Achilles: Greek hero of the Trojan War and enduring cultural figure

Achilleus is often called "Pelide", "Aiakide" or even "Pyruus", epithets that recall his ancestors. The etymology of his actual name is unknown. Achilleus already appears as a proper name in Mycenaean Greek on two Linear B documents (Knossos Vc 106, Pylos FN 79.2) around 1200 B.C. in the spelling a-ki-re-u. However, the bearers of the name are real persons who did not belong to an elevated class. The question of the origin of his name was already raised in antiquity:

Pseudo-Apollodor explains that his name means 'who has no lips' - as a compound of the ancient Greek negation prefix α- a- and χεῖλος kheĩlos, German 'Lippe', because his lips would never have sucked on a mother's breast. Lycophron traces the name to the same root, but on the grounds that Achilles had lost a lip to fire after his birth.

Another ancient hypothesis gives the name the sense of 'he whose army is afflicted', from ancient Greek ἄχος ákhos, German 'sorrow, grief' and λαός laós, German 'army, the multitude of warriors'. In fact, the figure of Achilles is linked with sorrow: The Achaeans feel it when he retreats from battle and when he dies. An interpretation based on the same root ἄχος ákhos interprets the name as 'he who caused sorrow to the Trojans (i.e. the Illians)'.

Modern considerations interpret the root αχελ akhel as a reference to a water deity-with etymological parallels to the river deities Acheron and Acheloos-which is also supported by his descent from the sea deity Thetis and his battle with the scamander. Others trace the name back to Αχιλόγονος Achilógonos, German 'Schlangensohn', since his mother preferred to turn into a snake.

Despite his origin from Peleus and Thetis, Achilles is mortal. However, Homer describes the anger of the hero as an outflow of the divine. This has nothing in common with the rage and resentment of ordinary people, but is a holy anger, a divine passion. The other heroes of the Iliad are also possessed by mania, by warlike madness that blinds them - with the exception of Odysseus.

Achilles is a conflicted character, for he is free to respect the rites of heroes and the customs of men. This forces him to belong to no group, which gives him an aloof place in Homer's work.

This dichotomy of Achilles seems particularly inviting to identification. He is peace-loving at the bottom of his heart and hates war, but when he fights it is unstoppably and brutally; he appears heterosexual to some authors (Deidameia, Briseis, Polyxena), more homosexual to others (Patroclus); he vacillates between subordination to a common goal and complete self-will; he is young, beautiful and quick - and yet vulnerable; he is a feared fighter - and in distress flees into the arms of his mother. Already in Homer all these contradictions are united in his person, and yet he never gives the impression of a poetic construct. In this abundance of qualities, of contradictions, lies his special vitality: because his pride is offended, he goes on war strike. He returns to the theatre of war for a private motive: he wants to avenge his friend. He is apparently indifferent to the actual war aims, Troy and Helen. All other participants in the war are in the service of the war aims, but the fighter Achilleus realizes himself. For Hegel, Achilles embodies the ideal of the epic hero: "With Achilles one can say: this is a human being! - The versatility of noble human nature develops all its richness in this one individual."