English clergyman, writer, traveler, and father of Joseph Addison.

A poet and dramatist as well, Addison was the most popular of early eighteenth-century periodical essayist. He collaborated with Richard Steele on the Tatler (12 April 1709 to 2 January 1711), the Guardian (12 March to 1 October 1713), and especially the Spectator (1 March 1711 to 6 December 1712; second series, 18 June to 20 December 1714). He also conducted the Free-holder (23 December 1715 to 29 June 1716), the Whig Examiner (14 September to 12 October), and The Old Whig, which survived for only two numbers (19 March and 2 April 1719).

In Greek mythology and Homer's Illiad, a Greek hero of the Trojan War whose exceptional strength and valor made him almost unconquerable. Legend had it that his mother had dipped him in the River Styx, but inadvertently left one vulnerable spot, the heel by which she held him. He was killed by an arrow shot into this heel.

Friend, father-in-law, and successor of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Calaph of Islam.