Mythological Heroes

        The subject of mythology deals mainly with the notion of battle, or

good

versus evil. In this struggle many individuals are singled out for either the

evil

they cause, or from the good they bring to people. When you mention heroes

in mythology, there are two distinct names that a majority of people bring up,

those names are Achilles and Hercules.

        Achilles was born to King Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis. Soon

after

Achilles was born his mother dipped him in the River Styx, she was told, by

doing this, that the water would make every part of his body that it touched

invincible. Little did she know that the one part of his heel which he was

held

by would not touch the water.

        When Achilles mother found out about the war in Troy between the

Greeks and the Trojans she did not want her son to fight because she knew

that he would eventually be killed there.

The way that she tried to prevent

him

from going into the army was to hide him among the women of the court so

that

he could not be persuaded by his close friend Odysseus to join the Greek

forces. While trying to find Achilles, Odysseus easily spotted him among the

women, and persuaded him to join the Greek army.

        After many years of battle with the Trojan forces, Achilles ended up in

a

famed duel with Trojan hero Hector, over the slaying of Achilles close friend

Patroclus. After killing Hector, Achilles tied his dead body behind a chariot

and

dragged around the walls of Troy seven times to show his hatred and anger

towards the Trojans and their hero. Shortly after the famed battle, Achilles

was

killed when he was struck, with a poisonous arrow, in the one small spot...