Achilles Heel In Homers Iliad, Achilles was a central figure and the Greek hero in the Trojan War. When he was an infant, Thetis, his mother, held him by the heel and dipped him into the River Styx to make him immortality and deathlessness like a god. Thetis held Achilles so tightly that his heel remained dry and became the only vulnerable spot on his body. In the Trojan War, The god Apollo let Paris to shoot an arrow at Achilles vulnerable heel and killed him.