How Are Beowulf And Achilles Alike

In the epic poems, The Iliad and Beowulf, they both had two very similar but different heroes, Beowulf and Achilles. In the epic poem, Beowulf, Beowulf is the protagonist, and the great leader who strives to protect his small kingdom and the Danes, whereas Achilles is the protagonist and the strong leader of the Greeks in The Iliad. These heroic characters may have similarities such as supernatural strength, courage, and bravery; however, they have more complex similarities as well. Even though Beowulf and Achilles are not always similar, their similarities shine brighter than their differences. Although Beowulf and Achilles both have plenty of differences, they both face the challenge of conquering creatures, which brings glory and honor to

themselves and to their countries.
In The Iliad and Beowulf, the heroes Beowulf and Achilles both strive for glory by facing numerous, difficult challenges that stand in their way from achieving glory.

For example, Beowulf faces a destructive monster that was terrorizing the townspeople. This is Beowulf’s call to the adventure in the hero's journey because the difficult problem he faces is Grendel destroying the town. Even though the challenge was life threatening and dangerous, Beowulf still leaves victorious, and leaves with Grendel’s arm as a trophy to symbolize his strength. This shows that Beowulf is striving for glory because he is sacrificing himself for the greater good. The next dangerous challenge Beowulf faces is the battle between Grendel's mother. As, Beowulf seeks for blood, Grendel’s mother was in seek for revenge. Beowulf gets captured in her underwater lair and Grendel’s mother steals Beowulf’s trophy, the arm of Grendel. When Beowulf feels this a sign of disrespect, he frees himself from her lair and uses a magic sword that was lying inside the cave to kill her. These challenges portray that Beowulf is striving for kleos because Beowulf, willingly, nominates himself to fight the unstoppable creatures. In The Iliad, the hero Achilles strives for glory in similar ways as well. For example, Achilles decides about going into the Trojan war to fight with the Greek soldiers. When he asks about joining the war, his mom said he could either stay behind and have a nice life with a loving family and

be remembered for a few generations past on, or go fight in the Trojan war, and last a few years past the war but be remembered forever as a remarkable warrior. Achilles then realizes that it was his destiny or calling to join the war because this is what was meant for him to show and derive glory. This is Achilles’ call to the adventure in the hero’s journey because the difficult challenge Achilles was faced with was deciding to join the bloody Trojan war, and also trying to win the hard-fought war. As the war starts to begin, Achilles shows his heroism by killing the bravest and strongest warriors. For instance, he killed the Trojan prince, Hector, and also took out almost half of the Trojan warriors by himself. This, therefore, shows that Achilles, as well as Beowulf, face many dangerous and courageous challenges that blocked their path to glory.
In addition to difficult challenges delaying the heroes’ path to pride, Beowulf and Achilles also strive for glory by showing great loyalty to themselves and to their countries by fighting dangerous battles along their way to success.

For example, In Beowulf, Beowulf shows his pride to King Hrothgar and his small kingdom by accepting the challenge of conquering the threatening monsters. While Beowulf is able to take on the menacing challenges, he shows great honor by never giving up and never asking for help because he wants to prove his worth to the King and the town. Beowulf also shows great signs of honor to his country and to King Hrothgar when he fought the battle against Grendel. When Beowulf goes to fight Grendel he says to his soldiers that he will do whatever it takes to survive and take down this terrible monster, “Battles he had fought; he sought Hrothgar to salute him and show Grendel’s head,” (Green,600-601). This shows that Beowulf has great honor to himself and his people because he is willing to risk his own life to save his small kingdom that he loves and will always fight for. While Beowulf is loyal to his country, Achilles is also loyal to his country. When Agamemnon, the King of Greece, threatened Achilles’ honor by stealing his “woman”, Achilles left the war and let the Greeks suffer until they begged him to comeback. Even though Achilles had some minor “hiccups” on the way to success, Achilles still achieved glory through loyalty. For example, Achilles

accepted to join the Trojan war and he led the Greek army to the people of Troy. Achilles then fought and killed the strongest warrior in the Trojan besides himself, Prince Hector. As soon as Achilles gets hit in the heal by Apollo's arrow, Achilles’ mother tells him that he will soon die. While most people would lay back and recover from the injury, Achilles still fights in the war to show his loyalty and strength to the Greek army. Achilles said, “At least I will not die without a struggle, but in some great deed of arms which men yet to be born will teach each other,” (Homer,199). This shows how Achilles is a leader by saying he will fight through the war however long it takes and shows that Achilles is trustful of himself and his country by not doubting his fellow soldiers.
Although some could argue that Beowulf and Achilles have superficial similarities, they also have plenty of differences as well. For instance, Achilles and Beowulf both fight life or death battles within each epic poem; however, Beowulf's battles were within a life-span whereas Achilles’ battles were within one year. This shows that, Achilles has the supernatural strength to withstand a lot of hits during his war time while Beowulf is not as strong because his battles were spread out during his lifetime, giving him time to recover. Another difference between the two heroes is that Achilles shows his glory, mostly, through himself as opposed to Beowulf, who mostly showed his loyalty toward the King and the kingdom. Although Beowulf and Achilles are both talented warriors on the battlefield, when it comes to loyalty, Beowulf takes the crown. Beowulf is a devout soldier to his kingdom while Achilles’ is still a soldier for the Greeks but extremely less loyal than Beowulf was because he let the Greeks suffer until they apologized for what they did wrong to him. Overall, Beowulf and Achilles both still have the same intentions; but their approaches are very different.
In conclusion, Beowulf and Achilles have many similarities and differences that make them the supernatural heroes they are. Beowulf and Achilles strive for glory and success by over achieving many difficult challenges and by portraying honor to themselves and to their country. In Beowulf, Beowulf showed signs of a true leader and a brave soldier, while Achilles, in The Iliad, showed the same signs of leadership and courage. Throughout both epic poems, Beowulf and Achilles show inhuman talents that help them to defeat their greatest enemies .These two heroes are, not only, similar in combat, but they are also similar in the way they approach their challenges and adventures. Overall, when analyzing the two heroes, Beowulf and Achilles, there are more than just physical characteristics in common, there are also similar in the sense of loyalty and perseverance.