According to legend, who fired the arrow that hit Achilles in the heel, his only vulnerable spot?
Achilles' heel the water of the magical river. Achilles grew up to be a man of war who survived many great battles. One day, a poisonous arrow shot at him was lodged in his heel, killing him shortly afterwards. 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. In the myths surrounding the war, Achilles was said to have died from a heel wound which was the result of an arrow—possibly poisoned—shot by Paris. Classical myths attribute Achilles's invulnerability to his
Achilles' heel forefinger. The use of "Achilles heel" as an expression meaning "area of weakness, vulnerable spot" dates only to 1840, with implied use in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Ireland, that vulnerable heel of the British Achilles!" from 1810 ("Oxford English Dictionary"). The large and prominent tendon of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the calf is called the "tendo achilleus" or Achilles tendon. This is commonly associated with the site of Achilles' death wound. Tendons are avascular, so such an injury is unlikely to be fatal; however, the myth has the arrow poisoned with the blood of the Lernaean Hydra. A more