Great Heroes in Literature: Beowulf and Odysseus
Great Heroes in Literature: Beowulf and Odysseus
“You can do it Superman, you can do it!” Superman is one of America’s most idolized super heroes. Okay, so no regular human could take on what Superman does, but does it mean that we can’t still watch his heroic ways every week at seven o’clock? Superman is our modern day hero, one that everyone wants to be like but realizes that that they will never be able to fly through the air to save a burning building. If we love Superman today then who did people idolize hundreds of years ago?
A man named Odysseus entered the reader’s mind in around 700 B.C. Homer, the brilliant mind behind this epic poem wrote about the ancient Grecian super hero through an epic called “The Odyssey.” The reader traveled through Odysseus’s heroic ways and joined him on his ten-year quest home. Now, that was in 700 B.C.. What happened when Odysseus soon became “so five minutes ago?” A hero known as Beowulf came along, is what happened. The reader entered Beowulf’s travels through the Anglo-Saxon epic known as “Beowulf.” “Beowulf” was created around 1000 A.D. Beowulf was a great hero who traveled to Scandinavia to fight a beastly monster. In both classic epics the reader discovers the culture during the time and learns what a “super hero,” was really like back then. Through behaviors and strategy the two heroes are so very different yet so very similar; these ways are presented through the reader’s eyes in the two classic epics.
The great Odysseus was recognized throughout many lands and was known for his trickery and brilliance. He stopped at numerous islands on his quest home; each island different and unique. Upon arriving to the land Odysseus had a certain semblance that he carried, and said to allow people to understand who he was. He would land at this new place and soon by his grand entrance he would be known to all. Odysseus had a certain way to introduce himself. This way was through an eloquent speech that he told to the new land. He described himself as, “The Great Odysseus.” Indeed, he was great, but was this necessary? The great hero felt that he must...