Beowulf And Achilles Comparison

The first way in which both characters are similar is in the fact that they both travel from great distances to take part in a battle against some evil. In the medieval Germanic epic, Beowulf leaves his people the Geats of Scandinavia to help Hrothgar, the king of the Danish people, to kill Grendel, a monster who attacks the king's hall and devours the king's men. Beowulf slays Grendel but then must challenge Grendel's mother in order to restore Hrothgar's kingdom to safety. Likewise, Achilles joins the other Greeks and travels to Troy to do battle against Paris, Hector and the other Trojans for having abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus. Achilles performs many heroic deeds on the battleground and adds renown to his name among the Greeks.

Beowulf can be compared to Marvel universe’s Thor. Marvel has revived and modernized the Norse god, Thor, for 21st century audiences. Thor and Beowulf both demonstrate incredible physical strength in battle against villains. In the section “The Battle with Grendel” Beowulf

Hector’s pride caused him to be clouded with negative thoughts in his quest for revenge as he brutally slaughtered the Trojans and excessively tortured Hector. Nevertheless, Priam’s sorrow causes Achilles to empathize since he could imagine what it would be like if his father had to go through a similar situation like Priam. This change of heart causes Achilles to forgo hatred in exchange for compassion. Although Achilles shows flaws in his character, his heroism even in the brink of death along with this transformative change as a person demonstrates the cultural expectations of strong leadership in terms of taking physical and emotional qualities into strong consideration.

Beowulf and Achilles were both good warriors and won many battles. They were also both leaders of their kingdoms or tribes. They were both half man and half god so they were very strong. Achilles liked to show off and get more praise for what he did but Beowulf was more humble than Achilles. Achilles was driven by his emotions and did what his mind told him to do before thinking about it first. Both of them would take their enemy's body or a body part and hang it up or display it as a trophy for winning the battle.

Hector feels as though it is his job to kill Achilles and to protect his

Although this quote is very gory, it shows his taste for fighting and how badly he wants to be great. When Achilles was young he was given the choice from his Mother, Thetis Goddess of the Sea, he could either be a great warrior, have a ton of glory, be remembered for ever but would have to die young, or Achilles could live a normal life, not be a great warrior, or be remembered, but he would live to a ripe old age. This is

Both of Beowulf in Anglo-Saxon literature and Achilles in The Iliad have a number of parallels in the way that they are presented as being the epic heroes and the leading characters with almost supernatural strength and the classical heroic traits. Although the similarities are easy to identify, the differences are also show up in the stories. While the the story of Beowulf solely portrays the heroic and positive traits of Beowulf, the story regarding to Achilles tend to reveal both two opposite clues that circle around him.

One of the similarities within this story is that both heros from the stories take a prize from their enemies when they win their battles. Beowulf and Achilles both take body parts from their enemies and in Achilles case the whole body of his enemy as their prizes. As lines 357 and 358 in “Beowulf” state, “From the rafters where Beowulf had hung it, was the monster’s Arm, claw and shoulder and all” (Allen 53). Beowulf also takes the head of his enemy later in the book when he kills his enemies mother. This point is shown also later in the story, lines 568 through 573 says, “The monsters’ hall was full of Rich treasures, but all that Beowulf took Was Grendel’s head and the hilt of the giants’ Jeweled sword; the rest of that ring-marked Blade had dissolved in Grendel’s steaming Blood, boiling even after his death” (Allen 60). This taking of the body as a prize is also evident in “The Iliad” when Achilles takes Hector’s body and ties it to his chariot and drags his dead body through town. Lines 246 through 253 in “The Iliad” state, “Indeed, he had in mind for Hector’s body outrage and shame. Behind both feet he pierced the tendons, heel to ankle. Rawhide cords he drew through both and lashed them to his chariot, letting the man’s head trail. Stepping aboard, bearing the great trophy of the arms, he shook the reins, and whipped the team ahead into a willing run” (“The Iliad” 86). The taking of the body of their enemies is one of the similarities between these two war heroes and in these two stories.

He simply wants to kill Hector and is inflamed with rage. Achilles transforms his anger into success in battle, just as Gilgamesh does. Yet Achilles settles for a superficial victory in killing Hector swiftly and then defiling the corpse as the ultimate sign of dishonor and disrespect. With the gods’ help and intervention, Achilles learns that his unjust behavior towards Hector’s body is not befitting of a true hero. It takes an earnest plea from Priam to move Achilles, to make him human once again and able to release his now unnecessary rage; butchering Hector’s body is not going to bring back Patroclus any more than Gilgamesh can bring back Enkidu with the flower of

Achilles has been tipped over the edge by the blame he feels for failing his responsibilities and completely loses his grip on reality. Achilles no longer adheres to the moral and social standards that were previously so important to him in his quest for personal glory. The old values Achilles held are no longer relevant and he has lost all sense of right versus wrong. Achilles atrocious acts are symbolic of the war raging inside his mind. In his vengeful slaying of the Trojans he is metaphorically trying to kill himself over and over again. At this point Achilles is completely obsessed on obtaining revenge by killing Hector and absolutely nothing will stop him achieving this aim. Achilles is now in a psychological traumatic state of mind.

Though the jaunt was difficult, Beowulf was relentless in his pursuit. When he reached Grendel’s mother, the battle was long and hard, but the hero refused to surrender. He fought until the disconcerted mother gave up and died. As a token of his feat, Beowulf took a jewel-studded sword from the cave. To further celebrate his heroic feat, he decapitated Grendel and kept his head as a souvenir of his triumph.

Achilles is showing revenge. Heroism can sometimes be related to revenge, because it leads to the expression of more defined heroic qualities in people. We often see them more defined, because this drive leads to more strength and wisdom. We see all of the mercy and humanity leaves the soul. This latest stage of Achilles' resentment devours the hero in a paroxysm of self-destructiveness. His fiery fury plummets him to the depths of brutality, as he begins to view the enemy as the ultimate Other, to be hated with such an intensity that Achilles can even bring himself to express that most ghastly of desires, to eat the flesh of Hector, the man he is about to kill.Achilles doesn’t just want to kill Hector, but he also wants to humiliate his body

It is not uncommon for the gods to make appearances in the Iliad, and Achilles is no exception. He receives help from the supernatural on multiple occasions, much like an epic hero would. The most significant divine intervention Achilles received was by Athena, the goddess of wisdom. “Now let’s get tough and fight and not spare Any spears. Either Achilles kills us both…Or he goes down with your spear in his guts,” Athena said to Hector, pretending to be Deiphobus which deceives Hector into fighting Achilles (Puchner Book XXII, 270-272). There is no arguing whether or not Achilles received help from the gods, as he did on multiple occasions. Athena even helps him again in his battle versus Hector by returning his spear after a missed throw. It is the actions like these that craft Achilles into an epic hero, he isn’t asking for the help, but he receives it anyways because it is his destiny to become the epic hero. At points such as these, it seems as if mortal men don’t have much control over their destiny and that the gods are manipulating the outcomes. This can also be seen when Athena prevents Achilles from attack Agamemnon.

Achilles weakness is something special; it is his pride, wrath, and grief. Achilles pride keeps him from accepting apologies from Agamemnon for him taking Achilles’ slave. Achilles could have ended the war without him dying if he would joined Agamemnon. Achilles’ grief is also important since the Greeks’ greatest warrior off the battlefield; the tide began to turn in favor of the Trojans. The Greeks lost one battle after another. Until Achilles in grief and pride sent Patroclus in his place to fight. Patroclus dies and Achilles goes from grief to wrath and his anger is unquenchable. Achilles gets a new set of armor from Thetis and Achilles set out with a new fresh start. In the process of his wrath he kills an old slave Achilees use too have that escaped since he was a Trojan. Achilles killed Trojans and through them in the river Xanthus.("The LitCharts Study Guide to The Iliad.") Achilles then goes after Hector in blind rage even though Achilles knows Hector's death means Achilles death will happen shortly after Hector dies. Achilles slaughter Hector without mercy and allows all Achilles’s men to stab Hector. Achilles’s still not satisfied he ties Hector to a chariot and drives him around the wall naked so everyone to see. Hector weakness is not completely his

Within the poem, it becomes evident that Achilles is not a man of kindness. He is quite the opposite; Achilles is ruthless, selfish, and vain. He rages on and wishes for the Achaean army to be severely weakened to the point that Agamemnon begs for his return to claim victory. In the end of the book, Achilles successfully kills Hector, the protector of Troy. While Achilles is glorified for his act, the praise dies down within the readers when he humiliates the body. He drags it around the corpse of Patroclus, refusing to give Hector the proper funeral rites. This act angers many of the deathless gods and goddesses. Even with these flaws, Achilles possesses good characteristics. His kindness towards Briseis and Patroclus cannot be ignored. While these moments are rare, it becomes clear that Achilles has a softer, more human side. Another reason to like him is