Meanings of “Achilles Heel”
This phrase ‘Achilles Heel’ means some weak point of a person either physical, emotional, or even ethical beliefs. Such a weak point or weakness of a person often leads to his downfall. This phrase is derived from a Greek mythological character’s weakness and applied in the modern setting about the defeat or downfall of a person on account of his specific weakness.
Origin of “Achilles Heel”
It is stated that Achilles, a Greek hero, became the origin or source of this phrase. Achilles is stated to have been taken by his mother to the River Styx to make him invincible after having bathed in that river. It was because he was predicted to die young. However, when bathing him, she, unfortunately, left his heel from dipping in the water while holding him. Although he won great battles, he is injured with a poisonous arrow struck on his heel during a skirmish and that killed him later.
Its first use has been traced to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He used it in his essay published in a paper, Friend, in 1810. Coleridge writes; “But this I was not authorized to take for granted as the real, as I had been in the imaginary case. I saw many reasons for the affirmative, and many for the negative. For the former, the certainty of a hostile part on the part of the Danes, the alarming state of Ireland, that vulnerable heel of the British Achilles! and the immense difference between military and naval superiority.”
Here Coleridge has implied this phrase in metaphorical terms. Later, it transformed into a short phrase as Achilles heel.
Examples in Literature
Examples #1
Complaint of Achilles’ Heel by Charles Jensen
Everyone’s so quick to blame my
tenderness. My wound opening like a mouth
to kiss an arrow’s steel beak.A beautiful man, now, plants his face
in Trojan sand while I tell
the secrets of his body—make the ground red with truth.
Red with the death of Achilles, felled
by an arrow’s bite when nothing—nothing—could puncture his Kevlar skin.
Everyone skips ahead to the moral: don’t
be a heel. For just one day I feltsun where the chafing bonds of sandal
should have been. Without me, he’d be
just more fodder for the cannon.I made him a hero, Troy’s poster
boy. Everyone forgets I was part of him,
I needed him—that even as he died,I tasted each pulse—
that I could not hold back its rush of red
birds or the season to which they flew.
Charles Jensen, an American poet and editor, has used his weaknesses, equating himself with the Greek hero Achilles. He says that when he fails, everybody points out his one or the other weakness making him realize that obsessive love his Achilles heel. He says that though he points out the weakness of that Grecian hero yet does not realize his own, which are so many, as he is also a human being like him. The use of this phrase in the title of this poem has made the poem an extended metaphor where the poet and the hero are compared for having the same weakness but with a difference.
Examples #2
The Achilles Heels by Karyn Rae
This is the first suspense novel of Karyn Rae, an American writer. She has presented the character of Andrea Whitman, who is shown to have received the news of the death of her husband in a road accident. Though she tries to put this sorrow into oblivion through family support and being an alcoholic, she finds a curious incident raising her suspicion. She soon finds out Jack’s escape and deception. The main title of the novel resonates by the end that everybody has an Achille’s heel that they keep secret so that others should not harm them.
Examples #3
Achilles Heel – written by Joseph Washbourn and sung by Toploader
Goodbye to the sky
You know I can’t fly but I feel love
Do you know how I feel
You are my Achilles heel
Hello to below
I feel love flow like a river flow
I’m standing still
You are my Achilles heel
Feeling free yeah what about me
Well you gotta give it up ‘cause I feel love
Do you know how I feel
You are my Achilles heel
Goodbye to the sky
You know I can’t fly but I feel love
Do you know how I feel
You are my Achilles heel
But there’s a child in our eye’s
And the child never dies
So keep the dream alive
When the air I suck inside
I can push with all my might
And the statue in the sky
With my Achilles heel
Small cry don’t know why
I gotta get high just to love a lot of you
I am low from my head to my toes
I said hey la
Will I go far, will I go far
‘Cause I feel love
Do you know how I feel
You are my Achilles heel
I said oh no no
Will I go slow now will I go slow
Will the feeling flow
But there’s a child in our eyes
And the child never dies
So keep the dream alive
When the air I suck inside
I can push with all my might
And the statue in the sky
With my Achilles heel.
The poet declares his love for his beloved and expresses that ‘love’ is his major weakness by stating that it is his Achilles heel. This has been reinforced by the repetition of the verse, “You are my Achilles heel”. Its constant repetition makes it refrain of the poem that echoes within the thematic strand that the beloved of the poet is his main weakness, which could kill him. It beautifully illustrates the meanings of this phrase.
Examples in Sentences as Literary Devices
Examples #1: “The lack of having proper standing army is Achilles heel for this small country.” Here the phrase has been used as a metaphor.
Examples #2: “His weakness of speaking without thinking is like his Achilles heel.” Here the phrase has been used as a simile.
Examples #3: Jose was a good student, but Algebra had always been his Achilles heel.
Examples #4: Every bad person has an Achilles’ heel; you just have to be patient and look.
Examples #5: Cole is a very good basketball player but he is too short. That’s his Achilles’ heel.