Zeno’s Paradox: When Achilles, Greece’s Fastest Hero, Lost to a Tortoise

Zeno’s Paradox: When Achilles, Greece’s Fastest Hero, Lost to a Tortoise

Triumphant Achilles dragging Hector’s body around Troy, from a panoramic fresco of the Achilleion. Credit: Franz Matsch / Public Domain He was the swift-footed Achilles, the greatest warrior of the Trojan War, a semi-divine hero whose very name was synonymous with speed and power. And yet, for centuries, the smart brilliance of an ancient Greek philosopher has left him perpetually—and quite comically—stuck behind a tortoise. Zeno’s paradox prese…