Achilles (son of Zeus)
InGreek mythology,Achilleus([akʰilˈleu̯s];Ancient Greek:Ἀχιλλεύς,romanized:Akhilleús), also spelledAchilles,was the son ofZeusandLamia,and the main subject of a minor myth.[1]He is not to be confused with the more famousAchilles,the hero of theTrojan War.
Etymology[edit]
Mycenaean Greektablets attest to the personal nameAchilleusin the formsa-ki-re-u(Linear B:𐀀𐀑𐀩𐀄) anda-ki-re-we(Linear B:𐀀𐀑𐀩𐀸),[2]the latter being thedativeof the former.[3]
Achilles' name can be analyzed as a combination ofἄχος(áchos) "distress, pain, sorrow, grief"[4]andλαός(laós) "people, soldiers, nation", resulting in a proto-form*Akhí-lāu̯os"he who has the people distressed" or "he whose people have distress".[5][6]Furthermore,laóshas been construed byGregory Nagy,followingLeonard Palmer,to mean "a corps of soldiers", amuster.[6]
Some researchers deem the name aloan word,possibly from aPre-Greeklanguage.[2]Robert S. P. Beekeshas 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.[3]
Mythology[edit]
Achilleus was a man of an irresistible beauty, and won a beauty contest judged byPan,the god of wilderness.Aphrodite,the goddess of beauty and love, was irritated and so she made Pan fall in love with the nymphEcho,who spurned him, and made Achilleus become as ugly and unattractive as he had been pretty and attractive.[7]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.[8]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^Photios(1824)."190.489R".InBekker, August Immanuel(ed.).Myriobiblon(in Greek). Vol. Tomus alter. Berlin: Ge. Reimer. p. 152a.At theInternet Archive."190.152a"(PDF).Myriobiblon(in Greek).InterregΔρόμοι της πίστης – Ψηφιακή Πατρολογία. 2006. p. 163.At khazarzar.skeptik.net.
- ^abSigel, Ley & Bleckmann 2006,s.v. Achilles.
- ^abBeekes 2009,pp.183-184.
- ^ScholiaadHomer,Iliad1.1
- ^Palmer 1963,p. 79.
- ^abNagy, Gregory."The best of the Achaeans".CHS.The Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. Archived fromthe originalon 2 April 2015.Retrieved19 March2015.
- ^Ptolemy Hephaestion,New History6 as cited in Photius,Myriobiblon190.47
- ^Hartley 2014,p. 158.
Bibliography[edit]
- Beekes, Robert S. P.(2009). Lucien van Beek (ed.).Etymological Dictionary of Greek.Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series. Vol. 1. Leiden, the Netherlands:Brill Publications.ISBN978-90-04-17420-7.
- Hartley, Beth (June 2014). "Ptolemy and the Mythological Revisionist Games of the Imperial Period".Novel Research: Fiction and Authority in Ptolemy Chennus(PDF)(PhD).University of Exeter.RetrievedApril 26,2023.
- Palmer, Leonard (1963).The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts.Oxford:Clarendon Press.ISBN978-0198131441.
- Sigel, Dorothea; Ley, Anne; Bleckmann, Bruno (2006). "Achilles". In Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth; et al. (eds.).Achilles.Brill's New Pauly.Brill Reference Online.doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e102220.RetrievedMay 5,2017.
External links[edit]
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