Lukas Wood
Miss Sachs
English 12
10 October 2014
Ancient Heroes Stories of heroes are very common in the Anglo Saxton time period and in ancient civilizations, especially Greece. There were two types of heroes in literature the tragic and the epic. Each type of hero has different attributes and characteristics that make them different from one another. The tragic hero has an overwhelming desire to accomplish some goal but will be limited by personal flaws, gods, or nature. The hero’s doom comes from either the hero’s tragic flaw or hamartia. At the end of a tragic hero’s story the hero either dies or has a great change in fortune. The hero will also realize something about human fate and often reveals a theme in the story. The epic hero has a tragic flaw as well but is normally super human like. An
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The epic hero would give his life for the code of honor and fights for a noble cause such as defending the defenseless. He is also normally widely liked and accepted by the people. Although the epic hero has many godlike characteristics he also has human desires such as a lust for power, wealth, love, and a family. There are heroes from ancient times, some are tragic and some are epic. The play of Oedipus is a perfect example of a tragic hero. The play written by Sophocles exemplifies that of a tragic hero because it is a story of a noble born man that has a tragic flaw. Oedipus’ tragic flaw is the he has an overwhelming desire to find the truth. He was prophesized to kill his father and bed his mother. When he first heard his prophecy he left his hometown of Corinth and fled to the far away city of Thebes. On the way where three cross roads met he killed a noble man that was trying to push him of the road. He did not think much of it and went on his way. When he got to Thebes there was a sphinx guarding the passage into the city and no one had ever solved its riddle but Oedipus did without falter. The sphinx killed itself and Oedipus became a hero of Thebes.
What is a hero? The book Mythology by Edith Hamilton has a lot of heroes and most of them have 2 things in common. The heroes are in their own ways superior whether it be strength, intelligence, and/or courage. The second thing they have in common is a quest that establishes their greatness and proving that they are good enough to be called heroes. The catch is that even though they may have the characteristics of a hero, not all of them are epic heroes.
The definition of an epic hero can be defined as one who is triumphant in some manner that reflects the idea of his/her culture. “Heroes have always dominated mythology, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, history, and literature. No culture seems to lack tales of human, superhuman, or god-like heroes who save the innocent from the wicked, conquer evil, and deliver the threatened and oppressed” (Shunnaq). Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali and The Odyssey can be compared and contrasted in different ways. Both of these literary pieces are epics that contain heroes who precisely mirror the values of their respective ethnicities. While some values displayed in the epics are similar to each other, there are also disagreeing values between the two pieces of literature. Based on the examples from Nian’s Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali and Homer’s The Odyssey, the similarities and differences can easily be identified by one.
An epic hero is someone who goes down in history as being brave, courageous, and obviously heroic. They don’t have to be asked to save the day, and often times, they aren’t even saving their own people. There are several epic poems that come to mind when thinking about European culture and where it came from. These stories are held as sacred to many different people, and will always be studied whenever the topic of government or culture comes up. In these poems, or stories, there is always a hero that the story is centered around, often times even named for. These heroes include Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, Socrates, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Arthur; there are certain things about these men that make them heroes.
A Greek epic hero is the main character of an epic poem that is typically strong and uses his or her strength to battle monsters throughout a long lasting journey. “The Odyssey” written by Homer is an epic poem about a captain who leads a group of soldiers back to their homeland of Ithaca. Odysseus is considered an epic hero because he travels to various lands, fights monsters, and the Gods interfere with the human world to make his journey more difficult.
An Epic Hero is a person who is a prominent figure in histories and legends. Epic heroes do not posses super powers, but rely on his or her own attributes to combat some sort of battle that a typical person could not accomplish. Such Epic Heroes are read about mostly in tall tales, myths, and legends, but they all own human traits that can relate to the average person. These human traits make it easy for people, such as the Greek people, to associate with the character. Inside Greek mythology qualities of braveness, determination, and decisiveness are prized. In Homers’ epic poem The Odyssey, Odysseus’ traits are perfectly aligned with the values of the Greek people.
What would you do if someone told you you would end up killing your father and marrying your mother when you grow up? You would do anything to keep that from happening, wouldn’t you? Oedipus did in Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Unfortunately, Oedipus fails in avoiding his fate. Faced with a choice between pursuing the truth which everyone tells him would lead to his destruction or accepting a life without knowing any better, Oedipus chooses self-knowledge over self-deception. This makes Oedipus a perfect example of a tragic hero. In Greek drama, a tragic hero is a protagonist of a noble birth who possesses a tragic flaw that leads to his down fall but shows the courage to accept responsibility for his own actions.
Through Aristotle’s specific definition of a tragic hero, it can be concluded that Oedipus is a tragic hero. Oedipus The King was written by a well-known tragic dramatist named Sophocles. This story is considered to be one of the greatest tragedies of all time. In fact, the Marjorie Barstow of the Classical Weekly says that it “fulfills the function of a tragedy, and arouses fear and pity in the highest degree” (Barstow). It is also very controversial because of the relationship that Oedipus has with his mother, although it was unknown at the time that they were related. The qualifications of a tragic hero, according to Aristotle, include coming from a royal family and falling from power due to actions that only the protagonist can take responsibility for. The main character must also have a tragic flaw, which is defined as a “weakness in character” (Gioia). There have been many protagonists in other plays that represent a tragic hero, but none exemplify Aristotle’s tragic hero traits quite as well as Oedipus does because of many reasons including his royal history, his tragic flaw, his hamartia, and his his fall from power.
Throughout history, there have always been heroes. Those strong-willed, brave individuals who perform courageous acts for fame and glory are prevalent in most cultures.. Societies have these heroes as standards of their cultures’ moral codes. Every society has their own definition of these codes are, so a unifying definition of hero can be hard to achieve. However, Philip Zimbardo says “Simply put, then, the key to heroism is a concern for other people in need—a concern to defend a moral cause, knowing there is a personal risk, done without expectation of reward.” With this basic definition, I will be examining various epic heroes I’ve studied throughout the course of my senior year for characteristics. From the copious amounts of studying, I’ve deduced that Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, Socrates, Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Arthur all have characteristics that make them heroic.
A tragic hero is one with a supreme pride, yet has an unfaltering sense of commitment and is a good man overall. A tragic hero has the capacity to suffer and, because of an error in judgment, will experience a dramatic transformation that evokes a profound pity. This is a tragic hero and based on this conception, Oedipus is an evident
This soon-to-be king solved the riddle of the Sphinx, which had been killing the young men of Thebes as they tried to leave. The people of Thebes respected Oedipus, for he had saved the city from the Sphinx, by answering this riddle. For the removal of this monster he was praised by the city of Thebes and married the newly widowed Queen, Jocasta. Jocastas husband had been murdered by a "group of robbers" (who was actually Oedipus).
Oedipus Rex qualifies as a tragedy. It fits all the characteristics as defined by Aristotle. The tragic hero of a play is a man of some social standing and personal reputation, but sufficiently like ourselves in terms of his weaknesses that we feel fear and pity when a tragic flaw, rather than an associate, causes his downfall. Oedipus is the tragic hero in this play for many reasons. Even though he does not know it, he fulfills the oracle's prophecy by killing his father, Laius, and then sleeping with his mother, Jocasta. His father was just a tragic mistake. Oedipus thought that the person he killed was just a random person that was harassing him.
A tragic heros is someone who faces adversity and has courage and they have similar characteristics throughout different literature. A hero often times experience a downfall, but confronts the situation in a way that causes them to be given the title of a tragic hero. Aristotle once stated about tragic heroes and recited “A man doesn’t become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” Aristotle also came up with six characteristics that all tragic heroes have. Romeo is a prime example of a tragic hero by the quick judgements he makes due to his love for Juliet. He decides to attempt suicide when he sees Juliet faking her death, this shows his character falls in love too fast and too hard. The way he loves Juliet is Romeo’s downfall
In literature, there are two types of heroes, epic and tragic. An epic hero reflects their society’s values, immortalized in the eyes of their people, and shows courage in the face of adverse situations. Achilles is an epic hero because he embodied the honor that was so highly regarded in Greek society, chose to die early in battle and be remembered gloriously rather than living a long anonymous life in his homeland of Pthia, and avenged Patroclus’s death.
The concept of tragic hero is very important in the construction of tragedy. It is the main cause of pity and fear. The tragic hero is a character between the two extremes; he is neither virtuous nor evil. At the same time, this character is better than the ordinary men or audience, he has some good qualities. Moreover, as a tragic hero, he is moving from happiness to misery by his downfall at the end. In fact, this downfall is caused by an error or a flaw in his character not by a vice or depravity. Another feature in the tragic hero is that he has good reputation and he is a man of prosperity. It can be said that Oedipus is a tragic hero because he has all the previous mentioned characteristics and the whole play is a classical application of this concept.
Oedipus is depicted as a “marionette in the hands of a daemonic power”(pg150), but like all tragic hero’s he fights and struggles against fate even when the odds are against him. His most tragic flaw is his morality, as he struggles between the good and the evil of his life. The good is that he was pitied by the Shepard who saved him from death as a baby. The evil is his fate, where he is to kill his father and marry his mother. His hubris or excessive pride and self-righteousness are the lead causes to his downfall. Oedipus is a tragic hero who suffers the consequences of his immoral actions, and must learn from these mistakes. This Aristotelian theory of tragedy exists today, as an example of what happens when men and women that fall from high positions politically and socially.