{Prometheus and Man} {Pandora's Box} {Apple of Discord} {Achilles' Heel} {The Trojan Horse}
{Echo} {Golden Touch} {Sisyphus's Stone} {Labors of Hercules} {The Man Who Loves a Statue}
Best fighter of the Greeks besieging Troy in the Trojan War. When the hero Odysseus journeyed to the Underworld to seek the advice of the dead prophet Teiresias, he encountered the shade of Achilles. This hero had slain the Trojan hero Hector in single combat and had himself been brought down only by the connivance of Apollo. The god guided the arrow of Hector's brother Paris to the only vulnerable spot on Achilles' body - his heel.
Achilles would not have been vulnerable even in this part of his body had his mother, the sea-goddess Thetis, been allowed to protect him as she intended. When he was an infant, she rubbed him each day with godly ambrosia, and each night she laid him upon the hearth fire. Unfortunately, Achilles' father was unaware that this procedure would make his son immortal. And when he unexpectedly came home one night to find his wife holding their baby in the flames, he cried out in alarm. Thetis was offended and returned to her father, the Old Man of the Sea, leaving Achilles to his mortal fate.
Another version of 
the myth has Thetis attempting to protect her infant by
dipping him in the river Styx. The infernal waters indeed rendered Achilles'
skin impervious to the likes of any mere Trojan arrow. But Thetis forgot that
she was holding him by the heel during the dipping process, so that part was
unprotected.
希臘神話裡有一位鼎鼎有名的人物，名為阿奇里斯。這位希臘英雄驍勇善戰，最厲害的是全身刀槍不入，只有腳跟是他的唯一弱點。阿奇里斯的父母，就是《是非之果》裡的珀琉斯和忒提斯。阿奇里斯在襁褓中的時候，被母親倒提著放進地府的冥河裡，浸出了一身銅皮鐵骨，不過腳跟因為被母親抓在手裡，浸不到河水，於是成為他的死穴。
由於金蘋果事件引發了特洛伊戰爭。希臘大軍浩浩蕩蕩渡過愛琴海(Aegean Sea)，圍攻特洛伊。這場戰爭一打十年，希臘人攻不陷特洛伊，特洛伊人也殺不退希臘人。後來帕里斯的兄長赫克托(Hector)殺了阿奇里斯的摯友派特羅克勒斯(Patroclus)，阿奇里斯悲憤填膺，如猛虎般殺入陣裡來尋仇人。赫克托轉身迎敵，他雖然神勇，但非阿奇里斯的敵手。按希臘神話，這也是命中注定。阿奇里斯殺了赫克托，還將屍首拖在馬車後，往來奔馳，以洩心頭之恨。天神阿波羅看在眼裡，非常不滿，決意懲罰阿奇里斯。
阿奇里斯也是命中注定戰死沙場。在一場攻城戰裡，阿奇里斯領軍逼近城牆，帕里斯在城上引弓一箭射向他。本來以阿奇里斯金剛之軀，帕里斯這一箭不射也罷。但天神阿波羅看準機會，以法力令這枝離弦利箭命中阿奇里斯的腳跟。阿奇里斯應箭而倒，死在特洛伊城下。
後世人就以「阿奇里斯的腳跟」來比喻唯一的弱點，或者足以令人一敗塗地的弱點。
圖：下棋的阿奇里斯