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Historical scholarship
Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.
1884From the archives
Achilla— “without lips (?)”
One of these inexplicable names was borne by Ἀχιλλεύς (Achilleus), the prime glory of Homer and of the Trojan war. The late Greek traditions said that his first name had been Ligyron, or the whining, but that he was afterwards called Achilles, from Α privative and χέιλη (cheile), lip; because he was fed in his infancy on nothing but lions' hearts and bears' marrow. This legend, however, looks much as if the true meaning of the word had been forgotten, and this was a forgery…
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One of these inexplicable names was borne by Ἀχιλλεύς (Achilleus), the prime glory of Homer and of the Trojan war. The late Greek traditions said that his first name had been Ligyron, or the whining, but that he was afterwards called Achilles, from Α privative and χέιλη (cheile), lip; because he was fed in his infancy on nothing but lions' hearts and bears' marrow. This legend, however, looks much as if the true meaning of the word had been forgotten, and this was a forgery to account for it. However this may be, modern Greece and France alone repeat the name, and it is much disguised by the French pronunciation of Achille. A martyr in Dauphiné was called Achilles; and an Achilla appears, as a lady, early in the Visconti pedigree.
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