[Faceman]

/too late because I never can stop writing

Achilles was a semi-god fighting in the Trojan war.

His mother Thetis was a sea goddess while his father Peleus was human (this was arranged by Zeus who had an affair with Thetis when the oracle told him that "the son of Thetis would be more powerful than his father" fearing of a son that would overpower him => Zeus got Thetis and Peleus married and their son Achill being a semi-god was of course more powerful than his father. Tadaa!

The oracle also foresaw that Achill would die young and in glory. His mother concerned with her son dying early bathed him in Styx (one of the underworld's streams) to make him invulnerable. To do that however she had to hold him somewhere which was his heel that thus got not covered by the Styx and was therefore his only vulnerable point.
Achill was killed by an arrow (shot by Paris and guided by Apoll himself - other sources tell that he was hit by a spear from Zeus himself) hitting him directly in the heel.

There are similar stories about other heroes in other mythologies. For example Siegfried the Dragon Slayer (from the German "Nibelungenlied") who bathed in the Dragon's blood to make himself invincible when a leaf from a linden tree fell on his shoulder leaving him with one vulnerable spot.

[ 06-26-2003, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: Faceman ]