Learn English – Why is the tendon named after Achilles

eponymsetymology

There are two main or obvious possible reasons:

  1. Achilles died of a wound to the heel, from a poisoned arrow shot by
    Paris/Alexander. This is sometimes fabled to be the only spot where he could be wounded, thanks to a magical invulnerability elsewhere due to immersion in the Styx (which failed to wet his heel because his goddess mother was holding him by that part).
  2. Achilles pierced the slain body of Hector between
    this tendon and the underlying bones (tibia and fibula) so as to
    pass through the thongs by which he dragged the body behind his
    chariot.

The first would seem to be the more popular notion, but it is completely un-Homeric—the invulnerability thing in particular would make nonsense of Iliad 18, and neither epic mentions the wound in the heel at all—while the second is authentically Homeric (Iliad 22.395–404).

Brewer’s 1898 (courtesy of Bartleby) is no help, nor is Free Dictionary, and Wikipedia hedges its bets (and ignores the question in Talk). OED cites the following, which clearly favors #1, but nowhere casts its authority behind that origin-story:

1703 tr. P. Dionis Anat. Humane Bodies Improv’d ii. x. 422 That String is call’d the Tendon of Achilles, because, ’tis said, he dy’d of a Wound in that Part.

P.S.: Irene, commenting on a question regarding whether the expression needs an apostrophe, alleged that the Greek origin involved the adjective Ἀχίλλειος, but Liddell & Scott indicate that the tendon in question was simply called ὁ τένων ὁ ὀπίσθιος, the rear tendon, while their entry for Ἀχίλλειος does not mention any tendon. Wikipedia traces the expression to a decade before the OED example previously given:

The oldest-known written record of the tendon being named for Achilles is in 1693 by the Flemish/Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen. In his widely used text Corporis Humani Anatomia, Chapter XV, page 328, he described the tendon's location and said that it was commonly called “the cord of Achilles”, now also called “tendo achillies” by anatomists. (“quae vulgo dicitur chorda Achillis”)

Best Answer

The legend about Achilles heel is at the origin of the expression Achilles tendon:

Achilles tendon:

  • or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon (Latin: Tendo calcaneus), is a tendon of the back of the leg, and the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (heel) bone. These muscles, acting via the tendon, cause plantar flexion of the foot at the ankle, and flexion at the knee.

  • "Achilles heel", referring to a vulnerability, relates to the mythical story of Achilles, who was slain during the Trojan war by a poisoned arrow to his heel.

  • In his Metamorphoses, Ovid suggested that Achilles had a vulnerable spot on his body; but the Roman poet, Statius (c. A.D. 45-96), was the first to imply in a poem that it was his heel. (Wikipedia)

Achilles tendon: (etymonline)

  • from Modern Latin tendo Achillis, first used by German surgeon Heister and so-called in reference to the one vulnerable spot of the great Greek hero Achilles, whose mother held him by the heel when she dipped him in the River Styx to render him invulnerable (though this story is not in Homer and not found before 1c. C.E.). Earlier Achilles' sinew, from Modern Latin chorda Achillis, coined 1693 by Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyden when dissecting his own amputated leg. Hence figurative use of heel of Achillies for "vulnerable spot" (1810).

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