character
Greek
Achilles
The greatest Greek warrior at Troy โ supremely capable, fatally proud.
Origin
Hero of Homer's Iliad. His sulking refusal to fight after a quarrel with Agamemnon nearly costs the Greeks the war; his return to battle, driven by grief over the death of Patroclus, ends in his own death from Paris's arrow.
Modern usage
Shorthand for a peerless figure whose pride or thin skin is also their undoing.
Tags
warrior
pride
tragedy