(Achilles mistreatment of Hector's corpse from Homer's Iliad.)
In Homer's The Illiad, Achilles was a war hero considered to be as handsome and venerable as Troy. In the end of the story, it is his hubris that leads him to his demise and he is killed by taking an arrow to his heel. Because, Achilles is emblematic of the purest manifestation of the strength and ego of man, the way that he was killed has become emblematic of the weakness of man,
hence; Achilles heel
This story is quite similar to the Greek stories of Antigone and of Prometheus (which has been used as an alternative title for Frankenstein), in which our Byronic heroes are led by their attempts to defy nature, into self- destruction.