L15a2. Not fully tempered. .27.29.-.31.
The human body is hardened (in a furnace, etc.) to make it invulnerable, but one place remains unprotected.
Ancient Greece, Kabardians, Ossetians, Karachays and Balkars, Svans, Burishes, Lithuanians.
The Balkans. Ancient Greece [“Argonautica” by Apollonius of Rhodes (3rd century BC): “Boundless sadness immediately struck him {Peleus}; not once / He {Thetis} saw her since she left the bed / And the dwelling of Peleus, angry for the infant Achilles. / For she burned her son’s mortal flesh in the midnight hours / In a fiery flame tirelessly, and during the day rubbed / His tender body with ambrosia, trying to make it immortal / And protect it forever from vile old age. / But one day Peleus, rising from his bed, noticed how his dear / Son was spinning in the bright flame. He, a foolish man, could not restrain / His loud cry at the sight. / Hearing his voice, she picked up the child, / Threw him, shedding tears, to the ground. / She herself, like the wind, / Like a dream, immediately disappeared from the house in anger. / She plunged into the depths of the sea and did not return” (translated by N.A. Chistyakova)]: Apoll. Rhod. IV. 866-879; [“Achilleid” by Publius Papinius Statius (1st century); Thetis about Achilles, addressing Chiron: “<...> and often I think – oh horror! – to carry the child to Tartarus / The abyss, to wash him again in the springs of the Styx”; Thetis, addressing Achilles: “<...> If / I have known dry land, nymph, and called a mortal husband / For your sake, if I have protected my son with the harsh moisture of the Styx / Pity, not all! – then accept for a while / These reliable clothes – they will not touch the soul” (translated under the general editorship of A.V. Podosinov)]: Stat. Achill. I. 133-134, 267-271; [Vatican and Sabbaite Epitomes to the "Mythological Library" of Pseudo-Apollodorus, the first of which was possibly compiled by Tzetzes (12th century): "Memnon, the son of Typhon and Eos, came to Troy with a large army of Ethiopians to take part in the battle against the Hellenes. He killed many of the Hellenes, including Antilochus, but he himself died at the hand of Achilles. Pursuing the Trojans, Achilles was struck in the ankle by an arrow from Alexander and Apollo at the Scaean Gate. The battle began over the body of Achilles: Aeans killed Glaucus and let Achilles' weapons be carried to the ships, and he himself picked up the body and carried it out of the battle, while Odysseus fought off the onslaught of the enemy. The death of Achilles plunged the whole army into despondency” (translated by V.G. Borukhovich)]: Apollod. Epit. V. 3; [“Myths” attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus, who lived at the turn of the eras, but most likely dating from the 1st-2nd centuries: “When, after the funeral of Hector, Achilles wandered around the Trojan walls and said that he alone would take Troy, the angry Apollo, taking, as they say, the form of Alexander Paris, struck him with an arrow in the ankle, which was mortal, and killed him” (translated by D.O. Torshilov)]: Hyg. Fab. 107; ["The First Vatican Mythograph" (compiled at the turn of the 1st-2nd millennium by an unknown medieval compiler): "Achilles, immersed by his mother in the waters of the Styx swamp, became invulnerable in his entire body, except for the part by which he was held. When he decided to meet Polyxena in the temple, whom he loved, he was struck down by Paris, who was hiding in ambush behind a statue. From this they invented that Paris released an arrow directed by Apollo" (taken from Serv. Aen. VI. 57; trans. V.N. Yarkho)]: I Myth. Vat. I. 36; Ancient Greece["Mythological Library" by Pseudo-Apollodorus (1st-2nd centuries): "Pluto, having fallen in love with Persephone, secretly abducted her with the help of Zeus. Demeter wandered night and day throughout the earth with lamps, searching for her. Having learned from the Hermioneans that Pluto had abducted her, she left heaven, angry with the gods, and, having taken the form of a mortal woman, came to Eleusis. At first she sat down by a rock, called after this Agelastos, near the well of Callichora, then came to Celeus, who was then reigning in Eleusis. <…> Celeus' wife Metanira had a child, and Demeter began to nurse him. Wishing to make the boy immortal, the goddess laid the child in the fire at night and thus destroyed the mortal parts of the body, but since Demophon (such was the name of the child) grew with incredible speed, Metanira waylaid the goddess and saw what she was doing. Seizing the child placed in the fire, Metanira screamed loudly, and because of this the child perished, destroyed by fire: Demeter revealed her divine essence. For the eldest of Metanira's sons, Triptolemus, she made a chariot to which she harnessed winged dragons, and gave grains of wheat, with which Triptolemus, rising to heaven, sowed the whole earth. <…> Since Zeus ordered Pluto to return Kore to earth, Pluto gave her a pomegranate seed to eat, so that she would not remain with her mother for a long time. Kore, not suspecting what could happen from this, swallowed it. Ascalaphus, son of Acheron and Gorgira, testified against Kore, and Demeter covered him in Hades with a heavy stone; but Persephone was forced to remain with Pluto for a third of each year, and spent the rest of the time among the gods” (trans. V.G. Borukhovich)]: Apollod. Bibl. I. 5.
Caucasus – Asia Minor. Kabardians [Satanei was rinsing laundry; a shepherd came out on the other bank; they were overcome with passion; when S. rose from the stone she had sat on, the shepherd told her to take the stone with her; the stone began to grow in the house, she left it in the hearth for 9 months and 9 days; S. brought Tlepsh, he split the stone, took out the burning child, grabbed him with tongs and dipped him in water 7 times; the water boiled each time; the body of Sosruko ("son of the stone") became hardened, except for the thighs, where the tongs were pressed to the body; S. grew up, the children were afraid of him, but he could not pull Tlepsh's anvil out of the ground, and he told him to continue sitting by the hearth and gnawing flint; the third time S. pulled the anvil out of the seventh bottom of the earth]: Andreev-Krivich 1957: 45-50; Kabardians : Alieva et al. 1974, #1 [Satanei-guasha was washing, the shepherd Sosom saw her from the other bank of the river, his semen hit the stone next to S.; she brought the stone home, from it Sosruko with a steel body was born; when the blacksmith Tlepsh was tempering him, he held his knees with tongs, they remained vulnerable], 2 [Satanei was washing by the river, the shepherd Shokara splashed semen at her from the other bank, it hit the stone; S. brought it home; after 11 months it boiled; the blacksmith Tlepsh took the boy Sosruko out of it; when he was tempering him, he held his shins with tongs], 3 [Satanei brought the stone, after 9 months Sosruko was born from it; Tlepsh grabbed him by the thighs with pincers and hardened him, made him weapons and armor]: 189, 189-190, 190-192; Kabardians [approximately as in Aliyev et al. 1974; the ends of the knees, grabbed by Tlepsh's pincers, remained normal flesh]: Talpa 1936: 14-15; Ossetians(southern) {apparently, like the Karachays} [Gumir makes a raid, drives the Narts into captivity; Sozyrko frees the captives, smashes G.'s village, cuts off his head; G. manages to send to Balsag with a request to send his wheel; S. asks Oak, Hazel, Lipa, Khmel to stop the wheel; Oak and Hazel refuse, because S. broke their branches into arrows; S. orders the pigs to feed on acorns, and Hazel to be crooked, good for an axe handle; Lipa says that she is powerless, S. orders her to be barren; Khmel holds the wheel, S. rewards him - he will be a drunken wanderer; having knocked down the wheel, S. orders him to cut off B.'s legs; Syrdon, taking the form of an old man, an old woman, a girl, advises only to cut off B.'s ring finger; After this B. sends the wheel to Kurdalagon to be tempered again, and then cuts off S.'s legs, because he has a steel body, but his knees remain untempered; the wheel cuts off S.'s legs; Syrdon begs S. for a horse to tell the sleds what happened, and he himself drives the horse, mocking S.; the Raven refuses to peck S., because he always provided him with food; S. rewards the Raven, he will always be full; the same Wolf (will be brave), the Fox (an expensive skin), the Hedgehog (gives his whiskers for his bristles), the Owl (will see at night); the Swallow flies to the sleds with lime, Syrdon interprets her words as if S. will return with prey; he tells Sozyrko that the Narts will bury him in a dunghill, cover him with the skin of a snake and a frog; [the Narts ceremoniously bury S., Batradz promises to take revenge]: Abaev et al. 1957: 331-347; Karachays , Balkars [the Narts suggest that Sosruk stop and push back a huge wheel rolling down the mountain; he does this with his forehead, hand, chest; on the way home he picks up a gold ring; when S. was being tempered, the blacksmiths held him by the knees with pliers, they are not made of damask steel; his mother said that the wheel would cut off his legs; the ring disappeared, it was a witch, she overheard Satanay’s words; the wheel cut off S.’s legs; the Eagle refused to fly to call Satanay (S. did not leave him any killed game), the Hare is afraid; the Dove brought Satanay, she cured S.; later S. became a granite rock]: Lipkin 1973: 77-80; Svans [father brought Sosrukv to Solom (=Solomon in the role of the divine blacksmith), he hardened his body, except for the knees; in order to kill Sosrukv, the Narts offered him to put his head, shoulder blade, side under the millstone; Sosrukv is unharmed, killed many Narts with the millstone; they asked to put their knees under, the millstone broke them; Sosrukv successively asks the coming animals to drink his blood; the Wolf refuses (My strength will pass into your neck!), the Raven silt; Sosrukv successively asks the coming animals to drink his blood; The wolf refuses (My strength will go into your neck!), drinks (You will hatch the chicks backwards and run, so that they do not tear you apart!), the quail refuses (You will fly up noisily, so that everyone will be scared!); over time, the first son became weaker and weaker, was named Panchu, and the second – stronger and stronger, was named Bumliftan]: Dzidziguri 1973, No. 9: 84-85.
Iran - Central Asia. Burishi [an episode from the Geseriad; a woman put a bowl under her, rain fell into it, she drank the water and became pregnant; after 24 months the child from the womb commands her to give birth where ibexes give birth; she goes to a mountain, falls asleep; he commands her to go where fish give birth; the same; then horses; cows; finally, he commands her to return home; she gave birth to him, then gave birth to a second, closed her eyes, and, having given birth, saw that the first had put the second in his mouth; she snatched the second; the first: now it is your fault that his armpits have remained unhardened, and the rest of his body is like iron; (Bymliftan grew up, became a warrior, and was killed when he raised his hands to embrace a rock and drink from the water flowing from it, p. 89, 81)]: Lorimer 1987: 60-61.
Baltoscandia. Lithuanians [a peasant's eldest son is smart, but his youngest is a fool (lit. "doesn't understand"); every midnight the peasant is awakened by the crow of a rooster coming from under the floor; the eldest son watches; a fiery red rooster appears, crows, and flies away through the roof; when it is the fool's turn, he gives the rooster peas soaked in vodka; the rooster fell asleep, the lad brought it to his father and brother; they decided to kill the rooster, but the fool prevented it and did it; the rooster woke up and flew through the wall; the fool's father chased him away; a rooster came towards him; cut off a piece of his own flesh and told the lad to eat it; the lad felt incredible strength; the rooster warned that the lad should no longer drink vodka: one sip was enough for all the strength to go away; the lad makes himself a huge club; hires himself out to different masters, easily does unimaginably hard work, gets money, but each time gives it to a young tramp he meets; together they come to a city where a 12-headed dragon has kidnapped the princess; the guy goes to free her, and meets a three-headed dragon; in place of each severed head a new one grows, but the companion cauterizes the necks; then behind an iron wall there is a 6-headed dragon (ditto); behind a golden wall there is a 9-headed (ditto); in a golden castle there is a 12-headed (ditto); the guy washed himself in the dragon's blood and became covered with a horny crust, and only his eyes remained vulnerable; the king gave the guy his daughter and the throne; the new king sent for his father and brother, but it turned out that they had again caught the fiery rooster to kill him, but the rooster destroyed them themselves; the wife remained childless and died; he took another, but she did not love him; brought and hid the king of enemies and began to give her husband wine to drink and ask where his strength lay; "In his beard"; cut off his beard; persuaded him not to be angry, gave him wine again; "I will weaken if I wash with hot water"; washed (the same); "I am not vulnerable, but my eyes are vulnerable"; the wife plunged a knife into his eye; before she plunged it into the second, the king grabbed a sabre and swung it, destroying the castle; he, his wife, friends and enemies perished under the ruins]: Medalje 1889: 28-34.