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Essay Comparing Beowulf And Achilles

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Achilles and Beowulf exemplify countless traits throughout the occurrence of each epic poem. Beowulf, in the epic Beowulf, shows traits such as being self-less. For example Beowulf shows selflessness when he volunteers to help Hrothgar in protecting the Danes. Anyone could've easily been there to help Hrothgar however Beowulf felt he owed his help to Hrothgar so he was happy to have the pleasure. Achilles, in the epic Illiad, shows the trait of being unforgiving. Achilles shows unforgivingness when the death of Patroclus, his good friend, causes Achilles to only become more enraged except this time points his anger toward Hector, his enemy. Despite the differences in the two heroes of the epic poems, they do have some similarities in the traits they display. For example both characters show the trait bravery and cunning in battle. When Beowulf proceeds to fight Grendel he portrays bravery by sacrificing his own men before fighting Beowulf himself. This shows Beowulf is brave not only in the sense that he is willing to let his own men die, but he is willing to wait for all his men to die to fight Grendel himself instead of taking on Grendel with the help of his men. In addition Beowulf shows cunning in battle by not giving up and having the determination to do what needs to be done, which does go hand in hand with bravery. In the Illiad Achilles shows bravery by refusing to make a pact with Hector. …show more content…

If you look at a modern day hero such as a military general, much like Achilles, a military general refuses to give into the enemy. Both heroes will fight until they are the victor, defeat is not in their vocabulary. A military general as well does not handle the lose of men well at all. Casualties to their own men take a big affect on both a military general and Achilles it only drives them to fight

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