The gods had predicted that Achilles would fall in battle after Hector's death. This destiny should now be fulfilled for the radiant hero. For the divine hero was not immortal. Once upon a time, his mother Thetis had dipped him into the fire of Hephaestus and into the waters of Styx to make him invulnerable. However, she had held the boy on the heel, so that Achilles was vulnerable at this point. But only the gods knew about this mystery.
Again a fierce battle had broken out in front of Troy's walls. Impatiently Achilles flung himself on the Trojans and killed a large number of them. He drove them back to the city gates and was already preparing to lift the gates off his hinges with his superhuman strength. The god Phoibos Apollo could no longer remain idle and descended with the quiver on his back from Olympus to oppose the Peliden. "Let go of Troy!", He commanded in his anger, "And beware, that not one of the immortals will spoil you!".
Achilles probably recognized the voice of the god, but in his frenzy he ignored the warning. He even dared to revile Apollo and threaten him with his spear. The god then veiled himself in protective clouds and shot his infallible arrow at the vulnerable heel. The hero stumbled in pain, but his unbridled fighting might have not been broken yet. Only Paris struck him the death blow, so that the brilliant hero sank into the dust. With difficulty his weapon friends Ajax and Odysseus hid the corpse of their friend.
A great lamentation and sorrow broke out among the Greeks when Achilles' body was carried from the field of battle to the ships. Eventually, a large stake was set up for him, like no other hero ever, and adorned with the armor of the slain. Briseis brought curls to her master as a last resort from her hair. The flames beat high and burned under the cry of the Greeks the body of the hero. His bones laid her in a grave to the side of his friend Patroclus.
The war was going on for ten years and there was still no sign of an end. According to Achilles, the Greeks also had to mourn Ajax, who took his own life from Pallas Athena with madness. And so they lost hope of ever storming the enemy city. But even the Trojans had losses to complain. Paris was struck dead by a poison arrow of the Philoctetes. New fighters took their place. Neoptolemos, the son of Achilles, took the place of the father. The Trojans were now led to Hektor's place by Aeneas. And so the fight went back and forth.
