How invincible was Achilles really?

Question

We also know the stories of Thetis dipping her son in the river Styx to make him nigh-invulnerable, but there is conflicting evidence.

Those who have read the Iliad may remember the incident with

the warrior Asteropaeus hurled with both spears at once, for he was one that could use both hands alike. With the one spear he smote the shield, but it brake not through, for the gold stayed it, the gift of the god and with the other he smote the right forearm of Achilles a grazing blow, and the black blood gushed forth; but the spear-point passed above him and fixed itself in the earth, fain to glut itself with flesh. Hom. Il. 21.161

But even here, there is the implication that the weapon itself was disinclined to do serious damage.

It is Euripides, the great iconoclast of Greek Drama that makes a big deal of it:

Achilles: A fearful cry is heard among the Argives.

Clytemnestra: What is it? tell me.

Achilles: It concerns your child.

Clytemnestra: An evil omen for your words.

Achilles: They say her sacrifice is necessary.

Clytemnestra: And is there no one to say a word against them?

Achilles: Indeed I was in some danger myself from the tumult.

Clytemnestra: In danger of what, stranger?.

Achilles: Of being stoned.

Eur. IA 1347

Euripides was surely playing off of the myth of Achilles' invincibility. In this scene, the hero who fights whole armies single-handedly feels himself in danger when faced with armed conflict with the Argives. This moment is pretty shocking to those raised with the Thetis story.

So what gives? Was Achilles nigh-invincible or not?

Answer 1

The Styx story in the literary sources is very late. Nothing like it occurs in Homer or throughout Classical Greek antiquity. In fact, as Gantz (1993: 625–627) points out, we don't have a solid attestation for it until the Roman period.

This is complicated by the artistic tradition, though. Gantz identifies four vases which show Achilles with an arrow in his heel, killed by Paris, all very early. It's likely that the Thetis story was one of the several traditions concerning Achilles' birth and death circulating at the time. The Iliad appears to be a separate tradition, one where the armor, not the skin, of Achilles was invincible. The scholia too know of a story where Achilles was cut down by Paris, not shot with an arrow.

Source: Timothy Gantz' Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources (JHU Press, 1993).

Answer 2

I would argue that despite Achilles identity as a demi-god, his true Achilles heel lay not in the exposed area of his foot that meant the coward Paris could poison him with but rather, the deep-seated, love he had for his page and friend, Patroclus.

Indeed, whilst he was nigh on invincible to PHYSICAL attack, the attack on his emotional and mental welfare, the loss of his friend; drove him into such a stage of frenzied abandon that one cannot help but wonder if the parallel of dichotomy would accentuate rather than diminish his latent humanity imo.

Answer 3

In the Iliad, he isn't invincible. He just has overwhelmingly strong armour after his mother, Thetis, petitioned Hephaestus to have it made.

Answer 4

In the Iliad Achilles is neither invincible nor invulnerable. He is repeatedly said to be the best of the Acheans for his unparallel fighting skills, stamina, physical/mental bravery and physical handsomeness (the latter being also a crucial feature of a Homeric hero), but he can be wounded (and actually is) and theoretically might be defeated. The poem, like every poem (as well as life, for that matter) is full of symbols: the fight with a river shows that it takes nature to stop Achilles, while the duel against Hector wearing Achilles's previous armour suggests a fight of Achilles against himself, the only real human opponent worth of him. Deciding to go back to the battlefield is a suicide, as it means going back into the prophecy of a short-yet-glorious life but this time Achilles consciously chooses not for glory but out of love and respect for Patroclus. In giving his life for love, Achilles soars to a superhuman status (similarly to Alcestis, for instance) which makes him not only the greatest fictional figure of the poem but also a true hero from another galaxy as well as the most passionate of men.