The Great Warrior of the Trojan War - Achilles

Did you know that the great warrior Achilles was once dressed as a woman to spare him from war? Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia. My name is Kelly and today's video is all about one of the greatest heroes from ancient Greece, legendary Achilles, whose life was destined to be short but glorious. Don't forget the easiest way to support us is by giving this video a thumbs up, subscribing to our channel and hitting that bell icon for notifications so you don't miss out on any new uploads. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organisation and you can find us on Patreon, a brilliant site where you can support our work and receive exclusive benefits in return. Your support helps us create videos twice a week, so make sure to check it out via the pop-up in the top corner of the screen or via the Patreon link down below. Before we can talk about the great hero Achilles, we have to start with his parents. His mother was the sea nymph Thetis, one of the daughters of Nereus and Doris, known as the Nereids. Thetis was reared by Hera and features in a few myths with other Olympian gods. When Hephaestus was unceremoniously thrown from Olympus, Thetis saved the god and housed him, and when Dionysus fled to her after being chased by King Lycurgus, she welcomed him. Despite being a goddess and the leader of the 50 Nereids, Thetis eventually ended up married to the father of Achilles, the mortal King Peleus. The story of their marriage survives in numerous sources from the ancient world. One version tells the story of Zeus wanting to marry Thetis, but out of respect for Hera, Thetis refused. In his rage over being rejected, Zeus swore that instead Thetis would have to marry a mortal. Another version tells us that both Zeus and Poseidon wanted to marry Thetis, but after a prophecy foretold that she would have a son that would become mightier than his father, neither of the gods wanted to risk that, and instead she was married off to a mortal. Peleus still had to work for it though, to marry her he had to catch her. This wasn't as easy as it sounds, since like Nereus and the other sea nymphs, Thetis had the ability to change her shape at will. Peleus was warned that no matter what shape she shifted to, he must keep a firm hold on her. This he did, and the two of them got married. They were wed on Mount Pelion, joined by the gods and goddesses of Olympus. However, they didn't invite Eris, the goddess of strife, and this proved to be a mistake. Eris turned up anyway, offering a golden apple as a gift to the fairest, the most beautiful goddess at the assembly, and then she left. This gift started the argument between the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite and Athena over who it was meant for, and became the catalyst for the ten year Trojan War. After her marriage, Thetis gave birth to one of the greatest demigods in Greek mythology, Achilles. Achilles, although the son of a goddess, was a mortal, since his father was a mortal. Some sources tell us that Thetis wanting to make her son immortal without telling her husband, rubbed Ambrosia, the food of the gods, into baby Achilles' skin during the day, and then placed him in a fire at night. One evening, when Peleus saw his infant son in the fire, he shouted out. Thetis pulled Achilles from the fire, and her plans to make him immortal were ruined. She then left to join her fellow Nereids, abandoning her infant son and her husband. In Homer's Iliad, however, she is depicted as a loving mother who cared very much for her son, and did not simply abandon him to his fate. Another version of the story, and probably the best known, regarding Achilles, is that Thetis took him to the underworld River Styx, and dipped him into the water, which made him invulnerable to any injury. But she missed his heel that she was holding him by, and this became his greatest weakness, which is where we got the term Achilles' heel from, meaning any weakness that causes someone, or something, to fail. When Achilles was young, Thetis learnt that the Moirai, the three goddesses of fate, had decreed two possible futures for the young boy. He would either live a long, uneventful life, or one short, but glorious. He would die at Troy, but he would die a hero. During his youth, Achilles was educated under Chiron, the wise centaur, half-horse, half-man, who taught many of the greatest heroes of Greek mythology, including Asclepius and Jason. Achilles learned the arts of healing and medicine, how to play the lyre, as well as how to be a mighty warrior. At some point in his youth, he was joined at court by the noble youth Patroclus, son of the Argonaut Minotius. Patroclus, who would become Achilles' most beloved companion, had accidentally killed a boy during a game of dice, and so was sent away from his home to live at the court of King Peleus. Despite being older than Achilles, he assumed the role of a younger brother, becoming Achilles' closest friend, his attendant, and most probably, his lover. When he was nine years old, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Achilles was told that the city of Troy could not be taken by the Achaeans, the Greeks, without him, which Thetis knew would mean the death of her son. In the hope of keeping him from fighting at Troy, Thetis sent him to the island of Scyros, ruled over by King Lachimedes. Thetis dressed her son as a girl and hid him among the daughters of the king, as no one would think to look for him there. Despite his mother's hopes, Achilles did not stay in Scyros for long, although while he was there, he managed to seduce the daughter of the king, Didymaea, and they had a child named Neoptolemus, who was also known as Pyrrhus. Thetis had needed to hide her son because war with Troy was on the horizon. The gift of Eris at the wedding caused the three goddesses to argue so heatedly that they brought the matter to Zeus, who sidestepped the question by choosing the mortal Paris, prince of Troy, to decide which of them was the most beautiful. Hera offered Paris worldly power to choose her, Athena offered him skill in battle and wisdom, but Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as his own, the Greek queen Helen. Paris accepted Aphrodite's bribe and all would have been well, except that Helen was already the wife of Menelaus of Sparta. As a guest in Menelaus' house, Paris took Helen and whisked her away to Troy. Menelaus called upon his friends and allies to help bring her back, and since the Greeks had been told of the prophecy that they could not capture Troy without Achilles, Odysseus, the clever king of Ithaca, went in search of him. At Scyros, Odysseus headed to the girl's chamber, where he laid some weapons down, as well as sewing materials and baskets. And as he watched, the women crowded around the sewing tools and such, while Achilles alone picked up a weapon. In this way, Odysseus revealed Achilles and persuaded him to join the ranks, with fifty ships full of fearsome fighters known as the Myrmidons, with Patroclus by his side. The story of the first nine years of the Trojan War is unclear, given the fragmentary survival of the rest of the epic cycle, but the Iliad by Homer is by far our best source for Achilles, despite only covering around fifty-four days total in the final year of the ten-year siege. The Iliad, as told to us in the very first line, is about the rage of Achilles. The epic poem begins with the Greek camp suffering a plague sent by the god Apollo, because the Greek king Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, has taken Chryseis, the daughter of a priest of Apollo, as spoils of war. To save his men, Agamemnon has to give Chryseis back to her father, but he will only do that if he can have someone else's woman, and he chooses Briseis, Achilles' slave girl. When Briseis is taken by Agamemnon, Achilles weeps for her, and is comforted by his mother. Her efforts are useless, however, and he returns seething to his tent. In his rage, he withdraws himself and all of his men from the war, knowing that Troy cannot be taken without him. Despite the pleas of his comrades, Achilles refuses to fight, and the war goes against the Greeks. Agamemnon even offers to return Briseis to him, but the damage has been done, and his honour has been slighted. Eventually, only Patroclus, his closest confidant, can get through to the hero. After it becomes clear that Achilles will not relent, Patroclus begs his friend to allow him to lead the Mermadons into battle wearing Achilles' armour. Achilles agrees, but makes Patroclus promise to only engage in defensive action. Achilles prays to Zeus, Athena, and Apollo for the complete destruction of everyone on both sides, except for himself and Patroclus, telling his old friend, If only not one of all the Trojans could escape destruction, not one of the Argives, but you and I could emerge from the slaughter, so that we two alone could break Troy's hallowed coronal. Despite his promise to Achilles, Patroclus goes on the offensive, killing many Trojans on the battlefield, who fall back believing him to be Achilles, and he chases them to the city walls where he is met by the Trojan prince Hector, who kills him in single combat. The grief and rage of Achilles knows no bounds, and although Homer is not explicit, it is clear that Achilles and Patroclus are more than companions. As Achilles tells his mother, My dear companion has perished, Patroclus, whom I loved beyond all other companions, as well as my own life, I have lost him. After being gifted new armour by his mother, forged by Hephaestus, the god of metallurgy, Achilles carves his way through the battlefield, looking for Hector. When the two heroes meet, Achilles kills Hector and ties him to the back of his chariot, dragging his corpse around the walls of the city, before hauling it to the Achaean camp. His mistreatment of the dead shocks the Trojans, Greeks and the gods, and even has Thetis appearing to tell him to lay aside his anger and to show the dead some respect. Achilles allows Priam, the king of Troy, to take his son back into the walls of his city for a proper burial, and during the funeral games for Patroclus, the ghost of his friend and lover appears to Achilles and says, Let one single vessel, the golden two-handled urn the lady your mother gave you, hold both our ashes. After the Iliad, in the fragments and surviving art, we know that the Amazons join the battle, and Achilles fights and defeats Penthesilea, and he also defeats Memnon, the king of Ethiopia. But as was fated, eventually Achilles is struck down. He is killed by Paris, who shoots an arrow, guided by the god Apollo, into the heel of the hero. Achilles' body and armour is fervently fought over, until eventually the mighty warrior Ajax prevails and retrieves his body, bringing it back to the Achaean camp. And so, as decreed by the fates, Achilles' life was short, but he achieved kleos, the eternal renown won by heroes, and through the stories told about him, lives on, over 2,000 years after those tales were first told. Which would you choose? A long, uneventful life, or one short but memorable? Let us know what you think in the comments below. 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