It is in my opinion that the epic hero of the past shares the same qualities of the heroes of the present. The purpose of this critical paper is to analyze the qualities and attributes of an epic hero using the literary works of the Iliad and the Odysseus and comparing it to the modern day hero of Batman. Therefore, I believe that the epic hero of the past is really no different from our present day heroes. This is what I hope to present to you in this paper. First. I will begin with the Iliad. However, I must digress and explain what an epic hero is. According to a website that I found, an epic hero is an important figure from a history or legend. The hero is usually favored by or even partially descended from deities (retrieve from
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According to the book, The Iliad was an epic poem over the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Achilles is the son of the Greek god Zeus (Norton Anthropology of World Literature). Achilles heroic like attributes comes through when he has to fight his nemesis, Hector. According to one source, Achilles is referred to in the poem as a hero during a particular fight. The passage is “a hero injured by his general and animated with a noble resentment, retires to his tent and his troops from the war, and for a season withdraws himself and his troops from the war, the hero according to the proud obstinacy of his character, persist in his animosity; the army again is defeated and on the verge of destruction (classics.mit.edu/Homer/Iliad). Despite Achilles defeat, he was a hero figure because he was a brave and noble character who was admired for his great achievement during the Greek and Trojan War where he fought against his arch rival Hector. This is what made Achilles a true epic hero of the poem. The next literary work which I will analyze as far as a hero is a concern is the work of Homer’s the Odysseus. The Odysseus is an epic poem which tells of the hero Odysseus according to the …show more content…
He too would fall in love. Superman love interest would be a lady by the name of Miss Lois Lane. Thus, again if would look beyond just this Superman comparison, the other heroes of today would not be much different than those epic heroes of ancient times. All the heroes are recurring characters who are smart as well as brave. The stories of the heroes are fantastic exploits of a hero in the face of what appear to be insurmountable obstacles or odds. However, despite the insurmountable obstacles, the epic and modern day hero prevails. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate some of the points that I hopefully made throughout this paper. The point was that I took two literary pieces of the past which we studied and tried to analyze them and then compare them to the present. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to look at the characteristics as well as the attributes of Achilles in the Iliad and Odysseus in the Odysseus. After careful analysis, one can only conclude that the epic hero of the past is basically no different that the hero of a modern day because they all share the same basic qualities and
According to the book, The Iliad was an epic poem over the war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Achilles is the son of the Greek god Zeus (Norton Anthropology of World Literature). Achilles heroic like attributes comes through when he has to fight his nemesis, Hector. According to one source, Achilles is referred to in the poem as a hero during a particular fight. The passage is “a hero injured by his general and animated with a noble resentment, retires to his tent and his troops from the war, and for a season withdraws himself and his troops from the war, the hero according to the proud obstinacy of his character, persist in his animosity; the army again is defeated and on the verge of destruction (classics.mit.edu/Homer/Iliad). Despite Achilles defeat, he was a hero figure because he was a brave and noble character who was admired for his great achievement during the Greek and Trojan War where he fought against his arch rival Hector. This is what made Achilles a true epic hero of the poem. The next literary work which I will analyze as far as a hero is a concern is the work of Homer’s the Odysseus. The Odysseus is an epic poem which tells of the hero Odysseus according to the …show more content…
He too would fall in love. Superman love interest would be a lady by the name of Miss Lois Lane. Thus, again if would look beyond just this Superman comparison, the other heroes of today would not be much different than those epic heroes of ancient times. All the heroes are recurring characters who are smart as well as brave. The stories of the heroes are fantastic exploits of a hero in the face of what appear to be insurmountable obstacles or odds. However, despite the insurmountable obstacles, the epic and modern day hero prevails. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate some of the points that I hopefully made throughout this paper. The point was that I took two literary pieces of the past which we studied and tried to analyze them and then compare them to the present. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to look at the characteristics as well as the attributes of Achilles in the Iliad and Odysseus in the Odysseus. After careful analysis, one can only conclude that the epic hero of the past is basically no different that the hero of a modern day because they all share the same basic qualities and