Achilles, marble. Achilles was the greatest hero of Greek mythology, and the protagonist of Homer’s work Iliad. He was the bravest among those who took part in the Trojan War. When the Greek leader Agamemnon was forced to release his prisoner of war Chryseis, he took Achilles’ prisoner of war Briseis instead. Achilles then withdrew bitterly from the battle, with great difficulty for the Greeks as a result. Only after the death of his friend and lover Patroclus did Achilles re-enter the war and kill the Trojan prince Hector, but died shortly afterwards hit by an arrow in his vulnerable heel. Hence the term “Achilles heel”, which has the meaning of a vulnerable or weak point in someone.