ACHILLES, the son of Wiens and Thetis, said to have been born at Phthia, in Thessaly, was one of the most celebrated heroes of Greece. His history is so in volved in fable, and such contradictory accounts are given of it by ancient authors, that no accurate informa tion concerning him can be obtained. To render him invulnerable, his mother, it is said, dipped his whole body, except the heel, by which she held him, in the river Styx. Homer, however, clues not seem to have known or believ ed this ; for in the Iliad (lib. xxi. 161.) he mentions Achil les as being wounded in the right arm by the lance of Asteropxus. Nor is it agreed, whether Chiron, the cen taur, or Phoenix, was his first preceptor, under whom he was instructed in horsemanship and the use of arms ; and by whom he was fed with honey, and the fat of lions and wild boars, to fit him for enduring martial toil. Thetis, being warned by an oracle that her son would be slain at Troy, endeavoured to conceal him in female apparel at the court of Lycomedes, to prevent him from engaging in the Trojan war ; but Ulysses, having discovered him persua ded him to follow the Greeks. During his concealment, he is said to have fallen in love with one of Lycomedes's daughters, and Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was the result of this amour. At the siege of Troy, he distinguished himself by the most splendid and heroic achievements ; but being enraged at the conduct of Agamemnon, in de priving him of Briseis, he retired in disgust from the camp. Every attempt to rouse him from his inactivity, so dangerous to the Greeks, proved ineffectual, till the death of his friend Patroclus awakened his indignation, and desire of revenge. Nothing now could restrain his impetuosity : he slew Hector ; fastened his corpse to his chariot, and dragged it thrice round the walls of Troy. But, whilst in the temple treating about his marriage with Philoxena, the daughter of Priam, he was wounded in the heel with an arrow by Paris. The wound
proved speedily fatal, and he was interred in the pro montory of Sigwum. After the capture of Troy, the Greeks sacrificed Philoxena on his tomb, in obedience to his request, that he might enjoy her company in the Elysian fields, where he is said also to have married Medea. When Alexander saw this tomb, it is said he honoured it by placing a crown upon it, exclaiming, at the same time, that " Achilles was happy in having, during his life, a friend like Patroclus, and after his death, a poet like Homer." Achilles is supposed to have died about 1184 years before the Christian era. Homer has been blamed, and we imagine not without justice, for making his hero Achilles of too ferocious and unamia ble a character. Dr Blair has, indeed, attempted to repel this charge ; but though it were admitted, that the hero of the Iliad is not destitute of candour, justice, and affec tion, that spirit of insatiable revenge, which the poet has so inimitably described, as his ruling passion, must lir ever tarnish the lustre of his character, and, were it pos sible, diminish his reputation for warlike bravery. His resentment against Agamemnon, however justifia bl• at its commencement, was prolonged till it had al most ruined the cause in which he had engaged ; and nothing but his thirst of revenging the death of Patro clus, saved his countrymen from destruction and dis grace. His courage was ferocity itself; and his conduct to Hector was more like that of a tiger than of a man. (See Iliad, lib. xxii. 345, kr.) This is the character gis en him by Horace De .'Irte Putt. v. 121.
Impiger, iractiodus, ineaorabilis, seer, Jun. neget sibi naut, nihil 11011 a•roget armis. (,/)