Disagree

Homer’s Iliad portrays Achilles as the unmatched Greek warrior: tall, powerful, exceptionally handsome, swift-footed, with god-like radiance and strength. Later traditions and descriptions emphasize broad shoulders, a large chest, powerfully formed arms and legs, and overall masculine athleticism. 

You’re misrepresenting a disguise as gender identity. Achilles’ mother Thetis hid him on  Skyros dressed as a girl (Pyrrha) specifically to avoid his fated death in war. It was a reluctant, temporary ruse. He fathered a child there (Neoptolemus), showed immediate interest in weapons when Odysseus tested him, tore off the feminine clothes, and embraced his warrior destiny. 

The story highlights his true masculine nature breaking through deception, not gender ambiguity. Ancient Greeks viewed it as a clever plot device (cross-dressing to evade fate), not evidence that Achilles was “among women” by inclination or identity. He was a hyper-masculine hero whose brief concealment contrasted with his eagerness for kleos (glory) and battle.

Achilles is a male hero born male, raised as a male warrior (trained by Chiron), living as the pinnacle of Greek masculine virtue: strength, rage, honor, and martial dominance. A trans man (biologically female) playing him introduces a visible and performative mismatch with the character’s biology, physique, and cultural role. Ancient audiences and the myth itself treated sex as binary and tied to heroic function—heroes like Achilles embodied male excellence.

The “lore accurate” claim is a selective modern projection: it cherry-picks the disguise while ignoring the character’s overwhelming maleness, physical prowess, heterosexual exploits, and rejection of the feminine role. Myths had fluidity in some tales (e.g., Tiresias), but Achilles isn’t one of them. This isn’t faithful adaptation; it’s overlaying contemporary identity categories onto a Bronze Age warrior ethos where they don’t fit. Fidelity to source would prioritize an actor evoking the “swift-footed,” lion-like male destroyer described by Homer. 

Adaptations can reinterpret, but claiming this is “pretty lore accurate” inverts the myth’s actual emphasis on Achilles’ masculine heroism. The Skyros story proves the opposite: even disguised, his nature as a man and warrior could not be hidden.