TỰ ĐIỂN CÁC CÁCH NÓI ẨN DỤ (Webster's Dictionary Of Allusions)

Achilles` Heel /əkɪl.izhil / A vulnerable point.
[Gót Chân A-shin]
In Greek mythology, the hero Achilles was invulnerable to mortal wounds because his mother, Thetis, had dipped him as an infant into the magical waters of the River STYX, which flows around Hades, the underworld. But she held baby Achilles by the heel, and, inevitably, in the war against Troy, Achilles was killed by an arrow which struck him in that one vulnerable spot.
Achilles also gave us his tendon, which joins the calf muscle to the heel bone, and the Achilles reflex, prompted by a sharp tap on the Achilles tendon.
The term in use, by Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, commander of U.S. forces in Bosnia, quoted by Rick Atkinson in the Washington Post, April 14, 1996:
- If my Achilles` heel is the low tolerance of the American people for casualties, then I have to recognize that my success or failure in this mission is directly affected by that.
Another example, from Peter H. Lewis in the New York Times, March 21, 1989:
- The key to a fax machine`s power, and also its Achilles` heel, is that it works over regular telephone lines. Any boor with a fax machine and your phone number can deluge you with unwanted documents.
And from Rick Wartzman, the Wall Street Journal, July 24, 1989:
- Some think it`s the DC-10`s Achilles` heel: a cluster of hydraulic lines that, if cut, can send the plane plummeting.