\b0 Son of the mortal \b \cf4 \ATXht11610 Peleus\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and the goddess \b \cf4 \ATXht12011 Thetis\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , he was educated by the centaur \b \cf4 \ATXht10320 Chiron\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . Fate allowed him to choose between a long, but insignificant life or a glorious, but short one. Achilles chose the second alternative and met his death beneath the walls
of \b \cf4 \ATXht12019 Troy\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . Some later traditions tell of his mother's attempt to render him immortal; as a child, Achilles was dipped in the waters of the Styx, a river in the \b \cf4 \ATXht12101 Underworld\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , but the he
el by which Thetis held him during the immersion was not touched by the miraculous water. It was in his heel that he received a mortal wound from the arrow shot by \b \cf4 \ATXht11606 Paris\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 (or by the god \b \cf4 \ATXht9 Apollo\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 ).\par
