Hero Myth - Achilles Essay Example for Free

Hero Myth Achilles EssayThe concept of the booster is as old as myth itself. Throughout history both concepts require evolved together. Myths enjoin tales of the adventures of man, frequently the son of a god or goddess and a human, who is endowed with expectant promise and destined to perform great feats. Often these feats involve acts of rescue, fight or protection. This heroic myth is rooted in the ideal of familial romance. Particularly during adolescence it sustains and expresses the identification of the ego with idealized imagery. The hero myths have been used for centuries to ameliorate and train youths as parts of institutions and groups.One example of a hero is Achilles, made famous through Homers epic Illiad. While we may not look at myths today in the same ways as our ancient forebears, the hero myth is still alive and well in our culture today. Achilles was the hero of the Trojan war as related by Homer in the Illiad. He was the mightiest of the Trojan warri ors. He began life as a demigod, the son of Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons and a mortal, and Thetis who was a Nereid. The Myrmidons were legendary warriors, very skilled and brave. Nereids ar sea nymphs being the daughters of Nereus and Doris.Thetis was very concerned that her son was a mortal. thusly she attempted to make him immortal. There are two stories of how she wet about this. The lesser-known story is that she burned him in a fire nightly and then meliorate his wounds with a magical ambrosia. The more well-known story is that she held him tightly by the heel and submersed him in the river Styx. This made his entire body invulnerable further for the spot on his heel where she held him while he was in the river. During Achilles boyhood, a seer named Calchas prophesied that Troy would not fall without help from Achilles.Knowing that he would give away if he went to Troy, Thetis sent Achilles to the court of Lycomedes in Scyros. He was hidden there in the guise of a youn g girl. While at the court he had a romance with Deidameia who was the daughter of Lycomedes. The result was a son who was named Pyrrhus. The disguise finally came to an end when Odysseus exposed Achilles by placing arms and armor amongst a pomposity of female garments and picked Achilles out when he was the only female to be interested in the war equipment.Achilles then willingly joined Odysseus on the journey to Troy. He led a host of his fathers Myrmidon troops in addition to his utor Phoenix and his friend Patroclus. Once in Troy, Achilles quickly gained the reputation as an undefeatable warrior. One of his most notable feats was the capture of 23 Trojan towns. One of these was Lyrnessos where he took a war prize in the form of a woman named Briseis. The central action of the Illiad was sparked when Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, was forced to give up his war-prize woman, Chryseis, by an oracle of Apollo. As compensation for the loss of Chryseis, Agamemnon took Briseis f rom Achilles. Thus enraged, Achilles refused to continue fighting for the Greeks.With Achilles insularism from the action, the war started to go badly for the Greeks and they offered large reparations to try to lure back their greatest warrior. Achilles continued to refuse to rejoin the war, however, he did agree to allow his unaired friend Patroclus to don his arms and armor and fight in his place. The next day Hector, a Trojan hero, mistook Patroclus for Achilles and killed Patroclus. Achilles was engulfed with rage at Hector and consumed by sorrowfulness for his friends death. Thetis went to Hephaestus and obtained fabulous new armor for Achilles. Achilles recommenced fighting and killed Hector.Not satisfied with Hectors death, Achilles used his chariot to drag the body onward the walls of Troy and refused the corpse funeral rites. Hectors father Priam, the king of Troy, went secretly to the Greek camp to beg the return of the body. Finally, Achilles relented and allowed Pria m to take Hectors remains. later Hectors death time started to run out for Achilles. He continued to fight heroically and killed many Trojans as well as their allies. Eventually, Paris, who was other of Priams sons, enlisted the aid of Apollo and wounded Achilles in his weak spot the heel with an arrow. This caused Achilles death.The enduring legend from the story of Achilles has to do with the concept of the Achilles heel. An Achilles heel has come to guess that despite overall strength, there is a mortal weakness that can lead to ones downfall. While the original myth refers to a fleshly weakness, in modern font times it has come to reference other types of character flaws or qualities that can cause ruination. The concept of the hero has changed somewhat in our modern culture. Instead of daring people who buck trends and traditions in order to help their families, nations or cultures, today we tend to revere people like sports figures and actors.While we have the occasional government or political leader such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, most of what you hear about is who is making the most silver due to their sports or acting ability. The concept of the sports figure hero can have some validity as these figures do occasionally overcome great odds and perform daring feats on the modern battlefield, i. e. , the sports arena. However, this is nothing compared to the feats of the ancient heros. Hero myths are powerful stories from ancient times.So powerful are they that they cross cultures and ages, continuing to influence us today. Achilles was one of the great heros of ancient times as the mightiest warrior of the Trojan war. While who we classify as a hero has changed in our modern societies, we still look to the concept today. We teach young people about heros as a method to inspire them. We look to our heros as adults to give us guidance and to give us something to guide our hopes and dreams. While modern heros may no t be of Achilles status, they remain an integral part of our cultures.