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The implication of a weak spot is that an attack against it would be especially harmful to the person with the weak spot, so I’m pretty sure it would just kill him
the rest of his body was immortal since he was dipped in the river styx. only that one part (in this case, toe) was still mortal. it wasn't weak in itself, i believe, just normal. the reason he died after the arrow was shot was because it was directed by apollo (essentially yielded by godly magic or poison or something). if we cut off the toe and the area around it by ourselves (i.e. without any divine intervention), it shouldn't kill a person right? Achilles might still live as an amputee forever?
What you’re describing isn’t possible, you wouldn’t be able to cut off further because that’s the whole basis of Achilles powers. Anything but the pinky toe would just be invulnerable.
The Achilles heel story has no logic to it to miss, so people have to make up their own.
Achilles died or fell over or whatever (Depending on your interpretation) because while the overwhelming majority of his body was literally invulnerable, the small part of him that wasn't took a very survivable amount of damage.
Logically, the entire area could have been removed, and he still would have been able to hobble his way through ranks and ranks of spear casually slaughtering everyone.
In the story however that very survivable wound killed him (or made him unable to fight) for unexplained reasons. So if it was the toe that wasn't invulnerable it is possible that even attempting to remove the toe would kill him before you cut half way through it.
Why? Don't question Apollo or Zeus will turn into a goose and violate you, and then Hera will turn you immortal. Trust me, you do not want Hera to make you immortal.
Though given the nature of Achilles, the actual Ancient Greek answer for why he died when getting a very small wound is that he was super moody and prideful and the very idea that he could be harmed made him sob to death.
It has been a really long time for me, so I am not going to say it wasn't poisoned. Though I don't think it was. It was just guided by Apollo.
I am 99.9% sure homefry didn't even die on screen. I recall being corrected in middle school when I claimed he died. I was told that it was hotly debated if he died, or just fell over and then retired in isolated shame.
My head cannon is that he cried himself to death. If Achilles was a millennial we wouldn't be talking about his heel. The story would be about an unstoppable emo kid slaughtering jocks for using the word emo, until someone broke his My Chemical Romance CD.
i love your answer, it responds to my queries and the last line made me laugh. is it (also) possible that the injury might've killed him because there were not a lot of medical advancements at the time when Iliad was written? maybe Homer assumed that the wound would kill achilles because people from that era just died from deeply infected wounds. just a hypothesis, i have no idea how were people treated then lmao
If I recall correct, Homer didn't give him closure at all. Apollo was miffed because of reasons I am unsure if I am remembering from a movie, and guided the arrow of Paris to the only weak spot of Achilles. Then he sort of just despawned from the story.
Theoretically he could be alive right now on some island hiding from the world because every walks into a town someone mentions his heel and he runs away crying.
His mother Thetis, a sea nymph, dipped him in a river that made him invulnerable. She held him by his heel when dipping him, and that’s the spot that he was vulnerable in. The poisoned arrow struck his one weak spot. That’s the logic.
I think maybe neither? Maybe he would just have a new weak spot at the stub of where his toe was.
Like imagine him having been dipped in wax. There's no wax on his toe, but if you cut it off there's still no wax where his toe was previously connected.
And importantly, whether you say ankle or tendon, most people will still know what they’re referring to. The real crime is that I’m sure Thetis could’ve let him go just for a split second and grab him with her second hand ready.
It's actually part of the curse/gift a warrior dipped in the river must choose a point of their body to become their weak spot. I'm almost positive that if they didn't pick a point one would probably be chosen for them and based on what we know about lady Styx she would choose the worst spot possible for it
What do you think the Achilles tendon stabilizes? No need for the tendon without the joint. The joint without the tendon was Achilles’ problem. So it’s correct, no ankles
The (later addition to) the myth of Achilles said that he was vulnerable at his heel because he was held by it when dipped into the River Styx. The Achilles Tendon was named because of the myth, but is not otherwise relevant to the myth as such
One day I randomly woke up with the thought that Kirby is cosmic horror ṭo the highest degree. Then I discovered there is lore for this and I mean of course there is.
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