Achilles’ heel, the weak spot of a person who is otherwise invulnerable, refers to the Greek mythological figure Achilles. According to the legend, his mother Thetis wanted to make him immune so she dipped him in the River Styx, which was credited with providing powers of invulnerability. In doing so she held his heel, which was the only part not touched by the river. He would be killed years later by a poisonous arrow that targeted this very heel. The word only came into use in the middle of the 1800s. The first use of the word in English was Coleridge’s comment in 1810 that Ireland was the vulnerable heel of the British Achilles.
18 Apr /13
