Achilles
Son of Peleus and the sea-goddess Thetis, the best of the Achaeans at Troy and the subject of the Iliad's wrath; he chose a short life with imperishable renown, killed Hector to avenge Patroclus, and fell to Paris and Apollo at the Scaean gate. In Hades he says he would rather be a living serf; Pindar puts him on the island of the blessed.
Why this wins its question: Gives the exact lines for the three things everyone quotes about Achilles (the choice, the death, the regret in Hades) and sets Pindar's and Apollodorus's contrary afterlives beside them instead of choosing.
Key takeaways
- The Iliad never shows his death; Hector prophesies it (22.358–360) and the Epitome supplies the arrow of Paris and Apollo.
- The two-fates speech (Il. 9.410–416) is the source for every later statement that Achilles chose glory over life.
- Homer's Achilles regrets being dead (Od. 11.488–491); Pindar's is on the island of the blessed. Both are primary; they do not agree.
- The burial is on the Hellespont in the Odyssey and in the White Isle in Apollodorus.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Hesiod names the parents in one line: "the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men" (Theog. 1006–1007). Apollodorus adds the nursery story: Thetis hid the infant in the fire by night to burn away his mortal part, Peleus cried out, she left, and Chiron reared the child on the inwards of lions and "named him Achilles, because he had not put his lips to the breast; but before that time his name was Ligyron" (Apollod. 3.13.6).
The Iliad is his wrath: "The wrath sing, goddess, of Peleus' son, Achilles, that destructive wrath which brought countless woes upon the Achaeans", from the day he and Agamemnon "parted in strife" (Il. 1.1–7). To his mother he says Zeus owed him honour "since you bore me, though to so brief a span of life" (Il. 1.352–354).
He states the choice himself: Thetis told him "twofold fates are bearing me toward the doom of death: if I abide here and war about the city of the Trojans, then lost is my home-return, but my renown shall be imperishable; but if I return home to my dear native land, lost then is my glorious renown, yet shall my life long endure" (Il. 9.410–416).
He chose death when Patroclus fell. Thetis warns "straightway after Hector is thine own death ready at hand", and he answers that he will not live unless Hector pays, "for not even the mighty Heracles escaped death, albeit he was most dear to Zeus" (Il. 18.88–119). He kills Hector with a spear through the throat, refuses ransom for the body, and the dying Hector foretells "the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee, valorous though thou art, at the Scaean gate" (Il. 22.325–366). Priam comes to his hut, kisses "the terrible, man-slaying hands" and asks him to remember his own father (Il. 24.477–506).
His death is outside the Iliad. Apollodorus: after killing Memnon, "Achilles was shot with an arrow in the ankle by Alexander and Apollo at the Scaean gate" (Apollod. E. 5.3). The Odyssey has Agamemnon's shade describe the funeral: seventeen days of mourning with Thetis and the Nereids, "the Muses, nine in all" leading the dirge, the bones laid in a golden urn given by Thetis "mingled with them the bones of the dead Patroclus", and a mound "on a projecting headland by the broad Hellespont" (Od. 24.36–84). Apollodorus places the burial "in the White Isle" and says he "consorts with Medea in the Isles of the Blest" (Apollod. E. 5.5); the two witnesses disagree on where.
His afterlife is contested. In the Odyssey his shade tells Odysseus he would rather be the hired man "of some portionless man whose livelihood was but small, rather than to be lord over all the dead" (Od. 11.488–491). Pindar puts "Achilles who was brought there by his mother" on the island of the blessed by the tower of Cronus, Thetis having "persuaded the heart of Zeus with her prayers" (Pind. Ol. 2.68–83).
Skyros is post-Homeric. Apollodorus says that when Calchas declared Troy could not be taken without him, Thetis "disguised him in female garb and entrusted him as a maiden to Lycomedes"; he fathered Pyrrhus, later Neoptolemus, on Deidamia, and "Ulysses, seeking him at the court of Lycomedes, discovered him by the blast of a trumpet" (Apollod. 3.13.8). At Aulis he was "admiral, being fifteen years old" (Apollod. E. 3.16).
Questions answered
- Who were the parents of Achilles?
- Hesiod names the parents in one line: "the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men" (Theog. 1006–1007). Apollodorus adds the nursery story: Thetis hid the infant in the fire by night to burn away his mortal part, Peleus cried out, she left, and Chiron reared the child on the inwards of lions and "named him Achilles, because he had not put his lips to the breast; but before that time his name was Ligyron" (Apollod. 3.13.6). source
- What choice did Achilles make between a long life and glory?
- He states the choice himself: Thetis told him "twofold fates are bearing me toward the doom of death: if I abide here and war about the city of the Trojans, then lost is my home-return, but my renown shall be imperishable; but if I return home to my dear native land, lost then is my glorious renown, yet shall my life long endure" (Il. 9.410–416). source
- Why did Achilles kill Hector?
- He chose death when Patroclus fell. Thetis warns "straightway after Hector is thine own death ready at hand", and he answers that he will not live unless Hector pays, "for not even the mighty Heracles escaped death, albeit he was most dear to Zeus" (Il. 18.88–119). He kills Hector with a spear through the throat, refuses ransom for the body, and the dying Hector foretells "the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay thee, valorous though thou art, at the Scaean gate" (Il. 22.325–366). Priam comes to his hut, kisses "the terrible, man-slaying hands" and asks him to remember his own father (Il. 24.477–506). source
- How did Achilles die?
- His death is outside the Iliad. Apollodorus: after killing Memnon, "Achilles was shot with an arrow in the ankle by Alexander and Apollo at the Scaean gate" (Apollod. E. 5.3). The Odyssey has Agamemnon's shade describe the funeral: seventeen days of mourning with Thetis and the Nereids, "the Muses, nine in all" leading the dirge, the bones laid in a golden urn given by Thetis "mingled with them the bones of the dead Patroclus", and a mound "on a projecting headland by the broad Hellespont" (Od. 24.36–84). Apollodorus places the burial "in the White Isle" and says he "consorts with Medea in the Isles of the Blest" (Apollod. E. 5.5); the two witnesses disagree on where. source
- What does Achilles say in the underworld?
- His afterlife is contested. In the Odyssey his shade tells Odysseus he would rather be the hired man "of some portionless man whose livelihood was but small, rather than to be lord over all the dead" (Od. 11.488–491). Pindar puts "Achilles who was brought there by his mother" on the island of the blessed by the tower of Cronus, Thetis having "persuaded the heart of Zeus with her prayers" (Pind. Ol. 2.68–83). source
- Was Achilles hidden among girls on Skyros?
- Skyros is post-Homeric. Apollodorus says that when Calchas declared Troy could not be taken without him, Thetis "disguised him in female garb and entrusted him as a maiden to Lycomedes"; he fathered Pyrrhus, later Neoptolemus, on Deidamia, and "Ulysses, seeking him at the court of Lycomedes, discovered him by the blast of a trumpet" (Apollod. 3.13.8). At Aulis he was "admiral, being fifteen years old" (Apollod. E. 3.16). source