Achilles statue & 588 Achilles Asteroid - Wellington Monument (London, UK)
N 51° 30.267 W 000° 09.162
30U E 697601 N 5709768
Asteroid 588 bears name of the Greek mythologic hero Achilles. The given coordinates mark the Achilles statue, a key part of monument devoted to Arthur Wellesley, the 1st duke of Wellington, located in south-eastern corner of Hyde Park.
Waymark Code: WMMMCD
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/08/2014
Views: 8
Asteroid 588 bears name of the Greek mythologic hero Achilles. The given coordinates mark the Achilles statue, a key part of monument devoted to Arthur Wellesley, the 1st duke of Wellington, located in south-eastern corner of Hyde Park.
The Wellington Monument unveiled in 1822, work of British sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, shows why Westmacott was so highly regarded. Monument consists of a bronze nude Achilles, with cloak draped over his arm, his armour beside him. He carries a leaf-shaped short sword, and holds aloft a shield. The whole effect is heroic, and the statue is nicely elevated on a pediment of plain Dartmoor granite blocks in two colours.
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. His mother was the nymph Thetis, and his father, Peleus, was the king of the Myrmidons. Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Because of his death from a small wound in the heel, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's point of weakness. [wiki]