All About Achilles

All About Achilles Name: _____________________ Close Reading Passage The events in Achilles’s life are legends but may have some historical basis. Achilles was the son of Pelus, the king of Phthia in Thessaly, and Thetis, an immortal sea nymph.Soon after... More

All About Achilles Name: _____________________ Close Reading Passage The events in Achilles’s life are legends but may have some historical basis. Achilles was the son of Pelus, the king of Phthia in Thessaly, and Thetis, an immortal sea nymph.Soon after Achilles was born, Thetis dipped him in the River Styx, whose magical water would make him invulnerable, like a god. The water did not touch the heel by which Thetis held him. Achilles could not be harmed, except for the one heel. When the Trojan War began, Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek forces, sent soldiers to recruit Achilles into the Greek army. Achilles accepted and became the best Greek warrior in the Trojan War. In the 10th year of that war, the Greeks defeated the city of Troy. During the last year of the war, Achilles quarreled with Agamemnon, who took away Briseis, a young woman Achilles had captured as a prize of war. In anger, Achilles refused to fight any longer and, without him, the Greek forces began to lose. Achi Less