“Achilles”

The character Achilles was featured mainly and most famously in Homer's Iliad. The
Iliad featured Achilles as a main protagonist of the entire story and recorded in detail of
his life. The ending of Achilles's life was not recorded on the Liliad, however. It was
inferred from myths and legends of other kinds and also Homer's other epic poetry- the
Odyssey where it mentioned in bits and pieces what happened to this great hero.

Born to the fearless king Pelerus of Myrmidons and the beautiful nereid Thetis,
Achilles grew up in a unique household. His mother, immortal herself, was extremely
concerned of her son’s mortality. She tried everything she could to make her son
immortal. She used to burn him on top of a fire every single night, bathe him in
ambrosia, and ( most famously) dipped him into the River Styx which should make him
invincible. Despite of her tentative guard on her son’s wellbeing, Thetis was unaware
that she forgot to expose Achilles’s heel to the river Styx because she was grasping on
it so tightly when she dipped Achilles into the river. Achilles’ heel, therefore, remained
the hero’s weakness.

Thetis wished for her son a long, happy, and simple life, the fates however, said
otherwise. At the age of nine, a seer predicted that Achilles will die a hero in the Trojan
War. A devastated Thetis dressed Achilles as a girl and hid him on the Aegean island of
Skyros. Her efforts were in vain as Achilles’s inborn warrior nature soon inclined him to
join the Greek army by his own will when he got older. In a last attempt to save her
son’s life, Thetis asked Achilles to carry a set of golden armor produced by Hephaestus
that later became his most recognized symbol in battle.

In Greek mythology, Achilles was known for his flaring temperament, extraordinary
strength and courage, vengeful petulance, good looks, and his loyalty to his loved ones.

He was apart of the Greek army assembled to fight to the Trojans after Prince Paris
took the beautiful Helen (Daughter of Zeus) and Menelaus, the Spartan king’s money.
Achilles was without a doubt the hero for the Greeks during the Trojan War and was on
a winning streak that has never been broken. The main conflict of the story, however,
was not initiated by Achilles, but rather the Greek king Agamemnon who mockingly
rejected Chryseis’ father, a Trojan priest of Apollo’s ernest endeavor to buy his
daughter’s freedom. Infuriated at the Greek king’s condescending affront, Apollo set out
to punish the Greeks by sending in a plague that killed a huge portion of the Greek
soldiers. Realizing his mistake, Agamemnon finally agreed to return Chryseis at the
price of Achilles’s bride the Trojan princess of Breseis. Achilles agreed to do as he was
told and gave up his bride, but in return, he refused to fight for Agamemnon.

The Greeks, seeing how their fearless hero would not fight with them, began to loose
hope. Seeing the situation, Achilles’s best friend Patroclus managed to wrangle a
compromise: Patroclus would borrow Achilles’s armor and pretend to be Achilles to give
the Greek soldiers hope. Apollo, however intervened again on the Trojan’s behalf, and
guided the Trojan prince Hector to kill Patroclus. Mad with fury and grief, Achilles
chased Hector all the way back to the Trojan city where he finally killed Hector.

Upon Hector’s death, Achilles dragged Hector’s body behind his chariot to humiliate his
best friend’s killer even upon death.

Achilles’s death was again caused by the intervention of Apollo. Apollo told Hector’s
brother- Paris that Achilles was coming back and Paris decided to ambush his enemy.
As the Greek army approached, Paris shot an arrow, guided by Apollo- the god of
Artery, and happen to hit Achilles’s right at his only vulnerable spot- his heel. Achilles
died without even as much as a single yelp.
 “Atalanta”

There once was a beautiful girl named Atalanta, she was left in the woods since she
was born, a group of hunters picked her up, raised her, and taught her all the hunting
skills. By the time Atalanta grew to a teenager, she’d already excelled at every single
skill of being a huntress and she became the best in the hunter group.

Atalanta once confronted two centaurs, the half-human, half-horse beasts who tried to
attack her, Atalanta killed them with two arrows without any fear. Atalanta became
famous in the village and people asked her to challenge the deadly boar that had been
terrorizing the countryside for years. No hunter was able defeat it. Atalanta went with a
band, they were searching in the woods when the boar suddenly emerged and injured
one hunter. Atalanta was the first to injure the boar with her arrow, so when a hunter
named Meleager killed the boar, he gave the skin and tusks to her.

Soon afterwards, Atalanta reunited with her parents and her father asked her to get
married. Atalanta, however, was in no mood of giving up her freedom so easily, she
said she would only marry a guy if he could win her in a race. Many tried but failed. A
young handsome boy named Hippomenes fell deeply in love with Atalanta, he asked
the goddess of love Venus to help him out with the race, Venus then gave him three
golden apples. When the race began, he threw the apples to distract Atalanta, Atalanta
struggled whether to pick the apples up or not, but the apples were so shining and
attracting, she went off the path and picked all of the apples up. Eventually, although
they were super close, Hippomenes crossed the finish line just a second before
Atalanta.

They got married and then disappeared from the world forever. It was said that they
changed into lions and lived in the forest for the rest of their lives.