying Hector, he was killed by Paris who wounded him in the heel

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Achilles Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, the greatest warrior on the Greek side in the Trojan War (see also Trojan War). When he was an infant, his mother tried to make him immortal by bathing him in a magical river, but the heel by which she held him remained vulnerable. During the Trojan War, he quarreled with the commander, Agamemnon, and in anger sulked in his tent. Eventually Achilles emerged to fight and killed the Trojan hero Hector, but he was wounded in the heel by an arrow and died shortly thereafter.

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Discover More

Achilles is the hero of Homer's Iliad.

People speak of an “Achilles' heel” as the one weak or sore point in a person's character.

The phrase “wrath of Achilles” refers to the hero's anger, which caused so much destruction that Homer refers to it as his main theme in the first line of the Iliad.

The Achilles tendon runs from the heel to the calf.

Other Word Forms

• Achillean adjective

Example Sentences

Not only did the Celtics lose that series to a hated rival—they also lost Tatum when he crumpled to the floor with a torn Achilles tendon.

From The Wall Street Journal

Gauff's serve has been her Achilles' heel in recent times, but she had few issues with it initially.

From Barron's

Using these comparisons, they estimated how large the Achilles tendon would need to be to absorb the forces generated during hopping by such heavy animals.

From Science Daily

An Achilles tendon injury had already robbed Borthwick of Bath's Will Stuart, whose rapid improvement last season culminated with selection to the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.

From BBC

Also, European investors’ accumulation of U.S. assets over the past 15 years is not necessarily “the Achilles’ heel of the dollar,” in their view.

From MarketWatch