achilles

name

1. (Greek)A mythical semidivine hero, the son of Peleus by the nereid Thetis, and prince of the Myrmidons, who features in the Iliad as a central character and the foremost warrior of the Achaean (Greek) camp.

   “Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.”

   “Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!”

   “If once the lamentation is heard, it will ring out again, of the short-lived Achilles, of the leaf-like change and vicissitude of the human race, of the decay of the heroic age.”

   “In the last third of the Iliad, Achilles’ beloved companion, Patroklos, and his bitter enemy, Hektor, die wearing Achilles’ armor, their deaths prefiguring Achilles’ own.”

2. (rare)A male given name from Ancient Greek.
3. The Greek camp Trojan asteroid 588 Achilles.