Dying Achilles statue
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a hero of the Trojan War, and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. The death of Achilles was however 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.
In the myths surrounding the Trojan war, Achilles died from a heel wound as the result of a poisoned arrow fired by Paris. According to a myth arising later, his mother, Thetis, 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 - implying that only a heel wound could have been his downfall.
Achilles is also famous for being the most 'handsome' of the heroes assembled at Troy, as well as the fleetest. Central to his myth is his relationship with Patroclus, characterized in different sources as deep friendship or love.
The Dying Achilles sculpture was created in Berlin in 1884 by Ernst Herter, a famous German sculptoras specialised in in creating statues of mythological figures. The statue was acquired by Empress Elizabeth (Sissy) and became the centrepiece at the gardens of her palace Achilleion in Corfu, Greece.
