Epic Heroes In The Iliad And Gilgamesh

In each literary and folk epic there are characters called epic heroes, epic heroes can be seen as superhuman because of their outstanding achievements but what makes the plot is that they are on a larger than life quest. Along the way there is major conflict, like fear, battles and bloodshed. Achilles from The Iliad written by Homer, Beowulf from Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel and Gilgamesh from Gilgamesh retold by Herbert Manson all are epic heroes and in some ways very similar like their bravery and god-like strength but in other ways they are different.
In order to be an epic hero the characters must be brave just as Beowulf was, just to prove how brave he was told his men to “leave your battle shields and your spears” (Beowulf line 130) as they approached the …show more content…
Gilgamesh and Beowulf both fought for fame and then what did Achilles fight for? That gets answered in the article Recursive Desire, Jeremy Downes says “In the Iliad where he is neither violently represented nor comfortably affianced the insatiable beast is victorious. Though Achilles knows full and well that his own death follows hard to his heel—so to speak—of Hektor’s, he kills him and wishes for more” (page 56). Achilles wanted to achieve personal revenge, on hector for killing his friend and didn’t care that he put his life endanger to exact it. The tragic flaws set Achilles apart because his physical achilles tendon was his weakness while Beowulf’s and Gilgamesh’s were inanimate; pride and fear. One broad aspect that remains the same in these three epics, Downes mentions that “An invader arrives to change the older one through combat” (55). This is completely true for each poem but how Beowulf and Gilgamesh fight their battles is different than Achilles. Beowulf fight Grendel with his men around and Gilgamesh slays Humbaba with his friend Enkidu, they both have company and Achilles goes at Hector all by