what really kills me about Achilles’ narrative is that the only way he could become immortal was to give up his humanity. we’re so often reminded of the fact that he’s half a god, we sometimes forget he’s only half-human - that the line that keeps him from breaking is so thin.  

in the Iliad, he was ready to give up immortality and go home before Patroclus went off to battle, he was ready to give up that fabled honour he was promised. 

and then he loses Patroclus. And with it goes the last of his compassion and humanity and that sheer, brutal, visceral anger that drives him back into battle will be what he’s remembered for, his hubris and strength and pride, and ‘Achilles in Tent’ will eventually become a well-used trope in stories about team-work and selflessness, and he will eventually turn into an invincible hero archetype. 

His legacy could never have happened without Patroclus’ death. He could never have become the legend he was known for, because it was either die young and famous or live out his life in obscurity. He was ready to choose the second option until it was taken from him.

And something had to fill the void that Patroclus left, and because he loved so fiercely and so much, the only emotion that could take over in it’s place - anger - needed to be overwhelming and superhuman in its strength. When he faces Hector, his ruthlessness is an exact reminder of that side of him, of the divinity that is half of who he is, that gods can only be gods if they are also capable of greed and cruelty and pettiness. 

in his story, he ascended into godhood by having humanity ripped out of him. immortality is not a kind thing.