137-534: Basileus ( Ancient Greek : βασιλεύς ) is a Greek term and title that has signified various types of monarchs throughout history. In the English -speaking world it is perhaps most widely understood to mean ' monarch ' , referring to either a ' king ' or an ' emperor ' . The title was used by sovereigns and other persons of authority in ancient Greece (especially during the Hellenistic period ),
274-543: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
411-430: A "horse fighter" or "chariot fighter" according to Homer. Prophecies linked Troilus' fate to that of Troy and so he was ambushed in an attempt to capture him. Yet Achilles, struck by the beauty of both Troilus and his sister Polyxena , and overcome with lust, directed his sexual attentions on the youth—who, refusing to yield, instead found himself decapitated upon an altar-omphalos of Apollo Thymbraios . Later versions of
548-460: A Latin "r" by uniform convention. (Similarly, the Old Persian word vazir also has almost the same meaning as "chieftain".) Linear B only represents syllables of single vowel, or of a consonant-vowel form, therefore any final -s is omitted. The word can be contrasted with wanax , another word used more specifically for " king " and usually meaning " High King " or "overlord". With
685-651: A Pre-Greek origin of the name, based among other things on the coexistence of -λλ- and -λ- in epic language, which may account for a palatalized phoneme /l / in the original language. Among the appellations under which Achilles is generally known are the following: Achilles was the son of Thetis —a Nereid and daughter of the Old Man of the Sea —and Peleus , the king of the Myrmidons . Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for Thetis's hand in marriage until Prometheus ,
822-563: A component in compound personal names (e.g., Anax agóras, Pleisto ánax ) and is still in use in Modern Greek in the description of the anáktoron / anáktora ("[place or home] of the ánax "), i.e. of the royal palace. The latter is essentially the same word as 𐀷𐀩𐀏𐀳𐀫 wa-na-ka-te-ro , wanákteros , "of the wanax / king" or "belonging to the wanax / king", used in Linear ;B tablets to refer to various craftsmen serving
959-530: A divine arrow, killing him. According to some accounts, he had married Medea in life, so that after both their deaths they were united in the Elysian Fields of Hades —as Hera promised Thetis in Apollonius ' Argonautica (3rd century BC). Achilles' armour was the object of a feud between Odysseus and Telamonian Ajax (Ajax the greater). They competed for it by giving speeches on why they were
1096-405: A dream where Patroclus begs Achilles to hold his funeral, Achilles hosts a series of funeral games in honour of his companion. At the onset of his duel with Hector, Achilles is referred to as the brightest star in the sky, which comes on in the autumn, Orion's dog ( Sirius ); a sign of evil. During the cremation of Patroclus, he is compared to Hesperus , the evening/western star ( Venus ), while
1233-555: A few weeks of the decade-long war, and does not narrate Achilles' death. It begins with Achilles' withdrawal from battle after being dishonoured by Agamemnon , the commander of the Achaean forces. Agamemnon has taken a woman named Chryseis as his slave. Her father Chryses , a priest of Apollo , begs Agamemnon to return her to him. Agamemnon refuses, and Apollo sends a plague amongst the Greeks. The prophet Calchas correctly determines
1370-477: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
1507-764: A lesser degree the King of Axum , whose importance was rather peripheral in the Byzantine worldview. Consequently, the title acquired the connotation of "emperor", and when barbarian kingdoms emerged on the ruins of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, their rulers were referred to in Greek not as basileus but as rēx or rēgas , the hellenized forms of the Latin title rex , king . The first documented use of basileus Rhomaíōn in official context comes from
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#17327755947661644-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
1781-432: A mane ( χαίτη ). Along with other characters, his hair is described with the word xanthḗ ( ξανθή ), which meant ' yellow ', or at times shades thereof, such as brown or auburn , and was used mostly for fair hair. A later Latin account, probably from the 5th century AD, falsely attributed to Dares Phrygius described Achilles as having "... a large chest, a fine mouth, and powerfully formed arms and legs. His head
1918-583: A mortal could craft. Thetis had the gear made for Achilles because his first set was worn by Patroclus when he went to battle and taken by Hector when he killed Patroclus. The Shield of Achilles was also made by the fire god. His legendary spear was given to him by his mentor Chiron before he participated in the Trojan War . It was called the Pelian Spear, which allegedly no other man could wield. A relic claimed to be Achilles' bronze-headed spear
2055-498: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
2192-708: A reason that he ravaged their country. The spread and intensity of the hero's veneration among the Greeks that had settled on the northern coast of the Pontus Euxinus , today's Black Sea , appears to have been remarkable. An archaic cult is attested for the Milesian colony of Olbia as well as for an island in the middle of the Black Sea, today identified with Snake Island ( Ukrainian Зміїний, Zmiinyi , near Kiliia , Ukraine). Early dedicatory inscriptions from
2329-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
2466-458: A slave to the worst of masters than be king of all the dead. But Achilles then asks Odysseus of his son's exploits in the Trojan war, and Odysseus tells him of Neoptolemus' actions. Book 24 of Odyssey gives dead King Agamemnon's ghostly account of Achilles' death: the bleached bones from Achilles' funeral pyre had been mixed with those of Patroclus and put into his mother's golden vase. Also,
2603-656: A spear from each hand; one grazed Achilles' elbow, "drawing a spurt of blood". In the few fragmentary poems of the Epic Cycle which describe the hero's death (i.e. the Cypria , the Little Iliad by Lesches of Pyrrha , the Aethiopis and Iliupersis by Arctinus of Miletus ), there is no trace of any reference to his general invulnerability or his famous weakness at the heel. In the later vase paintings presenting
2740-571: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
2877-524: A tale not mentioned in the literary traditions. At some point in the war, Achilles and Ajax were playing a board game ( petteia ). They were absorbed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding battle. The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were saved only by an intervention of Athena. The tomb of Achilles, extant throughout antiquity in Troad , was venerated by Thessalians , but also by Persian expeditionary forces, as well as by Alexander
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#17327755947663014-463: A very early form of Greek. The word basileus is written as qa-si-re-u and its original meaning was " chieftain " (in one particular tablet the chieftain of the guild of bronze smiths is referred to as qa-si-re-u ). Here the initial letter q- represents the PIE labiovelar consonant */gʷ/ , transformed in later Greek into /b/ . Linear B uses the same glyph for /l/ and /r/ , now transcribed with
3151-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
3288-562: A wound that would not heal; Telephus consulted an oracle, who stated that "he that wounded shall heal". Guided by the oracle, he arrived at Argos , where Achilles healed him in order that he might become their guide for the voyage to Troy. According to other reports in Euripides ' lost play about Telephus, he went to Aulis pretending to be a beggar and asked Achilles to heal his wound. Achilles refused, claiming to have no medical knowledge. Alternatively, Telephus held Orestes for ransom,
3425-476: A younger one, usually a teenager. In Patroclus and Achilles' case, Achilles would have been the younger as Patroclus is usually seen as his elder. In Plato's Symposium , the participants in a dialogue about love assume that Achilles and Patroclus were a couple; Phaedrus argues that Achilles was the younger and more beautiful one so he was the beloved and Patroclus was the lover. However, ancient Greek had no words to distinguish heterosexual and homosexual , and it
3562-570: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
3699-486: Is a medieval invention. In Dares Phrygius ' Account of the Destruction of Troy , the Latin summary through which the story of Achilles was transmitted to medieval Europe, as well as in older accounts, Troilus was a young Trojan prince, the youngest of King Priam 's and Hecuba 's five legitimate sons (or according other sources, another son of Apollo). Despite his youth, he was one of the main Trojan war leaders,
3836-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
3973-705: Is at this time that the term basileus acquired a fully royal connotation, in stark contrast with the much less sophisticated earlier perceptions of kingship within Greece. Under Roman rule, the term basileus came to be used, in the Hellenistic tradition, to designate the Roman Emperor in the ordinary and literary speech of the Greek-speaking Eastern Mediterranean. Although the early Roman Emperors were careful to retain
4110-514: Is attested as using it alongside the long-established Autokratōr Kaisar in a letter to Kavadh II in 628. Finally, in a law promulgated on 21 March 629, the Latin titles were omitted altogether, and the simple formula πιστὸς ἐν Χριστῷ βασιλεύς , "faithful in Christ Emperor" was used instead. The adoption of the new imperial formula has been traditionally interpreted by scholars such as Ernst Stein and George Ostrogorsky as indicative of
4247-666: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
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4384-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
4521-465: Is named after him following the same legend. Linear B tablets attest to the personal name Achilleus in the forms a-ki-re-u and a-ki-re-we , the latter being the dative of the former. The name grew more popular, becoming common soon after the seventh century BC and was also turned into the female form Ἀχιλλεία ( Achilleía ), attested in Attica in the fourth century BC ( IG II² 1617) and, in
4658-537: Is no direct evidence in the text of the Iliad that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers, this theory was expressed by some later authors. Commentators from classical antiquity to the present have often interpreted the relationship through the lens of their own cultures. In 5th-century BC Athens, the intense bond was often viewed in light of the Greek custom of paiderasteia , which is the relationship between an older male and
4795-590: Is older and found already in Plautus ' Bacchides . Homer's Iliad is the most famous narrative of Achilles' deeds in the Trojan War. Achilles' wrath (μῆνις Ἀχιλλέως, mênis Achilléōs ) is the central theme of the poem. The first two lines of the Iliad read: οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, [...] the accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans, [...] The Homeric epic only covers
4932-432: Is that he fell deeply in love with one of the Trojan princesses, Polyxena . Achilles asks Priam for Polyxena's hand in marriage. Priam is willing because it would mean the end of the war and an alliance with the world's greatest warrior. But while Priam is overseeing the private marriage of Polyxena and Achilles, Paris, who would have to give up Helen if Achilles married his sister, hides in the bushes and shoots Achilles with
5069-431: Is treating him disrespectfully. A study by R. Drews demonstrates that even at the apex of Geometric and Archaic Greek society, basileus did not automatically translate to "king": In a number of places authority was exercised by a college of basileis drawn from a particular clan or group, and the office had term limits. However, basileus could also be applied to the hereditary leaders of "tribal" states, like those of
5206-539: Is uncertain. The Mycenaean form was * gʷasileus ( Linear B : 𐀣𐀯𐀩𐀄 , qa-si-re-u ), denoting some sort of court official or local chieftain, but not an actual king. Its hypothetical earlier Proto-Greek form would be * gʷatileus . Some linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted by Bronze Age Greeks from a pre-existing linguistic Pre-Greek substrate of the Eastern Mediterranean . Schindler argues for an inner-Greek innovation of
5343-479: The archon basileus was one of the nine archons , magistrates selected by lot. Of these, the archon eponymos (for whom the year was named), the polemarch (polemos archon = war lord) and the basileus divided the powers of Athens' ancient kings, with the basileus overseeing religious rites and homicide cases. His wife had to ritually marry Dionysus at the Anthesteria festival. Philippides of Paiania
5480-492: The -eus inflection type from Indo-European material rather than a Mediterranean loan. The first written instance of this word is found on the baked clay tablets discovered in excavations of Mycenaean palaces originally destroyed by fire. The tablets are dated from the 15th century BCE to the 11th century BCE and are inscribed with the Linear B script, which was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952 and corresponds to
5617-576: The Achaemenid kings of Persia . The Persian king was also referred to as Megas Basileus / Basileus Megas (Great King) or Basileus Basileōn , a translation of the Persian title xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām (" King of Kings "), or simply " the king". There was also a cult of Zeus Basileus at Lebadeia . Aristotle distinguished the basileus , constrained by law, from the unlimited tyrant ( tyrannos ), who had generally seized control. At Athens ,
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5754-559: The Arcadians and the Messenians , in which cases the term approximated the meaning of "king". According to pseudo- Archytas 's treatise "On justice and law" Basileus is more adequately translated into " Sovereign " than into "king". The reason for this is that it designates more the person of king than the office of king: the power of magistrates ( arkhontes , " archons ") derives from their social functions or offices, whereas
5891-708: The Byzantine emperors , and the kings of modern Greece . The name Basileios ( Basil ), deriving from the term basileus , is a common given name in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches . The feminine forms are basileia ( βασίλεια ), basilissa ( βασίλισσα ), basillis ( βασιλίς ), or the archaic basilinna ( βασιλίννα ), meaning ' queen ' or ' empress ' . The related term basileia ( βασιλεία ) has meanings such as 'sovereignty', 'royalty', 'kingdom', 'reign', 'dominion' and 'authority'. The etymology of basileus
6028-529: The Dnieper-Bug Estuary ; furthermore, at 125 Roman miles from this island, he places a peninsula "which stretches forth in the shape of a sword" obliquely, called Dromos Achilleos (Ἀχιλλέως δρόμος, Achilléōs drómos , ' the Race-course of Achilles ') and considered the place of the hero's exercise or of games instituted by him. This last feature of Pliny's account is considered to be
6165-494: The Greek colonies on the Black Sea ( graffiti and inscribed clay disks, these possibly being votive offerings , from Olbia, the area of Berezan Island and the Tauric Chersonese ) attest the existence of a heroic cult of Achilles from the sixth century BC onwards. The cult was still thriving in the third century CE, when dedicatory stelae from Olbia refer to an Achilles Pontárchēs (Ποντάρχης, roughly 'lord of
6302-708: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
6439-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
6576-644: The sufet mislabeled as the Latin rex . Basileus and Megas Basileus / Basileus Megas were exclusively used by Alexander the Great and his Hellenistic successors in Ptolemaic Egypt , Asia (e.g. the Seleucid Empire , the Attalid kingdom and Pontus ) and Macedon . The feminine counterpart is basilissa (queen), meaning both a queen regnant (such as Cleopatra ) and a queen consort . It
6713-657: The 10th (in the tradition of Niobe 's offspring). The poem ends with a description of Hector's funeral, with the doom of Troy and Achilles himself still to come. Later works, including the Aethiopis (7th century BC) and a work named Posthomerica , composed by Quintus of Smyrna in the fourth century CE, relate further events from the Trojan War . When Penthesilea , queen of the Amazons and daughter of Ares , arrives in Troy, Priam hopes that she will defeat Achilles. After his temporary truce with Priam, Achilles fights and kills
6850-514: The 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for one heel. According to that myth, when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels, leaving it untouched by the waters and thus his only vulnerable body part. Alluding to these legends, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a point of weakness which can lead to downfall, especially in someone or something with an otherwise strong constitution. The Achilles tendon
6987-542: The 500 BC Polyxena sarcophagus , which depicts the sacrifice of Polyxena near the tumulus of Achilles. Strabo (13.1.32) also suggested that such a cult of Achilles existed in Troad: Near the Sigeium is a temple and monument of Achilles, and monuments also of Patroclus and Anthlochus . The Ilienses perform sacred ceremonies in honour of them all, and even of Ajax . But they do not worship Hercules , alleging as
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#17327755947667124-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
7261-634: The 9th century, the Byzantines reserved the term basileus among Christian rulers exclusively for their own emperor in Constantinople . This usage was initially accepted by the "barbarian" kings of Western Europe themselves: Despite having neglected the fiction of Roman suzerainty from the 6th century onward, they refrained from adopting imperial titles. The situation began to change when the Western European states began to challenge
7398-495: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
7535-550: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, Achilles In Greek mythology , Achilles ( / ə ˈ k ɪ l iː z / ə- KIL -eez ) or Achilleus ( Ancient Greek : Ἀχιλλεύς , romanized : Achilleús )
7672-610: The East. Instead, in official context the imperial titles Caesar Augustus , translated or transliterated into Greek as Kaisar Sebastos or Kaisar Augoustos , and Imperator , translated as Autokratōr , were used. By the 4th century however, basileus was applied in official usage exclusively to the two rulers considered equals to the Roman Emperor: the Sassanid Persian shahanshah ("king of kings"), and to
7809-623: The Empire's political supremacy and its right to the universal imperial title. The catalytic event was the coronation of Charlemagne as imperator Romanorum (" Emperor of the Romans ") by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800, at St. Peter's in Rome . The matter was complicated by the fact that the Eastern Empire was then managed by Irene (r. 797–802), who had gained control after
7946-741: The Great and the Roman emperor Caracalla . Achilles' cult was also to be found at other places, e. g. on the island of Astypalaea in the Sporades , in Sparta which had a sanctuary, in Elis and in Achilles' homeland Thessaly , as well as in the Magna Graecia cities of Tarentum , Locri and Croton , accounting for an almost Panhellenic cult to the hero. The cult of Achilles is illustrated in
8083-527: The Greek title into Latin, such as: in Christo Deo fidelis imperator divinitus coronatus sublimis potens excelsus semper augustus moderator Romanorum . In his correspondence with the Holy Roman Emperor , Isaakios II added to his title the Latin phrase haeres coronae Constantini magni ('heir to the crown of Constantine the great'), in order to distinguish and prioritize the 'New' Rome of
8220-598: The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg began with King George I . Both to assert national independence from the will of the Great Powers, and to emphasize the constitutional responsibilities of the monarch towards the people, his title was modified to "King of the Hellenes", which remained the official royal title, until the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1924 and 1973. The two Greek kings who had
8357-417: The New Testament. Other titles involving basileus include Basileus tōn Ouranōn , translated as King of Heaven , and Basileus tōn Ioudaiōn , i.e. King of the Jews (see INRI ). In Byzantine art , standard depictions of Jesus included Basileus tēs Doxēs (King of Glory), a phrase derived from Psalms 24:10, and Kyrios tēs Doxēs (Lord of Glory), from 1 Corinthians 2:8. During the post-Byzantine period,
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#17327755947668494-454: The Papacy's source of protection while the Byzantine's position in Italy had weakened significantly. In 800 CE, Charlemagne, now a king of multiple territories, was proclaimed "Emperor of the Romans" by the Pope. Charlemagne's claim to the imperial title of the Romans began a prolonged diplomatic controversy which was resolved only in 812 when the Byzantines agreed to recognize him as " basileus ", while continuing to refuse any connection with
8631-523: The Persians: in a letter sent to Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602) by Chosroes II , Maurice is addressed in Greek as basileus Rhomaíōn instead of the habitual Middle Persian appellation kēsar-i Hrōm ("Caesar of the Romans"), while the Persian ruler refers to himself correspondingly as Persōn basileus , thereby dropping his own claim to the Greek equivalent of his formal title, basileus basileōn ("king of kings"). The title appears to have slowly crept into imperial titulature after that, and Emperor Heraclius
8768-533: The Punic chief magistrate, the sufet , as basileus in their native language. In fact, this office conformed to largely republican frameworks, being approximately equivalent in mandate to the Roman consul . This conflation appears notably in Aristotle 's otherwise positive description of the Carthaginian Constitution in the Politics , as well as in the writings of Polybius , Diodorus Siculus , and Diogenes Laertius . Roman and early Christian writings sourced from Greek fostered further mischaracterizations, with
8905-412: The Roman Empire. In an effort to emphasize their own Roman legitimacy, the Byzantine rulers thereafter began to use the fuller form basileus Rhomaíōn ( βασιλεύς Ῥωμαίων , "emperor of the Romans") instead of the simple " basileus ", a practice that continued in official usage until the end of the Empire. The title autokratōr was also revived by the early 9th century (and appears in coins from 912 on). It
9042-458: The Romans and Serbs which was, however, not recognized by the Byzantines. While the terms used for the Roman emperor are Kaisar Augustos (Decree from Caesar Augustus, Dogma para Kaisaros Augoustou, Luke 2:1) or just Kaisar (see Render unto Caesar... ), and Pontius Pilate is termed Hegemon ( Matthew 27:2), Herod is referred to as basileus (in his coins also Basileōs Herodou , "of King Herod", and by Josephus ). Regarding Jesus ,
9179-493: The Scaean Gates leading to Troy (with an arrow to the heel according to Statius). In book 23, the sad spirit of dead Patroclus visits Achilles just as he drifts off into slumber, requesting that his bones be placed with those of Achilles in his golden vase, a gift of his mother. In book 11 of the Odyssey , Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades. One of these is Achilles, who when greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death", responds that he would rather be
9316-472: The advances of Zeus, pointing out that Thetis was so loyal to Hera's marriage bond that she coolly rejected the father of gods. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus , was also brought up by Hera, further explaining her resistance to the advances of Zeus. Zeus was furious and decreed that she would never marry an immortal. According to the Achilleid , written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to non-surviving previous sources , when Achilles
9453-491: The almost complete Hellenization of the Empire by that time. In imperial coinage, however, Latin forms continued to be used. Only in the reign of Leo III the Isaurian (r. 717–741) did the title basileus appear in silver coins, and on gold coinage only under Constantine VI (r. 780–797). "BASILEUS" was initially stamped on Byzantine coins in Latin script, and only gradually were some Latin characters replaced with Greek ones, resulting in mixed forms such as "BASIΛEVS". Until
9590-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
9727-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
9864-519: The basis of the cyclic epic Aethiopis , which was composed after the Iliad , possibly in the 7th century BC. The Aethiopis is now lost, except for scattered fragments quoted by later authors. The exact nature of Achilles' relationship with Patroclus has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period and modern times. In the Iliad , it appears to be the model of a deep and loyal friendship. Homer does not suggest that Achilles and his close friend Patroclus had sexual relations. Although there
10001-524: The battle is inevitable. Wanting to go down fighting, he charges at Achilles with his only weapon, his sword, but misses. Accepting his fate, Hector begs Achilles not to spare his life, but to treat his body with respect after killing him. Achilles tells Hector it is hopeless to expect that of him, declaring that, "my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw – such agonies you have caused me." Achilles then kills Hector and drags his corpse by its heels behind his chariot. After having
10138-454: The battlefield, killing Memnon. Consequently, Eos will not let the sun rise until Zeus persuades her. The fight between Achilles and Memnon over Antilochus echoes that of Achilles and Hector over Patroclus, except that Memnon (unlike Hector) was also the son of a goddess. Many Homeric scholars argued that episode inspired many details in the Iliad ' s description of the death of Patroclus and Achilles' reaction to it. The episode then formed
10275-485: The beaches and assault the Greek ships. With the Greek forces on the verge of absolute destruction, Patroclus leads the Myrmidons into battle, wearing Achilles' armour, although Achilles remains at his camp. Patroclus succeeds in pushing the Trojans back from the beaches, but is killed by Hector before he can lead a proper assault on the city of Troy. After receiving the news of the death of Patroclus from Antilochus ,
10412-565: The bones of Antilochus , who had become closer to Achilles than any other following Patroclus' death, were separately enclosed. The customary funeral games of a hero were performed, and a massive tomb or mound was built on the Hellespont for approaching seagoers to celebrate. Achilles was represented in the Aethiopis as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the river Danube . Another version of Achilles' death
10549-441: The bravest after Achilles to their Trojan prisoners, who, after considering both men's presentations, decided Odysseus was more deserving of the armour. Furious, Ajax cursed Odysseus, which earned him the ire of Athena, who temporarily made Ajax so mad with grief and anguish that he began killing sheep, thinking them his comrades. After a while, when Athena lifted his madness and Ajax realized that he had actually been killing sheep, he
10686-405: The burning of the funeral pyre lasts until Phosphorus , the morning/eastern star (also Venus) has set (descended). With the assistance of the god Hermes (Argeiphontes), Hector's father Priam goes to Achilles' tent to plead with Achilles for the return of Hector's body so that he can be buried. Achilles relents and promises a truce for the duration of the funeral, lasting 9 days with a burial on
10823-548: The cattle of Aeneas , sacked neighbouring cities (such as Pedasus and Lyrnessus , where the Greeks capture the queen Briseis ) and killed Tenes , a son of Apollo , as well as Priam's son Troilus in the sanctuary of Apollo Thymbraios ; however, the romance between Troilus and Chryseis described in Geoffrey Chaucer 's Troilus and Criseyde and in William Shakespeare 's Troilus and Cressida
10960-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
11097-686: The city of Ragusa issued in 1451, two years before the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire in the Siege of Constantinople . The later German emperors were also conceded the title " basileus of the Franks ". The Byzantine title in turn produced further diplomatic incidents in the 10th century, when Western potentates addressed the emperors as "emperors of the Greeks". A similar diplomatic controversy (this time accompanied by war) ensued from
11234-430: The collapse of Mycenaean society, the position of wanax ceases to be mentioned, and the basileis (the plural form) appear the topmost potentates in Greek society. In the works of Homer wanax appears, in the form ánax , mostly in descriptions of Zeus ( ánax andrōn te theōn te , "king of men and of the gods ") and of very few human monarchs, most notably Agamemnon . Otherwise the term survived almost exclusively as
11371-440: The commander of the mythical tribe of the Myrmidons . Achilles' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy . Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad , other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris , who shot him with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with Statius ' unfinished epic Achilleid , written in
11508-471: The court, thus giving his identity away. According to the Iliad , Achilles arrived at Troy with 50 ships, each carrying 50 Myrmidons . He appointed five leaders (each leader commanding 500 Myrmidons): Menesthius, Eudorus , Peisander, Phoenix and Alcimedon. When the Greeks left for the Trojan War, they accidentally stopped in Mysia , ruled by King Telephus . In the resulting battle, Achilles gave Telephus
11645-629: The death of Achilles, the arrow (or in many cases, arrows) hit his torso. Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron , who lived on Mount Pelion and was known as the most righteous of the Centaurs , to be reared. In some accounts, Achilles' original name was "Ligyron" and he was later named Achilles by his tutor Chiron. According to Homer, Achilles grew up in Phthia with his childhood companion Patroclus . Homer further writes that Achilles taught Patroclus what he himself had been taught by Chiron, including
11782-488: The death of her husband, the Emperor Leo ;IV (r. 775–780), as regent for their nine-year-old son, Constantine VI (r. 780–797). After Constantine's coming of age, Irene eventually decided to rule in her own name. In the conflict that ensued, Irene was victorious, and Constantine was blinded and imprisoned, to die soon afterward. The revulsion generated by this incident of filicide cum regicide
11919-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
12056-754: The east over the 'Old' Rome of the west. By the Palaiologan period , the full style of the Emperor was finalized in the phrase, "in Christ the God faithful Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, the Palaiologos" ( Medieval Greek : ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ πιστὸς βασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ Ῥωμαίων ὁ Παλαιολόγος , romanized : en Christō tō Theō pistós basileus kai autokratōr Rhōmaíōn ho Palaiológos ), as exemplified in documents such as Constantine XI 's chrysobull to
12193-474: The façade of the republican institutions and to not formally adopt monarchical titles, the use of basileus amply illustrates that contemporaries clearly perceived that the Roman Empire was a monarchy in all but name. Nevertheless, despite its widespread use, due to its "royal" associations the title basileus remained unofficial for the Emperor, and was restricted in official documents to client kings in
12330-426: The field, killing many men in his rage but always seeking out Hector. Achilles even engages in battle with the river god Scamander , who has become angry that Achilles is choking his waters with all the men he has killed. The god tries to drown Achilles but is stopped by Hera and Hephaestus. Zeus himself takes note of Achilles' rage and sends the gods to restrain him so that he will not go on to sack Troy itself before
12467-462: The flames with only a burnt foot, and confided him to the centaur Chiron. Later Chiron exhumed the body of the Damysus , who was the fastest of all the giants, removed the ankle, and incorporated it into Achilles' burnt foot. In Homer's Iliad , Achilles is portrayed as tall and striking, with strength and looks that were unmatched among the Greek warriors. Homer describes him as having long hair or
12604-461: The fore-thinker, warned Zeus of a prophecy (originally uttered by Themis , goddess of divine law) that Thetis would bear a son greater than his father. For this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus. There is a tale which offers an alternative version of these events: In the Argonautica (4.760) Zeus' sister and wife Hera alludes to Thetis' chaste resistance to
12741-476: The form Achillia , on a stele in Halicarnassus as the name of a female gladiator fighting an "Amazon". Achilles' name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος ( áchos ), 'distress, pain, sorrow, grief' and λαός ( laós ), 'people, soldiers, nation', resulting in a proto-form *Akhí-lāu̯os , 'he who has the people distressed' or 'he whose people have distress'. The grief or distress of
12878-673: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
13015-409: The guise of a pedlar selling women's clothes and jewellery and placed a shield and spear among his goods. When Achilles instantly took up the spear, Odysseus saw through his disguise and convinced him to join the Greek campaign. In another version of the story, Odysseus arranged for a trumpet alarm to be sounded while he was with Lycomedes' women. While the women fled in panic, Achilles prepared to defend
13152-692: The hereditary royal office in favor of democratic or oligarchic rule. Some exceptions existed, namely the two hereditary Kings of Sparta (who served as joint commanders of the army, and were also called arkhagetai ), the Kings of Cyrene , the Kings of Macedon and of the Molossians in Epirus and Kings of Arcadian Orchomenus . The Greeks also used the term to refer to various kings of " barbaric " (i.e. non-Greek) tribes in Thrace and Illyria , as well as to
13289-561: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
13426-476: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
13563-520: The imperial aspirations of Simeon I of Bulgaria in the early 10th century. Aspiring to conquer Constantinople, Simeon claimed the title " basileus of the Bulgarians and of the Romans", but was only recognized as " basileus of the Bulgarians" by the Byzantines. From the 12th century however, the title was increasingly, although again not officially, used for powerful foreign sovereigns, such as
13700-555: The king (e.g. the "palace", or royal, spinner, or the ivory worker), and to items belonging or offered to the king (javelin shafts, wheat, spices, precincts etc.). Most of the Greek leaders in Homer's works are described as basileís , which is rendered conventionally in English as "kings". However, a more accurate translation may be "princes" or "chieftains", which would better represent conditions in Greek society in Homer's time, and also
13837-412: The king to appease the warrior. Agamemnon agrees and sends Odysseus and two other chieftains, Ajax and Phoenix . They promise that, if Achilles returns to battle, Agamemnon will return the captive Briseis and other gifts. Achilles rejects all Agamemnon offers him and simply urges the Greeks to sail home as he is planning to do. The Trojans, led by Hector , subsequently push the Greek army back toward
13974-508: The kings of France or Sicily , the tsars of the restored Bulgarian Empire , the Latin emperors and the emperors of Trebizond . In time, the title was also applied to major non-Christian rulers, such as Tamerlane or Mehmed II . Finally, in 1354, Stefan Dušan , king of Serbia , assumed the imperial title, based on his Bulgarian mother's Theodora Smilets of Bulgaria royal line, self-styling himself in Greek as basileus and autokratōr of
14111-496: The medical arts. Thetis foretold that her son's fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity. Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan War. According to Photius , the sixth book of the New History by Ptolemy Hephaestion reported that Thetis burned in a secret place the children she had by Peleus. When she had Achilles, Peleus noticed, tore him from
14248-512: The mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage. None of the sources before Statius make any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad , Homer mentions Achilles being wounded: in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaios , son of Pelagon , challenged Achilles by the river Scamander . He was ambidextrous, and cast
14385-437: The name " Pyrrha " (the red-haired girl), Cercysera or Aissa ("swift" ). With Lycomedes' daughter Deidamia , with whom he had begun a relationship, Achilles there fathered two sons, Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus, after his father's possible alias) and Oneiros. According to this story, Odysseus learned from the prophet Calchas that the Achaeans would be unable to capture Troy without Achilles' aid. Odysseus went to Skyros in
14522-688: The name obtains a double meaning in the poem: when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring distress to the enemy, but when wrongly, his men get the grief of war. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership. Some researchers deem the name a loan word , possibly from a Pre-Greek language. Achilles' descent from the Nereid Thetis and a similarity of his name with those of river deities such as Acheron and Achelous have led to speculations about his being an old water divinity ( see § Worship and heroic cult , below ). Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested
14659-491: The name of Constantine, a name of great sentimental and symbolic significance, especially in the irredentist context of the Megali Idea , were often, although never officially, numbered in direct succession to the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI , as Constantine XII and Constantine XIII . Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes
14796-508: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
14933-424: The people is a theme raised numerous times in the Iliad (and frequently by Achilles himself). Achilles' role as the hero of grief or distress forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of him as the hero of κλέος kléos ('glory', usually in war). Furthermore, laós has been construed by Gregory Nagy , following Leonard Palmer , to mean 'a corps of soldiers', a muster . With this derivation,
15070-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
15207-591: The powerful, the exalted, ever Augustus, Autocrat of the Romans, the Angelos" ( Medieval Greek : ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ πιστὸς βασιλεύς, θεοστεφής, ἄναξ, κραταιός, ὑψηλός, αὔγουστος καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ Ῥωμαίων , romanized : en Khristō to Theō pistos basileus, theostephēs, anax, krataios, hupsēlos, augoustos, kaì autokratōr Rhōmaiōn ) . Variations of this title are found in letters of the Angelid emperors to Pope Innocentius III ; these are nearly direct translations of
15344-518: The ransom being Achilles' aid in healing the wound. Odysseus reasoned that the spear had inflicted the wound; therefore, the spear must be able to heal it. Pieces of the spear were scraped off onto the wound and Telephus was healed. According to the Cypria (the part of the Epic Cycle that tells the events of the Trojan War before Achilles' wrath), when the Achaeans desired to return home, they were restrained by Achilles, who afterwards attacked
15481-407: The roles ascribed to Homer's characters. Agamemnon tries to give orders to Achilles among many others, while another basileus serves as his charioteer. His will, however, is not to be obeyed automatically. In Homer the wanax is expected to rule over the other basileis by consensus rather than by coercion, which is why Achilles rebels (the main theme of the Iliad ) when he decides that Agamemnon
15618-567: The sea', or 'lord of the Pontus Euxinus '), who was invoked as a protector of the city of Olbia, venerated on par with Olympian gods such as the local Apollo Prostates, Hermes Agoraeus, or Poseidon . Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) in his Natural History mentions a "port of the Achæi" and an "island of Achilles", famous for the tomb of that "man" ( portus Achaeorum, insula Achillis, tumulo eius viri clara ), situated somewhat nearby Olbia and
15755-494: The son of Nestor, Achilles grieves over his beloved companion's death. His mother Thetis comes to comfort the distraught Achilles. She persuades Hephaestus to make new armour for him, in place of the armour that Patroclus had been wearing, which was taken by Hector. The new armour includes the Shield of Achilles , described in great detail in the poem. Enraged over the death of Patroclus, Achilles ends his refusal to fight and takes
15892-426: The source of the troubles but will not speak unless Achilles vows to protect him. Achilles does so, and Calchas declares that Chryseis must be returned to her father. Agamemnon consents, but then commands that Achilles' slave Briseis , the daughter of Briseus , be brought to him to replace Chryseis. Angry at the dishonour of having his plunder and glory taken away (and, as he says later, because he loves Briseis), with
16029-637: The sovereign derives his power from himself. Sovereigns have auctoritas , whereas magistrates retain imperium . Pseudo-Archytas aimed at creating a theory of sovereignty completely enfranchised from laws , being itself the only source of legitimacy . He goes so far as qualifying the Basileus as nomos empsykhos , or "living law", which is the origin, according to Agamben, of the Führerprinzip and of Carl Schmitt 's theories on dictatorship . In classical times , most Greek states had abolished
16166-487: The story suggested Troilus was accidentally killed by Achilles in an over-ardent lovers' embrace. In this version of the myth, Achilles' death therefore came in retribution for this sacrilege. Ancient writers treated Troilus as the epitome of a dead child mourned by his parents. Had Troilus lived to adulthood, the First Vatican Mythographer claimed, Troy would have been invincible; however, the motif
16303-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
16440-679: The term basileus , owing to the renewed influence of classical writers on the language, reverted to its earlier meaning of "king". This transformation had already begun in informal usage in the works of some classicizing Byzantine authors. In the Convention of London in 1832, the Great Powers agreed that the new Greek state should become a monarchy , and chose the Wittelsbach Prince Otto of Bavaria as its first king. The Great Powers furthermore ordained that his title
16577-443: The term basileus acquired a new Christian theological meaning out of the further concept of basileus as a chief religious officer during the Hellenistic period. Jesus is titled both Basileus Basileōn ( Βασιλεὺς βασιλέων = King of Kings , Revelation 17:14, 19:16, a previous Near Eastern phrase for rulers of empires, and Basileus tōn basileuontōn ( Βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλευόντων = literally King of those being kings, 1 Timothy 6:15) in
16714-400: The time allotted for its destruction, seeming to show that the unhindered rage of Achilles can defy fate itself. Finally, Achilles finds his prey. Achilles chases Hector around the wall of Troy three times before Athena , in the form of Hector's favorite and dearest brother, Deiphobus , persuades Hector to stop running and fight Achilles face to face. After Hector realizes the trick, he knows
16851-465: The urging of his mother Thetis, Achilles refuses to fight or lead his troops alongside the other Greek forces. At the same time, burning with rage over Agamemnon's theft, Achilles prays to Thetis to convince Zeus to help the Trojans gain ground in the war, so that he may regain his honour. As the battle turns against the Greeks, thanks to the influence of Zeus, Nestor declares that the Trojans are winning because Agamemnon has angered Achilles, and urges
16988-503: The warrior queen, only to grieve over her death later. Initially taken aback, he did not fight as intensely as usual. Once he realized that his distraction was endangering his life, he refocused and killed her. Following the death of Patroclus, Nestor's son Antilochus becomes Achilles' closest companion. When Memnon , son of the Dawn Goddess Eos and king of Ethiopia , slays Antilochus, Achilles once more obtains revenge on
17125-473: The will of the Greek people, a fact further underlined by Otto's addition of the formula " ἐλέῳ Θεοῦ " eléo Theou , i.e. " By the Grace (Mercy) of God ". For 10 years, until the 3 September 1843 Revolution , Otto ruled as an absolute monarch, and his autocratic rule, which continued even after he was forced to grant a constitution, made him very unpopular. After being ousted in 1862, the new Danish dynasty of
17262-480: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
17399-503: Was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer 's Iliad , he was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus , king of Phthia and famous Argonaut . Achilles was raised in Phthia along with his childhood companion Patroclus and received his education by the centaur Chiron . In the Iliad , he is presented as
17536-489: Was assumed that a man could both desire handsome young men and have sex with women. Many pairs of men throughout history have been compared to Achilles and Patroclus to imply a homosexual relationship. The death of Achilles, even if considered solely as it occurred in the oldest sources, is a complex one, with many different versions. Starting with the oldest account, In book 22 of the Iliad , Hector predicts with his last dying breath that Paris and Apollo will slay him at
17673-406: Was born Thetis tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx ; however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him: his left heel (see Achilles' heel , Achilles tendon ) . It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier. In another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire in order to burn away
17810-502: Was compounded by the traditional (and especially Frankish ) aversion to the idea of a female sovereign . Although it is often claimed that, as monarch, Irene called herself in the male form basileus , in fact she normally used the title basilissa . The Pope would seize this opportunity to cite the imperial throne being held by a woman as vacant and establish his position as able to divinely appoint rulers. Leading up to this, Charlemagne and his Frankish predecessors had increasingly become
17947-469: Was covered with long wavy chestnut-colored hair. Though mild in manner, he was very fierce in battle. His face showed the joy of a man richly endowed." Some post-Homeric sources claim that in order to keep Achilles safe from the war, Thetis (or, in some versions, Peleus) hid the young man dressed as a princess or at least a girl at the court of Lycomedes , king of Skyros . There, Achilles, properly disguised, lived among Lycomedes' daughters, perhaps under
18084-425: Was even held by women. By contrast, the authoritarian rulers were never termed basileus in classical Greece, but archon (ruler) or tyrannos (tyrant); although Pheidon of Argos is described by Aristotle as a basileus who made himself into a tyrannos . Many Greek authors, reconciling Carthaginian supremacy in the western Mediterranean with eastern stereotypes of absolutist non-Hellenic government, termed
18221-631: Was one of the richest Athenians during the age of Lycurgus of Athens, he was honoured archon basileus in 293–292 BCE. Similar vestigial offices termed basileus existed in other Greek city-states. Thus in the Ionian League each member city had a basileus that represented it to the League sanctuary of the Panionion , whereas in the Roman period it was a League office of unclear duties, and
18358-493: Was preserved for centuries in the temple of Athena on the acropolis of Phaselis , Lycia, a port on the Pamphylian Gulf. The city was visited in 333 BC by Alexander the Great , who envisioned himself as the new Achilles and carried the Iliad with him, but his court biographers do not mention the spear; however, it was shown in the time of Pausanias in the 2nd century CE. Numerous paintings on pottery have suggested
18495-537: Was reserved for the senior ruling emperor among several co-emperors ( symbasileis ), who exercised actual power. The term Megas Basileus / Basileus Megas ("Great Emperor") was also sometimes used for the same purpose. During the 12th century, Byzantine emperors of the Angelos dynasty, in their correspondence with the Pope and foreign rulers, styled themselves as "in Christ the God faithful, Emperor, crowned by God, Anax,
18632-426: Was so ashamed that he committed suicide. Odysseus eventually gave the armour to Neoptolemus , the son of Achilles. When Odysseus encounters the shade of Ajax much later in the House of Hades ( Odyssey 11.543–566), Ajax is still so angry about the outcome of the competition that he refuses to speak to Odysseus. The armour they fought for was made by Hephaestus and thus much stronger and more beautiful than any armour
18769-468: Was to be " Βασιλεὺς τῆς Ἑλλάδος " Vasilefs tes Elládos , meaning "King of Greece", instead of " Βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων " Vasilefs ton Ellénon , i.e. "King of the Greeks". This title had two implications: first, that Otto was the king only of the small Kingdom of Greece , and not of all Greeks , whose majority still remained ruled by the Ottoman Empire . Second, that the kingship did not depend on
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