text: In some accounts, Achilles' original name was "Ligyron" and he was later named Achilles by his tutor Chiron.According to Homer, Achilles grew up in Phthia with his childhood companion Patroclus.Homer further writes that Achilles taught Patroclus what he himself had been taught by Chiron, including the medical arts.Thetis foretold that her son's fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long but uneventful life in obscurity.Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan War.According to Photius, the sixth book of the New History by Ptolemy Hephaestion reported that Thetis burned in a secret place the children she had by Peleus.When she had Achilles, Peleus noticed, tore him from the flames with only a burnt foot, and confided him to the centaur Chiron.Later Chiron exhumed the body of the Damysus, who was the fastest of all the giants, removed the ankle, and incorporated it into Achilles' burnt foot.Physical description In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Achilles was described having "...a large chest, a fine mouth, and powerfully formed arms and legs.His head was covered with long wavy chestnut-colored hair.Though mild in manner, he was very fierce in battle.His face showed the joy of a man richly endowed." Homer described Achilles, along with numerous other characters, as being blond.