Au contraire, Achilles was an ******e. He was (almost) invulnerable, and like the baddest thug in the neighborhood he became full of himself and never walked away from a fight, because he (mistakenly) thought he could never lose.
The brave man in the Iliad was Hector, who missed his wife and went out to fight Achilles, who had come to him seeking vengeance for his buddy Petroclus.
Achilles didn’t make it quick either. He allowed Hector to take his best shot, laughing and mocking him. After Achilles killed Hector, he hitched his dead corpse behind his chariot and dragged it around in front of Hector’s wife.
Paris was the smart guy in the story. He gained intelligence via his sister, who had discovered Achilles’ vulnerability by asking around of the right people.
Paris happened to be an ancient Greek marksman, an archer. He played the tactical situation right and caught Achilles walking away, strung up his best broadhead in his 60-pund compound bow, and PMMP! (Proper mufflers on his bowstring)
Achilles was hit, DRT. He was no hero
He had it coming.
Hector, Paris, and Paris’ sister were the heroes of the Iliad.
Homer wrote it with the easily inferred moral: Don’t be this guy.
Hector KISSED his wife.
Paris’s sister...Cassandra.
When Troy fell to the Greeks, Cassandra tried to find a shelter in Athena’s Temple, but she was brutally abducted by Ajax and was brought to Agamemnon as a concubine. Cassandra died in Mycenae, murdered along with Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
Pi$$ed Athena off