A Comparison Of Achilles In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

An ancient Greek hero from the Trojan War and a medieval knight from King Arthur’s court; these two heroes share many similar qualities and characteristics, but they also have their differences. The two very famous men can only be Achilles and Sir Gawain. Achilles is the ancient Greek warrior and demi-god from the Trojan War who is the protagonist in Homer’s the Iliad written around the eight century. Meanwhile, Sir Gawain is a medieval knight from the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight written by the anonymous Gawain-poet around the fourteenth century. Both of these great literary heroes represent different facets of life from their respective time periods having been created so far apart. Their shared characteristics and different qualities make them

ideal characters to show the different types of heroes through the ages.
The Greek hero Achilles has many qualities about him that are unlike Sir Gawain. The first characteristic that separates the two is that Achilles represents the pagan hero, meaning that his religious beliefs were not of that today’s. He believed in the many gods of ancient times not through any organized religion practices. The pagan values did not include a great deal of respect between one another and the belief in polytheism, many gods, who would affect our lives if they were unhappy, with a terrible occurrence or happy, with a joyous happening.

This pagan ideology affects Achilles’ sense of moral code and values because it was the “religion” at that time period which determined between right and wrong. From this pagan belief he separates even more from Sir Gawain in his representation of the warrior-like masculinity. Achilles is described as the ultimate warrior that shows no mercy on the battlefield, which gives him the credit of his high achieving alpha male status. His merciless attitude is shown when he kills the Trojan Hector and drags his body around to display is to the public going against all signs of respect for the deceased. The Greek gets his masculinity from acting almost as a savage off the battlegrounds as well. He plunders and pillages villages while taking any woman that he wants. His ultimate male achievement is also through his strong sexual will that no one can stop. Achilles seems to feel that with sex he can assert his dominance as a man over all. This warrior masculinity is also a look into the tribal mentality of the past. Achilles’ main purpose for fighting is for

himself alone, which is the old tribal view and belief. He delivers kills men for the sport and love of war not out of extreme necessity but out of passion and a sense of love. The old tribal mentality had people separated, always fending for themselves, rarely coming together to join forces or to help anyone. Thus, Achilles is selfish in that he only thinks and cares about himself and his own glory, which creates his major flaw, his excess pride. The hero shows this when he asks his gods to make his own men suffer after an argument with one of his commanding officers, Agamemnon. His overabundance of pride stems from his sense of immortality because he is a demi-god. He is a half-god in which his body is impenetrable, immortal in a sense, besides his heel, which can kill him. He displays this excess pride and immortality until his transformation. Achilles has his transformation after the death of Patroclus, which changes Achilles to start to fight for others. This represents the beginning of the transition out of the traditional warrior-like mentality and to the newer selfless fighting for others mentality. Therefore Achilles marks the first stage in the changing of mentalities from alone to together.