Why was Achilles a hero?

Answer 1

When he was a child, Achilles' mother bathed him in the river Styx (the river that the souls of the dead must cross to enter the underworld). When she was doing this she held him by his heel, which explains his vulnerability to his heel.

Answer 2

Achilles was a great warrior who was famous for dying after being shot with an arrow in his only mortal spot, his heel. The story goes that his mother dipped him into sacred water that made him immortal, but she held him by his ankle so he didn't become immortal in that spot. We get the term "the Achilles tendon" from this myth.

Answer 3

Achilles was known for his invincibility. When he was born his mother dipped him in the River Styx holding him by the heel. This made him almost fully immortal, but if he was shot in the heel he would die. This fate came over him when Paris shot him in the heel in the Trojan War. The Greeks actually won that war in the end with the old give your enemy a wooden horse filled with Greek soldiers ready to kill you trick. This is also why we have the Achilles tendon as a tendon in our heel.

Not only that, but he was courageous enough to go fight Hector even though he knew he would soon die after Hector's death. He knew this because of the prophecy he had been told when he was born, by the oracle.

Another reason Achilles is a hero is because he stood up for his rights against Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army. Agamemnon and his army went and conquered the cities around Troy so they could have a bigger army. However, the all took the women as slaves, and each warrior could take his pick, but Agamemnon went first. He picked Chryseis- the daughter of the priest in Apollo's temple. Her father was upset and went to Apollo to ask for help. Apollo caused a plague in the Greek army and therefore, many people died. Calchas- a soothsayer, told Agamemnon and the army that Apollo would not stop until Chryseis was returned to her family. Agamemnon agreed, but only if he got Achilles' slave- Bryseis. Achilles and Agamemnon had a big fight. Achilles even took his sword out, ready to fight Agamemnon, but his wisdom/Athena made him do the right thing, and not harm King Agamemnon. Instead, he went to another camp and stopped fighting. This affected the Greek army greatly because Achilles was the best warrior, and without him, they would surely lose.

Answer 4

he was so called a hero because it was said that he was the sword of the mythical greek god homers liad.