How Are Beowulf And Achilles Alike

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Compare/Contrast Essay Over the years, many stories have been written, spoken or sung about heroes of great strength 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 actions had greatly affected and changed the fates of those he came in contact with. Beowulf had repeatedly saved the Danes from great evils tormenting them. After finally slaying Grendel’s Mother, who was the second monster Beowulf had slain…show more content…
In the battle with Grendel, Beowulf ripped off the demon’s arm, showing his grand, godlike strength, “… He twisted in pain, / And the bleeding sinews deep in his shoulder / Snapped, muscle and bone split / and broke” (Beowulf 337-340). While fighting Hector, Achilles mortally wounded his nemesis with a single strike that seemed to be blessed by the gods themselves, “Conspicuous as the evening star that comes, / amid the first in heaven, at fall of night, / and stands most lovely in the west, so shone / in sunlight the fine-pointed spear / Achilles poised in his right hand, with deadly / aim at Hector, at the skin where most / it lay exposed” (Homer 154-160). Even though both had done different actions and performed different feats, they both properly portray the role of the epic hero: showing feats of such great strength was imperative for people to be held up to such a high standard as an epic hero, and the actions stated in the quotes shows fortifies this

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