In the passage from Beowulf, the Geat people honor their great king and warrior Beowulf with a traditional Nordic funeral pyre. They include the weapons and armor as a tribute to his valor in battle and told stories regaling his past exploits against creatures across the land. Beowulf’s funeral was a great celebration of his past deeds and courage, and to bring great honor to his kinsfolk. In other stories in Norton’s Anthology of Western Literature, such as The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Iliad, the characters honored the great heroes in similar fashions. Enkindu displeases the god Enlil, the god of the earth, and falls gravely ill at the desire of Ishtar. Gilgamesh laments his fallen comrade, saying, “Enkindu, my friend, your mother is the gazelle, / Your father the wild ass brought you into the world, /Onagers raised you on their milk, /And the wild beasts taught you all of the grazing places” (VIII.3-6). He continues, calling for all living things in the world to weep for Enkindu’s death and calls upon Enkindu to awaken from his deathly slumber. …show more content…
Priam begs Hector to not face the mighty Achilles in single combat, telling him, “Hector, my boy, you can’t face Achilles /Alone like that, without any support- /You’ll go down in a minute. He’s too much /For you, son, he won’t stop at anything!” (XXII.45-48). After a drawn out fight, Hector falls to Achilles’ bronze spear. He dragged Hector’s lifeless body behind his chariot by the heels, letting his head drag in the dirt. Later, Priam sneaks into Achilles camp with the help of the gods, to beg for his sons return so he may honor his memory properly. Achilles has Hector’s body bathed and anointed with oils and wrapped in a robe and tunic, so that Priam and the Trojans can honor him with a funeral pyre and twelve days of