and foreseeing his fall in such a war, conducts the boy of nine to the island of Scyros, where in female dress he grows up among the daughters of king Lўcŏmēdēs, and by one of them, Dēĭdămeia, begets Neoptŏlĕmus (q.v.). But Calchas betrays his whereabouts, and Odysseus, in concert with Dĭŏmēdēs, unmasks the young hero. Disguised as a merchant, he spreads out female ornaments before the maidens, as well as a shield and spear; suddenly a trumpet sounds the call to battle, the maidens flee, but Achilles clutches at the arms, and declares himself eager to fight. At the first landing of the Greeks, on the Asian coast, he wounds Tēllĕphus (q.v.); at their second, on the Trojan shore, Cycnus (q.v.). Before Troy, Homer makes him the chief of Greek heroes, whom the favour of Hēra and Athēna and his own merit have placed above friend and foe. He is graced with all the attributes of a hero: in birth, beauty, swiftness, strength, and valour, he has not his peer; none can resist him, the very sight of him strikes terror into the foe. His anger may be furious, his grief immoderate; but his nature is at bottom kind, affectionate, and generous, even to his enemies. Touching is his love for his parents, especially his mother, and his devotion to his friends. In the first nine years of the war he leads the Greeks on their many plundering excursions around Troy, and destroys eleven inland and twelve seacoast towns. The events of the tenth year, brought on by the deep grudge he bears Agamemnon for taking away Brisēïs (daughter of Brises), form the subject of Homer’s Iliad. When he and his men withdraw from the fight, the Trojans press on irresistibly; they have taken the camp of the Greeks, and are setting their ships on fire. In this extremity he lends Patroclus the arms his father (see Peleus) had given him, and lets him lead the Myrmidons to battle. Patroclus drives the Trojans back, but falls by Hector’s hand, and the arms are lost, though the corpse is recovered. Grief for his friend and thirst for vengeance at last overcome his grudge against Agamemnon. Furnished by Hephæaestus, at the request of Thetis, with splendid new arms, including the shield of wondrous workmanship, he goes out against Hector, well knowing that he himself must fall soon after him. He makes frightful havoc among the enemy, till at last Hector is the only one that dares await him without the walls, and even he turns in terror at the sight of him. After chasing him three times round the city, Achilles overtakes him, pierces him with his lance, trails his body behind his chariot to the camp, and there casts it for a prey to the birds and dogs. Then with the utmost pomp he lays the loved friend of his youth in the same grave-mound that is to hold his own ashes, and founds funeral games in his honour. The next night Priam comes secretly to his tent, and offers rich gifts to ransom Hector’s body; but Achilles, whom the broken-down old king reminds of his own father, gives it up without ransom, and grants eleven days’ truce for the burying. After many valiant deeds (see Trojan War), he is overtaken by the fate which he had himself chosen; for the choice had been given him between an early death with undying fame and a long but inglorious life. Near the Scæan Gate he is struck by the shaft of Paris, guided by Apollo. According to a later legend he was wounded in the one vulnerable heel, and in the temple of Thymbræan Apollo, whither he had gone unarmed to be wedded to Priam’s daughter Polyxĕna (q.v.). Greeks and Trojans fight furiously all day about his body, till Zeus sends down a storm to end the fight. Seventeen days and nights the Greeks, with Thetis and the sea-goddesses and Muses, bewail the dead; then amid numerous sacrifices the body is burnt. Next morning the ashes, with those of Patroclus and of Nestor’s son, Antĭlŏochus, whom Achilles had loved in the next degree, are placed in a golden pitcher, the work of Hephæstus, and gift of Dionȳsus, and deposited in the famed tumulus that crowns the promontory of Sigēum. The soul of Homer’s Achilles dwells, like other souls, in the lower world, and is there seen by Odysseus together with the souls of his two friends. According to later poets Thetis snatched her son’s body out of the burning pyre and carried it to the island of Leukē at the mouth of the Danube, where the transfigured hero lives on, sovereign of the Pontus and husband of Iphigeneia. Others place him in Elysium, with Mēdēa or Hĕlĕna to wife. Besides Leucē, where the mariners of Pontus and Greek colonists honoured him with offerings and games, he had many other places of worship; the most venerable, however, was his tomb on the Hellespont, where he appeared to Homer in the full blaze of his armour, and struck the poet blind. In works of art Achilles was represented as similar to Ares, with magnificent physique, and hair bristling up like a mane. One of his most famous
