Achilles' heel
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- This article deals with the phrase. For other uses, see Achilles Heel.
An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, actually or potentially leading to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to their downfall are common.
The strongest and largest tendon, the Achilles tendon connects muscles in the lower leg with the heel bone. Sports that tighten the calf muscles, such as basketball, running and high-jumping can overstress this tendon and cause a strain (Achilles tendinitis) or a rupture. A direct blow to the foot, ankle, or calf can also cause it.
[edit] Origin
The death of Achilles was not mentioned in Homer's Iliad, but appeared in later Greek and Roman poetry and drama concerning events after the Iliad, later in the Trojan War. Here and in the myths surrounding the war, Achilles died from a heel wound as the result of an arrow—possibly poisoned—shot by Paris.
Classical myths attribute Achilles' invulnerability to a treatment of Ambrosia and burning away of his mortality in the house fire except on the heel, where he was held by his mother Thetis. Peleus, his father, discovered the treatment and angered Thetis and she fled into the sea. Achilles was placed in the care of Chiron. (Demeter attempted a similar treatment on Demophon, or possibly Triptolemus.)
According to a myth arising later, his mother had dipped the infant Achilles in the river Styx, holding onto him by his heel, and he became invulnerable where the waters touched him -- that is, everywhere but the areas covered by her thumb and forefinger. It is not clear how the waters of the Styx, which silenced the gods for one year, could confer immortality; or how Thetis could gain access to them; or how Peleus would accidentally discover the project.
The use of “Achilles’ heel” as an expression used for “area of weakness, vulnerable spot” dates only to 1855 (Merriam-Webster). It derived from the Greek "Achilleios pterna" (Greek: Αχίλλειος πτέρνα) literally meaning Achilles’ heel.
[edit] Anatomy
The large and prominent tendon of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the calf is called the tendo achilleus or Achilles tendon. It is often believed in popular culture that the hero was therefore killed by being shot through this structure. However, as tendons are notably avascular, such an injury is unlikely to be fatal. However, in the myth the arrow had been covered in the blood of the Hydra, which was supposedly toxic.
The anatomical basis of Achilles death is more likely to have been injury to his posterior tibial artery behind the medial malleolus, in between the tendons of the flexor digitorum longus and the posterior tibial vein. It is noted that this area would have been included in Thetis’ grip.
[edit] See also
- Balder in Norse mythology
- Duryodhana in the Mahabharatha
- Esfandiyar in the Shahnameh
- Siegfried in the Nibelungenlied
- Kryptonite
