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Achilles
[ uh-kil-eez ]
noun
- 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.
Achilles
/ ˌækɪˈliːən; əˈkɪliːz /
noun
- 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
Achilles
- 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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Notes
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Derived Forms
- Achillean, adjective
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Other Words From
- Ach·il·le·an [ak-, uh, -, lee, -, uh, n, uh, -, kil, -ee-], adjective
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Example Sentences
Our visionary scientists have found the Achilles heel of yet another enemy of the State—the Superbug!
A second doctor suggested it might be possible to extend his Achilles tendon.
Obama, extremely/quite confident: 32 percent Romney, extremely/quite confident: 19 percent That's the Achilles Heel, gang.
Alexander the Great fashioned himself after Achilles and very much identified with him.
We tried to stay with a very strict core, which is Achilles and Hector.
This failure came as a bitter blow to the keen young soldier, who, after reading Homer, already imagined himself an Achilles.
Hecuba invites Achilles and Archilochus to meet her in the temple of Apollo.
Chiron would have made Achilles completely immortal but for the lack of the three drops of blood which you refuse me.
To Achilles, lamenting the death of Patroclus, she came with nectar and ambrosia, that his limbs might not grow faint with hunger.
It's our one weakness—the one Achilles heel in a m-machine that was meant to be invulnerable.
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