Beowulf Vs. Achilles

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Beowulf vs. Achilles Compare-Contrast Essay

What makes a hero a hero? Bravery, courage, strength, and honor, all of these traits would make a perfect hero. But, all of these traits will be needed by a hero to get through the day much like anybody else. In this essay we’ll be comparing Homer’s “The Iliad” and “Beowulf,” which both pieces of work are about heroes who are considered epic. These epic heroes are Achilles from “The Iliad” and Beowulf from “Beowulf”. Even though Beowulf and Achilles are both epic heroes, they have completely different views on culture, which makes them completely different types of heroes. First of all, we’ll look at the fact that both Achilles and Beowulf are epic heroes. Both Achilles and Beowulf are really brave, strong and courageous, and throughout the selections have been seen as honorable. Beowulf and Achilles aren’t afraid of fate which might be a sign of bravery, for example, when Beowulf is talking to Hrothgar, king of the Danes he says, “Fate will unwind as it must” (Beowulf 189), and Achilles when his mother said fate would fall upon him soon he says, “let it come quickly for I could not help my friend in his extremity” (Homer 36-37). …show more content…

Beowulf and Achilles may be heroes in all sense but Beowulf is an Anglo-Saxon and Achilles is either a Roman or a Greek, which this would throw a huge gap in view of culture in between the two. They also have different types of religion which probably makes the gaps in the views bigger. One way you can tell is when in the beginning of Beowulf it talks about God for example “though he live in Herot, when the night hid him, he never dared to touch king Hrothgar’s glorious throne, protected by God---God,/whose love Grendal could not know” (Beowulf

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