What is an Achilles heel? The meaning in brief. Syntactic analysis and meaning of the phraseological unit "Achilles' heel"

Achilles- favorite hero of many legends Ancient Greece. This is an invincible, brave man who was not taken by any enemy arrows. You've probably heard the phraseology often Achilles heel. So what does his heel have to do with it if he was invincible and brave?!

Legend says that Achilles' mother Thetis, wanting to make her son invulnerable, dipped the boy into the waters of the sacred river Styx. But while dipping, she held him by the heel (heel), and the heel was unprotected.

In one of the battles, Paris, Achilles' opponent, shot an arrow at Achilles' heel and killed him.

Every weak, vulnerable place in a person is called Achilles's fifth.

Phraseologism “Apple of discord” meaning

According to ancient Greek myth, one day the goddess of discord, Eris, was not invited to a feast. Bearing a grudge, Eris decided to take revenge on the gods. She took golden apple, on which it was written " most beautiful", and quietly threw it between the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite and Athena. The goddesses argued over which of them should own it. Each considered herself the most beautiful. The son of the Trojan king Paris, who was invited to be a judge, gave the apple to Aphrodite, and in gratitude she helped him kidnap the wife of the Spartan king Helen. Because of this, the Trojan War broke out.
Expression apple of discord has become a phraseological unit denoting the cause of a quarrel or hostility.

Phraseologism Augean stables meaning

Augean stables– King Augeas lived in Ancient Greece. He was a passionate horse lover. Three thousand horses stood in his stables. However, their stalls had not been cleaned for thirty years and were overgrown with manure up to the roofs.
Fortunately, the legendary strongman Hercules (the Romans called him Hercules) entered the service of King Augeas, to whom the king instructed to clean the stables, since no one else was able to do this.
Hercules was not only powerful, but also smart. He diverted the river to the gates of the stables, and a stormy stream washed away all the dirt from there.
Expression Augean stables we use it when we want to talk about extreme neglect and pollution.

Option 2: 1. A very polluted place, a neglected room. In figurative speech: something littered with papers, books, unnecessary things not needed for work. “This opportunity happened (he did not answer the letter) because our desk represents the Augean stables and only now I could find a piece of paper.” Mussorgsky. Letter to V.V. Stasov, March 31, 1872.
2. Extreme disorder in business. “What were the main manifestations, remnants, remnants of serfdom in Russia by 1917? Monarchy, class, land ownership and use, position of women, religion, oppression of nationalities. Take any of these Augean stables... you will see that we have cleaned them clean." V. I. Lenin.
3. Clean (clean) Augean stables. “Then Kirov patted Ilyushin on the shoulder. - And you gather the fighters. I’ll come for half an hour and talk (about cleaning the regiment and mobilizing communists into the guard). Well, be healthy! Let’s clean out your Augean stables together.” G. Kholopov. Lights in the bay.
From the literal phrase Augean stables, i.e. the huge stables of Augeas, king of Elis. According to myth, these stables, which had not been cleaned for 30 years, were cleaned by Hercules in one day, channeling the waters of the stormy Alpheus River through them.

Phraseologism “Between Scylla and Charybdis” meaning

According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, two monsters lived on the coastal rocks on both sides of the Strait of Messina: Scylla and Charybdis that swallowed up the sailors.
The expression between Scylla and Charybdis is used to mean: being between two hostile forces, in a position where danger threatens from both sides.
Think about whether there are similar phraseological units in our speech (between two fires, for example).

Phraseologism “The voice of one crying in the wilderness” meaning

According to the ancient biblical legend, one very honorable and respected prophet wanted people to build the so-called path to God in the desert. In this case, it would be necessary to build good roads in the remote steppe, make the mountains smaller, and also level out what does not protrude as needed. People turned a deaf ear to all these requests, because no one was going to take on such work. That is why this phraseological unit and has this name - voice in the wilderness.
For a long time, this expression has meant indifferent calls and persuasion to do certain actions that no one listens to, and which are doomed to failure in advance. At the moment phraseological unit reached us without any changes.

Let's move on to one of the most famous phraseological units of Ancient Greece.

Are given meaning, history and sources of phraseological units, as well as examples from literary works.

The meaning of phraseology

Achilles' heel is a weak point

Synonyms: weak point, flaw, disadvantage

IN foreign languages There are direct analogues of the phraseological unit “Achilles’ heel”:

• Achilles heel (English)
• die Ferse des Achilles (German)
• el talon de Aquiles (Spanish)

Achilles' heel: the origin of phraseological units

An ancient Greek myth tells that the mother of Achilles (Achilles), the sea goddess Thetis, was alarmed by the oracle's prediction that her son would die under the walls of Troy. So she dipped the baby Achilles in the Styx, whose waters give invulnerability. However, the waters of the river did not touch Achilles’ heel, by which Thetis held him.

Further, according to the “Myths” of Hyginus, Thetis, wanting to save her son from participating in the fatal campaign against Troy for him, hid him with Lycomedes, king of the island of Skyros, where Achilles, dressed as a woman, was among the royal daughters. But she failed to deceive fate. Odysseus used a cunning trick, under the guise of a merchant, laying out women's jewelry in front of the girls and mixing weapons with them. Suddenly he ordered a battle cry and noise to be raised, and Achilles, who immediately grabbed his weapon, was discovered. As a result, the exposed Achilles was forced to join the Greek campaign.

In the battles near the walls of Troy, Achilles defeated 72 enemy soldiers. However, an arrow shot from the bow of Paris, the son of the ruler of Troy, Priam, and directed by the hand of Apollo himself, hit Achilles in the heel, and he died. Before this, Achilles had the imprudence to insult Apollo.

Sources

The legend of the Achilles heel is set out in the “Myths” of the Roman writer Hyginus (64 BC - 17 AD).

However, there is an earlier image on a 6th century amphora. BC e., where Achilles is depicted wounded in the leg.

Examples from the works of writers

The absence of a clearly conscious goal is the Achilles heel of all administrators who were educated by Dussault and in the establishment of artificial mineral waters. (M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, “Pompadours”)

We...found the weak side of this Achilles... his intrigue with the Moldovan princess... he can be confused in these snares... (I. I. Lazhechnikov, “The Ice House”)

- Follow me and see what happens. - Why do you need me? - I sighed. However, it was already clear to me that I would go: curiosity is my Achilles heel. (M. Fry, “Volunteers of Eternity”)

So, the example with the Achilles heel is good shows us, how one small vulnerability can lead to the downfall of a seemingly invincible demigod. This also happens regularly in everyday life. This is probably why this phraseological unit is so well preserved in our language.

By the way, you can look at the Achilles heel and on the other hand: if it had not been there, then all the drama of Achilles’ heroic life would have disappeared, and only predetermined victories would have remained. It would be quite boring.

The sea goddess Thetis sought to make her son Achilles invulnerable and tempered him in fire at night and rubbed him with ambrosia during the day. According to another version, she bathed him in the waters of the underground river Styx, which flowed in the kingdom of gloomy Hades. And only the heel by which she held him remained unprotected. Achilles was raised by the wise centaur Chiron, who fed him the entrails of lions, bears and wild boars. He taught him to sing and play the cithara.

Achilles grew up to be a powerful, strong young man; he was not afraid of anyone. At the age of six he killed ferocious lions and wild boars, without dogs he caught up with deer and knocked them to the ground. The goddess Thetis, who lived in the ocean, did not forget about her son, sailed to him, and gave practical advice.

At that time, the hero Menelaus began to gather brave warriors throughout Greece for a campaign against Troy. Thetis, knowing that her son was destined to participate in the Trojan War and die, tried with all her might to resist him. She sent her son to the island of Skyros to the palace of King Lycomedes. There, among the royal daughters, he hid in girlish clothes.

But the Greek soothsayers knew that one of the heroes of the Trojan War would be the young warrior Achilles; they told the leader Menelaus that he was hiding on the island of Skyros with King Lycomedes. Then the leaders Odysseus and Diomedes equipped a merchant ship, disguised themselves as merchants, collected various goods and arrived at Skyros. There they learned that only daughters lived with King Lycomedes. Where is Achilles?

Then Odysseus, famous for his cunning, figured out how to recognize Achilles. They came to the palace of Lycomedes and laid out decorations, fabrics, household utensils, battle swords, shields, daggers, bows and arrows in the hall. The girls looked at the product with interest. Noticing this, Odysseus went out and asked his soldiers standing at the entrance to the palace to issue a battle cry. The warriors knocked on their shields, blew their trumpets, and shouted in inviting voices. It seemed like a war had begun. The princesses fled in fear, but one of them grabbed a sword and shield and ran to the exit.

So Odysseus and Diomedes recognized Achilles and invited him to participate in the Trojan War. He happily agreed. He had long wanted to throw off his girlish dress and do real work worthy of a man.

Achilles became famous in the very first days of the battles. He proved himself to be a fearless, skillful warrior, and luck accompanied him everywhere. He accomplished many feats. Together with others, he participated in the destruction of the outskirts of Troy, conquered the population of the cities of Lyrnessos and Pedas, and captured the beautiful Briseis. But the leader Agamemnon took the girl away from him, which caused Achilles a terrible offense. He was so angry with Agamemnon that he refused to fight against the Trojans. And only the death of his friend Patroclus forced Achilles to take up arms again and join the ranks of the Greeks.

Achilles died in the most ridiculous way: he burst into Troy and headed towards the royal palace, but the Trojan prince Paris, who did not love him, took a bow and begged the god Apollo, who favored him, to direct arrows at Achilles. One of his two arrows hit Achilles's only weak spot, his heel. This is how one of the most famous heroes of the Trojan War died. His death was mourned by the entire army.

You've probably heard your friends mockingly discuss a person, using in their speech a phrase that you don't understand: "This student's Achilles heel is mathematics." And so on and so forth. This expression probably interested you, and a question like: “What is the meaning of the phraseological unit “Achilles' heel” immediately begins to spin in your head?

It’s embarrassing and scary to ask - suddenly they’ll laugh and twirl their finger at their temple! There are no philologists you know among your friends to ask. And in search engines, when asked for the meaning of "each site gives its own interpretation of this phraseological unit, and each next one is different from the previous one. But if you stumbled upon this article, consider yourself lucky! Below we will explain in detail the meaning of the phraseological unit "Achilles' heel" or "heel Achilles."

First, let's make these phrases. It consists of two words: "Achilles's" and "heel". Let's find out which parts of speech they belong to.

The word “heel” answers the question “what?”, is feminine, can change according to cases (heel, heel, heel, fifth, on the heel) and has the 1st declension, which means it is a noun. Its synonym is "heel".

The word “Achilles” answers the questions “which one? Whose?”, has a feminine gender and changes according to cases, which means, based on the above characteristics, it is an adjective. The noun from which it is derived is "Achilles".

The phrase “Achilles' heel” has the structure “adjective + The method of syntactic connection of words in it is agreement.

Now let's move on to the linguistic part: we find out the literary meaning of the phraseological unit "Achilles' heel". If you read the paragraph about the adjective in this phrase, you already realized that the root of both it and the entire phraseological unit is the word, or more precisely, the name: Achilles.

If you have read ancient Greek mythology, then you are probably familiar with the word “Achilles” or, as some sources say, the name of one of the participants. The origin of the expression now being discussed is closely connected with the death of this hero. His... No, stop. Until you understand the whole life of Achilles, you will not understand anything when I talk about his death.

The birth of Achilles was predicted to Zeus by Prometheus, who was chained to a rock. He warned the Thunderer not to take the sea goddess Thetis as his wife, otherwise they would have a son who would be stronger than his father. Zeus listened to Prometheus and gave Thetis as a wife to the great hero Peleus, king of the Myrmidons. Soon they had a son, named Achilles. To make her son invulnerable, Thetis, holding Achilles by the heel, dipped him into the sacred waters. And he became impervious to arrows, fire and swords, only the heel, which his mother held, remained the only vulnerable spot on his entire body.

As a child, Achilles was raised by his friend Phoenix and the centaur Chiron. Soon, in accordance with the demands of Odysseus and Nestor, as well as fulfilling the will of his father, Achilles joined the campaign against Troy. His mother, the prophetic goddess Thetis, knowing that this campaign would not end well for Achilles, wanting to save her son, hid him with the king of Skyros Lycomedes among the latter’s daughters, dressing her son in women’s clothes.

But Odysseus found out about this and decided to use a trick. He came to the palace of Lycomedes and laid out women's jewelry and weapons in front of the princesses. All the daughters of King Skyros began to admire the decorations, and only one grabbed a weapon. This was Achilles, who, having studied the art of wielding weapons since childhood, could not resist the temptation to take it. Odysseus immediately made a fuss, and the exposed Achilles was forced to join the Greek detachment.

In battles, Achilles showed himself to be an excellent warrior; 72 Trojans fell by his hand. But in the last battle he was killed by an arrow from Paris, which he shot right at his very vulnerable heel. Subsequently, Achilles' body was ransomed for an equal weight of gold.

This is the whole legend of Achilles. You probably already understand the meaning of the phraseological unit. In this myth, the Achilles heel is, let's say, the heel part of Achilles, which was the only vulnerable part of his body. And as a phraseological unit, it denotes a weak or vulnerable place, topic, etc. in a person, although in appearance he seems invulnerable.

There are a lot of idioms in the Russian language. And the conversation in which the subject of discussion is the meaning of the phraseological unit “Achilles’ heel” is not the only one among many questions on the topic “Catchphrases”. Another huge number of phraseological units have a less intricate meaning. But we'll talk about them another time.

Achilles heel

Achilles heel
From a post-Homeric myth transmitted by the Roman writer Hyginus (1st century BC). The oracle predicted the mythical hero Achilles (Greek - Achilles) to die under the walls of Troy, so his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, wanting to give her son immortality, dipped him into the sacred waters of the River Styx, while holding him by the heel. Thus, the boy's heel was left unwashed and therefore unprotected. And when the already adult Achilles fought under the walls of Troy, it was in this only vulnerable spot that Paris’s arrow hit, which caused the death of the hero.
Allegorically: a weak, vulnerable place.

Encyclopedic dictionary of popular words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.

Achilles heel

IN Greek mythology Achilles (Achilles) is one of the strongest and bravest heroes; it is sung in Homer's Iliad. A post-Homeric myth, transmitted by the Roman writer Hyginus, reports that Achilles' mother, the sea goddess Thetis, in order to make her son's body invulnerable, dipped him in the sacred river Styx; while dipping, she held him by the heel, which was not touched by the water, so the heel remained Achilles’s only vulnerable spot, where he was mortally wounded by Paris’s arrow. The expression “Achilles' (or Achilles') heel that arose from this is used in the meaning: a weak side, a weak spot of something.

Dictionary of catch words. Plutex. 2004.

See what "Achilles' heel" is in other dictionaries:

In a figurative sense: a person’s weak side; This saying comes from the following: according to Greek legends, the mother of Achilles, wanting to make her son immortal, immersed him in a magical spring, so that only the heel for which she took him... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (foreign) weak side (easily vulnerable). Wed. The absence of a clearly conscious goal is the Achilles heel of all administrators who were educated by Dussault and in the establishment of artificial mineral waters. Saltykov. Pompadours. Wed. We have a lot of these... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

Defect, roughness, flaw, gap, deficiency, flaw, slack, weak link, slack, complex, liability, flaw, imperfection, wormhole, shortcoming, weakness, minus, weak side, vulnerable spot, negative point, weak point, ... ... Dictionary of synonyms

Dictionary Ushakova

ACHILLES' HEEL. see heel. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

ACHILLES' HEEL- what is the only or most vulnerable place. This means that a position, plan, etc. (P) or a person or group of persons (X) has a disadvantage, a weakness (Z). speech standard. ✦ Z Achilles heel X a R. In the role of a nominal part of a tale, less often additional... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language

Achilles heel- Book Units only Weak side, most vulnerable point. = Weak point. Achilles heel of whom? men, athlete, theories, programs...; Achilles heel who? the critic, he, we... And he had an Achilles heel, and he had weaknesses...... ... Educational phraseological dictionary

Achilles heel- only units , stable combination, book. The weakest, most vulnerable place of someone. or what? What kind of person is this Nevelsky? This is the Achilles heel of Zavoika (Zadornov). Etymology: From the proper name Achilles, Achilles (Greek Achilleus) and the words... ... Popular dictionary of the Russian language

Statue "Dying Achilles" (Ernst Herter, 1884). Achilles' heel post-Homeric myth (transmitted by the Roman poet Hyginus ... Wikipedia

- (foreign) weak side (easily vulnerable) Wed. The absence of a clearly conscious goal is the Achilles heel of all administrators who were educated by Dussault and in the establishment of artificial mineral waters. Saltykov. Pompadours. Wed. We have a lot of these Achilles... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary

Books

• The Achilles heel of intelligence, M. E. Boltunov. The author of this book, a military journalist and writer, has studied recently declassified archival documents, introduces readers to the incredible stories of the unsung heroes who keep...