Similarities Between Beowulf And Hercules

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Beowulf has established himself as one of the most fierce and bloodthirsty warriors in the entire world, there is no doubt about that. His strength matches that of a humanoid machine, his confidence has the ability to intimidate any sane person, and his fighting experience exceeds any other warrior in the known world. He has single handedly tore off the arm of a horrible monster that was terrorizing the Danes and left the demon to die. It is no question that Beowulf is an outstanding epic hero. However, does he share the same stage as the ancient Greek legend, Hercules? Beowulf, a geatish warrior, and Hercules, a greek demigod from the God of Zeus, share a lot of physical and personality traits. Hercules has been described as “the strongest …show more content…

Both heroes are anything but soft-spoken when referring to all of their adventures they have undertaken or all the monsters they have slain. Beowulf boasts to his …show more content…

An incredible example of Hercules’s intelligence is when Eurystheus, a Greek king, challenged the noble hero to capture Hades’s three-headed dog, Kerberos. Hercules made the journey all the way down to the underworld and “used his sly tongue” to convince the god of the underworld to let him take his monstrous pet back up to the surface world. Beowulf defeated Grendel with his bare hands, grendel’s mother with an ancient sword, and the dragon with a strike from Wiglaf and a stab with his small knife. We never see Beowulf solving any problems with the use of his mind; he is a man of brute force and nothing more. Some would argue that a hero does not need to have brains if he has the muscle to get the job done, but a hero who is capable of thinking on his feet to stay alive as well as having immense strength is a much more viable

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