The Achilles heel is the meaning and origin of the phraseological unit briefly. What does the expression "Achilles' heel" mean?

The meaning of ACHILLES' HEEL in the Popular Explanatory Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language

ACHILLES' HEEL

only units , stable combination, book.

Smb.'s weakest, most vulnerable point. or smth.

What kind of person is this Nevelsky? - This Achilles heel Zavoiki (Zadornov).

Etymology:

From the proper name Achilles, Achilles (Greek Achilleus) and the word of common Slavic origin heel (Old Russian heel, Old Slavic p?ta O. Slavic * peta).

Encyclopedic commentary:

In Homer's Iliad, Achilles is one of the bravest Greek heroes, the leader of the ancient Greeks during the siege of Troy. Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis, wanting to make her son immortal, immersed him in the sacred waters of the Styx. Only the heel, by which Thetis held him, did not touch the water and remained vulnerable. Achilles died from an arrow from Paris that struck him in the heel.

Popular explanatory and encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language. 2012

The meaning of the phraseological unit “Achilles' heel” is a weak, vulnerable spot in someone or something. If this expression is used in relation to a person, it can characterize both his moral and physical appearance. Moreover, as a rule, the expression “Achilles heel” has an ironic and mocking connotation.

We owe the origin of the phraseological unit “Achilles’ heel” to the myths of Ancient Greece, or more precisely, to the myth of the ancient Greek legendary hero Achilles or Achilles. Heroes were born from the marriages of gods with mortals and had some supernatural qualities for mortal people, but were not immortal. Carrying out the will of the gods, they performed various feats, for which people created legends about them. This is what happened with Achilles.

His parents were Thetis, the sea nymph, and Peleus, the son of the Aeginean king Aeacus. According to the prediction, their son together will live a long life or become a hero and die at the walls of Troy.

Therefore, Thetis, wanting to find out whether her child was immortal or not, dipped the newborn into boiling water. This is how six children of Thetis died. When the seventh child was born, Peleus insisted that Thetis not perform her inhuman experiments on him. As you guessed, this child was Achilles. However, Thetis, wanting to make her son invulnerable, according to one version, put Achilles in the divine furnace of the god of fire and patron of the blacksmith's craft, Hephaestus, while holding him by the heel. According to another version, Thetis dipped Achilles into the sacred waters of the underground river Styx in the kingdom of the dead Hades. Thus, Achilles had one weak spot - his heel. Hence the expression “Achilles' heel”, meaning a weak, unprotected place.

When the Greeks were about to attack the Trojans, the king of Ithaca Odysseus and the king of Pylos Nestor wished to see Achilles in the ranks of their army. Having received a blessing from his father, Achilles joined the campaign against Troy.

Thetis, remembering the prophecy and wanting to save her son, created a storm, and Achilles' ship ended up near the island of Skyros. There, with King Lycomedes, Thetis hoped to hide Achilles so that he could not take part in the fatal war. To do this, she dressed her son in women's clothing and hid him among the daughters of King Lycomedes. But the cunning and clever Odysseus found out about this. He appeared on the island disguised as a merchant. Odysseus displayed not only dresses, jewelry, but also weapons for the princesses to review. Suddenly, at his order, a noise and a battle cry arose and, by inertia, Achilles took up arms. So the exposed “deserter” had to go on his last campaign.

Achilles accomplished many feats in war, and he defeated many enemies in battles. No one could cope with the hero. But the prediction nevertheless came true. The arrow, fired by the son of the king of Troy, Paris, and directed by the god of light and patron of the arts, Apollo, hit Achilles's only unprotected place - in the heel. Although the wound was not significant, Achilles died.

So every living being, every object is imperfect. And it doesn’t matter whether he hides his shortcomings and shortcomings or not, they are there. According to scientists, even the sun has spots. So this myth suggests that no matter how ideal and invulnerable you may seem, you should not delude yourself and be careless and self-confident, you should beware of chance and be vigilant. After all, as Murphy's law says:

“If there is a chance that something bad could happen, it will happen.”

In Greece, on the island of Corfu, in the Achilleion Palace, a statue of Ernst Gustav Harter “The Dying Achilles”, created by him in 1884, is exhibited. It depicts Achilles trying to remove an arrow from his heel. This statue was made by order of Empress Elizabeth.

And a little anatomy. The origin of the name “Achilles tendon” is the myth of the “Achilles heel”. By the way, this heel tendon is the strongest and most powerful in the human body.

Achilles' heel is a phraseological unit denoting the weakness or vulnerability of an enterprise or person. This could be a personality trait, a feature that spoils life, or an imperfection in the organization of a business - everything that, one way or another, is a hidden flaw that can appear unexpectedly and confuse all the cards.

Let's talk about how this expression appeared and what its original meaning was.

The Myth of Achilles

The expression "Achilles' heel" originates in a myth of the post-Homeric era, transmitted by the Roman poet Hyginus. It talks about the fate of a great hero named Achilles, who was invulnerable to enemy arrows and swords. The secret of his magical protection was that when he was a child, his mother, the sea goddess Thetis, dipped him in the waters. She dreamed of making her son immortal and equal to the gods. However, the protection was not complete. While Achilles was washing in the eternal river, his mother held his heel, which remained dry. She was the hero’s hidden vulnerable spot.

During the siege of Troy, Achilles fought for ten men. It is not surprising, because the weapon could not cause him any harm. The Trojans were on the verge of complete defeat. But then Apollo stood up for them, angry at the insolence of a mere mortal. He directed the arrow fired by Paris directly at Achilles' heel, and the hero was defeated.

Since then, the Achilles heel has meant an unnoticeable and seemingly insignificant feature that may pose a threat to any business.

By the way, the Achilles tendon, named after the hero of the Greek myth, can withstand a load of 400 kg or more and is one of the most vulnerable places in the human body.

The Achilles heel of the modern enterprise

Let's take a closer look at the concept of hidden vulnerability using the example of modern enterprises.

Any company is a complex system, which means that there are flaws hidden somewhere that are not visible to the surface.

The Achilles heel of a company is a weak point from which the destruction of the entire enterprise can begin.

When an ordinary employee does not pay enough attention to his job responsibilities, he does not know that his carelessness can destroy the entire carefully built structure if his actions touch that very painful point.

In order to avoid such risks, most large Western and domestic companies pay a lot of attention to creating a corporate culture, which helps to increase discipline and motivation of employees.

To any owner of a successful large company you need to understand where this point is. If he cannot strengthen this place yet, then at least he should pay special attention to it.

Every industry has its weak link. For example, it is generally accepted that in aviation the main threat to safety is the human factor, that is, unreliable and unpredictable people on whom the control of complex machines depends.

Sometimes such a flaw can be a minor event, which along the chain can lead to complete collapse. It is almost impossible to predict the outcome; the only way to control such accidents is to introduce preventive measures. For example, creating rules of behavior in various situations and so on.

The Achilles heel is a myth familiar to many from childhood, warning of the danger that lies in carelessness and self-confidence. Any accident or ambiguity in contracts can become a weak link and turn into a threat to the life of the enterprise.

It says: “If trouble can happen, it will definitely happen.” This means that you cannot give this trouble a single chance, you need to be extremely vigilant.

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’ 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 did not touch 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 vulnerable spot of something.

Dictionary of catch words. Plutex. 2004.

Synonyms:

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, flaw, 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... ... Phrasebook 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 institution 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...

31.08.2018 18.02.2019 Alexander Firtsev

Ancient Greece gave the world many useful legends and myths that introduced popular expressions and phrases into modern vocabulary. Myth is a fantastic image, an attempt to explain natural phenomena and events, highlighting morality and an aesthetic attitude to reality.

Everyone is accustomed to the fact that in Russian the expression “ Achilles heel” means a weak, unprotected place, no matter what the conversation is about. Phraseologism is most often used in conversations about human vulnerability, that is, about a certain task or process, the result of which will be completely opposite to the expected success.

In order to understand why the “Achilles heel” is a weak point and learn the history of the origin of phraseological units, you should read the myth of Achilles.

The Legend of Achilles

The stable expression originates from the myth conveyed by the writer Hygin about the hero Achilles. The legend says that the son of Thetis, an excellent warrior, was known by everyone as dexterous and impregnable to the enemy’s sharp spears and arrows.

From an early age, he was predicted to have a long life in which he would not experience glory, or a heroic, but short life path, ending with the death of a warrior at the walls of Troy.

The caring mother Thetis was afraid of the early death of her son, and therefore went to the River Styx, the waters of which were considered sacred by everyone. She dipped the baby into the underground waters, holding him by the heel, protecting his flesh from the impact of any weapons. Magic spells protected the hero from any harm, but there was only one place of his body to which holy protection did not apply - the heel.

When Thetis dipped her son into the river, she held his heel, which is why this part remained vulnerable. The Trojan War pitted Prince Paris and Achilles on the battlefield. Led by the god Apollo, who had previously been insulted by an invulnerable warrior, Paris prepared poisoned arrows for battle, took aim and hit Achilles in the heel. The impregnable warrior was killed. A small wound from an arrow turned out to be fatal for the hero.

Modern interpretation

It would seem that so many thousands of years have passed, the old generation is being replaced by a new one, and ancient Greek expressions live on and find a place for themselves in modern times. The “Achilles heel” is used not only in verbal usage, denoting a weak point physically and morally, it was taken into account by anatomists who call the tendon located above the heel bone “Achilles.”