Eli Klingel Comparison of Beowulf and The Iliad In The Iliad by Homer and the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, both the epic heroes of the story embark on a great quest that fulfills the values of their respective cultures. Achilles in the Iliad and Beowulf. These characters share similar aspects as do the stories. There are also certain personality traits that make these characters very different. They have the same end goal with different motivations. Both characters, Achilles and Beowulf, want to become
Achilles and Beowulf comparison and contrast essay An epic hero is someone who will always be remembered. Beowulf, written by an unknown author tells the story of a man fighting to defend his group of people. The Illiad written by Homer, tells the story of a man who simply wants revenge. The story Beowulf takes place in the Dark Ages, this was a time of violence and it was a difficult time period to live in. The Illiad related to the Trojan War and a conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans. In
many tribes. Among these stories are Beowulf, whose author is unkown, and the Iliad, which was written by Homer. Both stories present heroes of epic proportion, but in different ways. While both were epic heroes, both had differing characteristics, coming from the fact that the two had different cultural backgrounds, that deemed them as such, a couple differences were: Beowulf had changed the fates of people around him multiple times in his life, while Achilles was the descendent of a goddess. Beowulf’s
Comparison of Epic Heroes Heroes are always the best in their story but have you ever tried to compare two great heroes? Take Beowulf and Achilles for example. Beowulf was written by an anonymous person unfortunately. It was written around 750s. It was about a man named Beowulf who was a mighty hero who went and took on a mighty evil called Grendel and Grendel’s mother. The Iliad was written by Homer around 700 B.C. It was about a man who was half human half god named Achilles who was a mighty warrior
ways. From Beowulf to Achilles, to the modern superhero, people view heroes with multiple contrasting viewpoints. Still there are quite a few similarities in what makes a modern hero a “hero”. What makes the universal definition of a hero though would have to be that it is someone who has had to have done something meaningful, that is concerned with the well-being of others, and puts themselves at some sort of risk. By these traits, a modern audience should take into consideration if Beowulf and Achilles
The story of Beowulf is a tale of compelling forces in a Scandinavian culture that ultimately determined an ideal hero. Throughout literary works in history there have been examples of good and bad epic heroes. Faulkner stated, “The Homeric hero despises death, he recognizes this as a boundary that creates heroic possibilities” (Falkner, 29) Not this alone makes an epic hero that will soon be revealed. Beowulf will be compared and contrasted against good as well as bad examples of epic heroes through