Achilles Had A Little Heel After Mary Had A Little Lamb
Achilles had a little heel,
its skin was white as snow;
and everywhere Achilles went
its twin was sure to go.
His mother dipped him in the Styx
held by that little heel
henceforth Achillles bones soon picks -
scarce kept an even keel.
Greeks followed him to war one day;
quite playing by his rules;
he made the Trojans weep and pray,
to see selves seem such fools.
Of yore before fair Carthage shore
was met by Myrmidons
he tore Telephus, left wound sore -
or so say Oxford dons.
His troops were ordered to withdraw
withal though Troy destroyers
were winning war till Nestor saw
some sought Appollo's lawyers.
They sat in Council, Calchas claimed
his child from Agamemnon,
Chryseis kidnapped but King [t]aimed
Briseis, Achilles' leman.
Achilles' anger far and wide
was famed - a fatal flaw -
eternal legends since abide
of home_ru[i]ns galore.
It's G[r]eek to me how he could fling
his wrath from coast to coast,
fair Amazons his arms could bring
to grief, reefed Hades' host.
Patroculus his armour wore
successfully in song,
till Hector tore him to cold slaw,
Haephestus' trappings done.
One day an arrow turned him out,
transfixing sole so near,
soul lingered restlessly about
till Pluto did appear.
'Why'd Thetis love Achilles so? '
schoolchildren eager cry;
'Why, mothers love their lambs, you know, '
trained teachers must reply!
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Related quotes
Achilles And The Slaying Of Hector
Achilles took the slain body of proud Prince Hector
slit holes through warrior corpse ankles and proceeded
to drag Hector’s defeated slain body behind his chariot
an ignoble act of revenge bitterness hate anger contempt
Achilles killed proud Hector with a single spear thrust
Achilles refused to eat mourns on Olympian ambrosia
Achilles killed Hector with a spear thrust into the neck
proud noble neck the only vulnerable on Hector’s body
Hector who wore the god made prize armour of Achilles
armour stripped from slain Patroclus beloved of Achilles
in grief how anger festered into revenge rage in Achilles
Hector victim of vengeance dies a slow agonizing death
Hector accepted his fate begged Achilles treat his body
with respect once slain but hubris was wrath of Achilles
shamelessly Achilles desecrates the Trojan heroes body
for nine days dragging slain corpse around the battlefield
for nine days denying King Priam funeral rites for his son
Achilles enraged cared nothing for feelings of Hector’s family
shamed humiliated is corpse of Hector dragged behind chariot
Achilles what great rage passions storm in soul possessed
Achilles who addressed Hector like an entreating dog
stated as he killed him it was hopeless to expect respect
for his slain defeated corpse declared 'my rage, my fury
would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat
you raw — such agonies you have caused me' “For what
you've done. No one can keep the dogs off of your head,
not if they brought me ransom of ten or twenty times as much,
or more' then Achilles slices Hector's head hanging only
by skin thus fell Trojan prince Hector to pride arrogance
Achilles of scorn wrath slayer of Hector son of King Priam
Hector with wife child who fought to defend his city family
even Zeus was dismayed by hubris abuse to Hector's body
at the command of Zeus Hermes led King Priam in a wagon
out of Troy across the plains into the Greek camp unnoticed
to Achilles' tent to plead with Achilles for a slain son's body
to permit a father to perform his funeral rites for son Hector
Priam grasped Achilles by the knees and begged this feared
killer of so many of his sons to worthy ransom his son's body
Priam begged by the gods kissed the hand of Achilles killer
of his sons stirred Achilles' grief to tears to claim corpse son
only then after nine days of bitter agony did Priam at Achilles
feet begging reclaim Hector's body to take back into city Troy
only then could funeral rites be preformed only then could the
desecrated corpse of Hector be buried as Troy the city mourns
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Unfaithfulness
When Thetis and Peleus got married
Apollo stood up at the sumptuous wedding feast
and blessed the bridal pair
for the son who would come from their union.
'Sickness will never visit him,' he said,
'and his life will be a long one.'
This pleased Thetis immensely:
the words of Apollo, expert in prophecies,
seemed a guarantee of security for her child.
And when Achilles grew up
and all Thessaly said how beautiful he was,
Thetis remembered the god's words.
But one day some elders came in with the news
that Achilles had been killed at Troy.
Thetis tore her purple robes,
pulled off rings, bracelets,
flung them to the ground.
And in her grief, remembering that wedding scene,
she asked what the wise Apollo was up to,
where was this poet who spouts
so eloquently at banquets, where was this prophet
when they killed her son in his prime?
And the elders answered that Apollo himself
had gone down to Troy
and with the Trojans had killed her son.
poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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Hector
He strode across the schoolroom in July,
Great Hector, clanging in his brazen mail;
And all the cringing Greeks, with faces pale,
Creaked into jabbering Ks and turned to fly.
Achilles, safe because he could not die,
Cheated and won; and all the lines grew stale.
The life was gone from out the shabby tale;
And back in Homer's teeth we flung the lie.
We fought for Troy behind a mossy wall;
We burned the Grecian ships below a tree . . .
Ah, that great war was forty years ago !
Yet still I know that Hector did not fall;
For when the bell rang truce to friend and foe,
Achilles, lying Greek, was under me!
poem by David McKee Wright
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Fall of Troy
Learnt from Chapman's Homer*
A story full of grace and glamour
Killings of Royals, warriors and multitude
Fall of Troy is
A melodrama of ancient attitude
Sans Merci, sans certitude
War that was waged in heaven
Amongst deities of love wedding and wisdom**
To be crowned as fairest of heavenly kingdom,
Poor Prince from Trojan race
Chose to settle that celestial FACE
Ah! This sin of Paris was un-forgiven
***Brought thousands ships towards Trojan haven.
The wall of Troy
Besieged by savage and sages
For term of ten years ages
Prince Hector the decent, daredevil
Embraced Achilles` wrath and kissed the peril.
Days and nights, round the clock
Trojans, Achaeans clashed like a giant rocks
Hector, Aeneas, Paris, Agenor and Sarpedon****
Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax, Patroclus and Agamemnon*****
For worthless love and fairy******
Troy lost her grace and glory
poem by Gulsher john
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At last is Hector stretch'd upon the plain,
Who fear'd no vengeance for Patroclus slain
You should have fear'd, what now you feel
Achilles absent was Achilles still
Yet a short space the great avenger stayed,
Then low in dust thy strength and glory laid.
The Triumph Of Achilles
In the story of Patroclus
no one survives, not even Achilles
who was nearly a god.
Patroclus resembled him; they wore
the same armor.
Always in these friendships
one serves the other, one is less than the other:
the hierarchy
is always apparant, though the legends
cannot be trusted--
their source is the survivor,
the one who has been abandoned.
What were the Greek ships on fire
compared to this loss?
In his tent, Achilles
grieved with his whole being
and the gods saw
he was a man already dead, a victim
of the part that loved,
the part that was mortal.
poem by Louise Gluck
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Achilles’ heel - Clerihew
Paris’ arrow through Achilles’ heel
Made him squeal.
And forced him to kneel
Even though he phal for meal.
poem by Khadim Hussain
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Feigned Courage
Horatio, of ideal courage vain,
Was flourishing in air his father's cane,
And, as the fumes of valour swelled his pate,
Now thought himself this hero, and now that:
'And now,' he cried, 'I will Achilles be;
My sword I brandish; see, the Trojans flee.
Now I'll be Hector, when his angry blade
A lane through heaps of slaughtered Grecians made!
And now by deeds still braver I'll evince
I am no less than Edward the Black Prince.-
Give way, ye coward French-' As thus he spoke,
And aimed in fancy a sufficient stroke
To fix the fate of Cressy or Poictiers
(The Muse relates the hero's fate with tears);
He struck his milk-white hand against a nail,
Sees his own blood, and feels his courage fail.
Ah! where is now that boasted valour flown,
That in the tented field so late was shown!
Achilles weeps, Great Hector hangs the head,
And the Black Prince goes whimpering to bed.
poem by Charles Lamb
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The Lliad- in 50 words or less
Paris stole Agamemmon's woman.
Hector Killed Patroclus in a fight.
Achilles took revenge against the Trojan,
but otherwise sat sulking in his tent.
Odysseus, the ever resourceful Greek,
built a wooden horse.
Final score: Greeks 1, Trojans 0
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!
poem by John F. McCullagh
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Andromache
Andromache, widow of lucent Hector sleeps
in front of the hearth while silence
descends the night invading from east,
in her epigrammatic kindness and guidance.
Mournful oblates to the call of Stygian ripples
(cause meritorious Hector was in duel killed,
together with her kin by invincible Achilles) ,
now a concubine of Neoptolemus, her fate unfulfilled.
From the son of Achilles, she begot a son,
who was destined to rule upon a strong race
Molossus clan reigned over Northwest land,
where Putonian Hades kingdoms base.
Andromache sleeps and remembers her son,
(Heroic Neoptolemus went to Hades forever)
while Helenos of Troy, her pained heart won,
to rule in Epirus and from her never to sever.
Andromache, widow of noble Neoptolemus sleeps
in front of the hearth while silence
descends the night invading from east,
in her epigrammatic kindness and guidance.
poem by Giorgio Veneto
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True heart saw fun whole
Achilles without the heel
two parts for one goal
haiku by Jonathan Robin (13 April 2005)
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The Domain Name Server (DNS) is the Achilles heel of the Web. The important thing is that it's managed responsibly.
quote by Tim Berners Lee
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers.
quote by Arthur Erickson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In The World Of Achilles
the world of achilles
trembles
when a blade
of grass
hits accidentally
his famous
heel.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Odysseus
I saw him, a brave man, a king
standing tall at the helm
wearing the armour of great Achilles
carrying a great sword on his back
steering against a stormy wind
and renown among his own men
as the man whose plan made Troy fall
but beside him I saw a maiden
in gleaming armour, with lightning bolts
intertwining like snakes just below her breasts
with flowing long golden hair blowing like a flag
and in a ravaging sea they journey on
escaping the wrath of the waves, the storm
and the monsters that dwell in it.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Our dependence on foreign energy sources is our Achilles heel, not just in the realm of diplomacy, but in terms of our future as the world's economic leader.
quote by Judy Biggert
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Achilles Heel
When you were young some years ago
your old man told you
don't you set yourself on fire, listen
the point of all is what you do not
what you are talking about
no matter what you've been going through.
Don't give a damn, all those bridges you've crossed
still trying to catch the rainbow.
You'll spread your wings to rise up high,
only need the wind to blow
and after all you will know where to go.
Fight, you got to be a fighter,
don't show your Achilles heel
life will turn out lighter,
six feet water under your keel.
song performed by by Zed Yago
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Reason For Achilles Death
And when fire bred no breath within him,
did he inculcate innocuities...his being?
He had tred intrepid cities' tears underfoot,
while gods forged, in tandem, stronger plate
For his head, chest...deemed unnecessary by
miscreant mortal within, misbegotten in Time.
Achilles dealt his brother's valor a trifle,
bauble, for value.
In turn, Achilles brother knew that weak link,
gods' foolishness. Awarded his great brother
Syncopation of laughter, and revenge...
Silence.
poem by Elysabeth Faslund
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God sometimes grants your prayer to punish you....
do not insist. God has a way of punishing
your unreasonable widow
persistence, the Greeks are warned
about Wooden Horses,
and Achilles' heels,
do not insist. Don't you know that sometimes
God grants prayers
purposely to punish
those who are hardheaded?
Pray what God wills you to be.
Do not insist.
God knows better
Before you were born
He knows what is in store for you
Till the last
breath. Till you dropp dead.
So do not insist
Natural laws cannot be compromised.
Legal laws maybe.
Man made ones, those that twist
and pride on
Compromises.
Do not insist. Let God flow inside your
Heart. Let the seeds grow
As he sets the fertile soil
of the mind
As he gives the light in your
Sun.
As he prunes and cuts
and Makes you
The most beautiful tree
within the forest of your tangled
hairs.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The face that launch'd a thousand ships
Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee,
Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appear'd to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour!
poem by Christopher Marlowe
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