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He was supposed to be the strongest man on Earth

Achilles wasn't particularly strong, he was invulnerable. His mother had dipped him in the river Styx which made his skin impenetrable (all except for the heel that she held him by). As you can imagine growing up with no option for discipline he was vain, selfish, impatient, stubborn and even cruel. His invulnerability made him a great warrior as no one could hurt him he never had to consider any defensive tactics and was just always on the attack. When the Greek ships approached the beach of Troy Achilles jumped over-board and fought with the Trojan army all by himself before any other Greek warrior could join him.

The thing about Achilles' invulnerability comes to us from a single source three hundred years after Homer. It is not part of the original legend. In the Iliad there are four references to Achilles suffering very minor wounds in which blood was drawn, and none of them from the heel.

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13y ago

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