You can’t be a hero without glory, and what’s a king without riches? Both our Heroes share this affinity for all things shiny as they build the glory of their legend.
Odysseus has a desire for Riches and glory bordering on obsession. During his military campaign in the Trojan war, under King Agamemnon he was sent on a scouting mission. The purpose of this mission was to evaluate the enemy 's power and judge the next course of action for the Greek army, Odysseus lost sight of this purpose, while he was supposed to be scouting in order to protect Greek men from the opposing Trojan’s he stumbled upon some guarded treasure and without a second thought halts his mission and goes to loot it. Knowing the chance that the next morning the Greeks will be
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That’s why at the beginning of Beowulf, Beowulf’s men make such a show of their war gear when arriving at Hrothgar’s land. "They arrived with their mail shirts/ Glittering, silver-shining links/ Clanking an iron song as they came./ Sea-weary still, they set their broad,/ Battle-hardened shields in rows/ Along the wall , then stretched themselves/ On Herot 's benches. Their armor rang;/ Their ash-wood spears stood in a line,/ Gray-tipped and straight: the Geats ' war-gear/ Were honored weapons." ( Beowulf) They do this to show hrothgar the kind of men they are and that they must be favored by God, as well as to display their power to the king, to show that they are capable of any task. Beowulf also prides himself as being the best monster hunter around and he’s come to Hrothgar’s hall to spread that legend, he is incredibly insulted when Unferth insinuates he’s not good enough for the job and he takes that opportunity to list his many accomplishments, spreading his legend still