Achilles (son of Zeus)
{{Short description|Greek mythological character}}
{{About|a son of Zeus|Other uses|Acheilus|the Trojan war hero|Achilles}}
In Greek mythology, Achilleus ({{IPA|el|akʰilˈleu̯s|}}; {{langx|grc|Ἀχιλλεύς|Akhilleús}}), also spelled Achilles, was the son of Zeus and Lamia, and the main subject of a minor myth.{{cite book|author=Photios|title=Myriobiblon|title-link=Bibliotheca (Photius)|publisher=Ge. Reimer|year=1824|editor-last=Bekker|editor-first=August Immanuel|editor-link=August Immanuel Bekker|volume=Tomus alter|place=Berlin|page=152a|language=el|chapter=190.489R|author-link=Photios I of Constantinople|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/bibliothecaexrec00photuoft#page/152/mode/2up}} At the Internet Archive. {{cite book|title=Myriobiblon|title-link=Bibliotheca (Photius)|publisher=Interreg Δρόμοι της πίστης – Ψηφιακή Πατρολογία|year=2006|page=163|language=el|chapter=190.152a|chapter-url=http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/pgm/PG_Migne/Photius%20of%20Constantinople_PG%20101-104/Bibliotheca.pdf}} At khazarzar.skeptik.net. He is not to be confused with the more famous Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War.
Etymology
Mycenaean Greek tablets attest to the personal name Achilleus in the forms a-ki-re-u (Linear B: {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀀𐀑𐀩𐀄}}}}) and a-ki-re-we (Linear B: {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀀𐀑𐀩𐀸}}}}),{{sfn|Sigel|Ley|Bleckmann|2006|loc=s.v. Achilles}} the latter being the dative of the former.{{sfn|Beekes|2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/182/mode/2up?view=theater 183-184]}}
Achilles' name can be analyzed as a combination of {{lang|grc|ἄχος}} ({{transliteration|grc|áchos}}) "distress, pain, sorrow, grief"Scholia ad Homer, Iliad 1.1 and {{lang|grc|λαός}} ({{transliteration|grc|laós}}) "people, soldiers, nation", resulting in a proto-form *Akhí-lāu̯os "he who has the people distressed" or "he whose people have distress".{{sfn|Palmer|1963|page=79}}{{cite web | first = Gregory | last = Nagy | title = The best of the Achaeans | url = http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5442 | website = CHS | publisher = The Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University | access-date = 19 March 2015 | archive-date = 2 April 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402115312/http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5442 | url-status = dead}} Furthermore, laós has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean "a corps of soldiers", a muster.
Some researchers deem the name a loan word, possibly from a Pre-Greek language.{{sfn|Sigel|Ley|Bleckmann|2006|loc=s.v. Achilles}} Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name, based among other things on the coexistence of -λλ- and -λ- in epic language, which may account for a palatalized phoneme /ly/ in the original language.{{sfn|Beekes|2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/page/182/mode/2up?view=theater 183-184]}}
Mythology
Achilleus was a man of an irresistible beauty, and won a beauty contest judged by Pan, the god of wilderness. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, was irritated and so she made Pan fall in love with the nymph Echo, who spurned him, and made Achilleus become as ugly and unattractive as he had been pretty and attractive.Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History 6 as cited in Photius, Myriobiblon [https://topostext.org/work/237#190.47 190.47] It is not clear whether Aphrodite was simply dissatisfied with the result as part of the audience, or she herself lost to Achilles as a contestant, but the latter seems likely enough.{{sfn|Hartley|2014|page=158}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{cite book | author-link = Robert S. P. Beekes | last = Beekes | first = Robert S. P. | title = Etymological Dictionary of Greek | location = Leiden, the Netherlands | publisher = Brill Publications | date = 2009 | volume = 1 | isbn = 978-90-04-17420-7 | series = Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series | editor = Lucien van Beek | url = https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek/mode/}}
- {{cite thesis | title = Novel Research: Fiction and Authority in Ptolemy Chennus | first = Beth | last = Hartley | publisher = University of Exeter | date = June 2014 | access-date = April 26, 2023 | type = PhD | chapter = Ptolemy and the Mythological Revisionist Games of the Imperial Period | url = https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43093801.pdf}}
- {{cite book | first = Leonard | last = Palmer | title = The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts | place = Oxford | publisher = Clarendon Press | year = 1963 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MxsjAQAAMAAJ | isbn = 978-0198131441}}
- {{cite encyclopedia | first1 = Dorothea | last1 = Sigel | title = Achilles | first2 = Anne | last2 = Ley | first3 = Bruno | last3 = Bleckmann | entry = Achilles | date = 2006 | url = https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/achilles-e102220 | encyclopedia = Brill's New Pauly | editor-first1 = Hubert | editor-last1 = Cancik | editor-first2 = Helmuth | editor-last2 = Schneider | display-editors = etal | publisher = Brill Reference Online | doi = 10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e102220 | access-date = May 5, 2017}}
External links
- [https://www.theoi.com/Ther/Akheilos.html ACHILLES from the Theoi Project]
{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}