Compare And Contrast Beowulf And Achilles

Beowulf - Achilles and Hector Today, most heroes is movies are successful. Why does everyone watch the heroic movies? Movies are made in order to satisfy people’s urge, deviate from everyday life. In the movies, characters have supernatural power and experience unusual incidents that people cannot have; it gratifies their desire. As same as today, in the ancient entertainment, epic poem, has heroes that gratify their desire. The oldest surviving long epic poem in Old English, Beowulf and the most famous Greek epic poem, Iliad are representative heroic poems of the ancient time. Heroes of both poems, Achilles, Hector, and Beowulf live different lives, and modern day heroes and ancient day heroes have differences as well; however, they are all …show more content…
No one can interfere in his will. In the Iliad, Hector shows his braveness and fearlessness when he fights against inflamed Achilles. Although he lost the fierce fight, he does not beg for his life, all he wants from Achilles is returning of his corpse, “give my body to friends to carry home again, so Trojan men and Trojan women can do me honor with fitting rites of fire once I am dead” (180-182). Beginning of the fights of Beowulf and Hector is similar. They show their fearlessness in death against the powerful enemies. However, the ends are contrasting. In the story of Beowulf, As Beowulf says, he killed the Grendel with his hands only. As a result, he gains honor and treasures of the country. Hector shows his fearnessless in death against inflamed Achilles, but he had a tragic death. He begins his fight gloriously, but the end is a tragedy. Achilles abuses Hector’s body, dragging it around his dead companion’s tomb. The differences between heroes are not existed in their end only. Their personalities were quite different. Even Hector is the best general of the Troy, he is just a person, not a demigod like …show more content…
In 8th and the 11th century, Beowulf chooses his destiny and let God choose his fate. Today, none of the heroes have strong beliefs in god. For instance, spider man got the ability of spider since a mutant spider bites him. If the spider man were in the ancient world, people would say, god sent a spider down to the earth to provide the immortal power to man in order to save the world from villains. Strong belief of gods results everything connects with the gods. As every hero does, spider man fights to save his society with braveness. However, fighting for glory became old-fashioned story since every violence in any case is illegal; they must fight and hide their statuses. As a result of laws, all heroes must wear their own dress. The ancient epic heroes save their nation, but never try to hide their honor, history, and status. When Beowulf introduces himself, he introduces his father and praises his family’s glory, “We are Geats, men who follow Higlac. My father was a famous soldier, known for and wide as a leader of men. His name was Edgetho. His life lasted many winters; wise men all over the earth surely remember, him still” (173-739). Criteria of heroes are changed, but the plot of heroic story is not changed. In every story, there is a crisis and heroes are nearly die, but they overcome the crisis. When Beowulf fights against the Grendel’s mother, he nearly