Achilles

"Homeric Greeks, for example, had the concept of metis, which meant “strategy,” and also had the connotation of cunning, deception, concealment, ambush and surprise.92 The complement to metis is bie, which essentially means “violent force.” Both were necessary in battle, but it was Odysseus’s metis that finally defeated Troy where Achilles’s bie had failed."

"Therefore it is necessary for a prince to know well how to use the beast and the man. This role was taught covertly to princes by ancient writers, who wrote that Achilles, and many other ancient princes, were given to Chiron the centaur to be raised, so that he would look after them with his discipline. To have as teacher a half-beast, half-man means nothing other than that a prince needs to know how to use both natures; and the one without the other is not lasting. Thus, since a prince is compelled of necessity to know well how to use the beast, he should pick the fox and the lion,2 because the lion does not defend itself from snares and the fox does not defend itself from wolves. So one needs to be a fox to recognize snares and a lion to frighten the wolves. Those who stay simply with the lion do not understand this. A prudent lord, therefore, cannot observe faith, nor should he, when such observance turns…"

"Alexander the Great imitated Achilles; Caesar, Alexander; Scipio, Cyrus. And whoever reads the life of Cyrus written by Xenophon5"