I think “Two Friends” is more realistic. First of all, the genre of “Damon and Pythias” is a legend, and it has been retold a lot of times. Since “Damon and Pythias” has been retold by a lot of people, the story might change because it has been told orally; therefore, people may not remember the exact details of the story. The background of “Two Friends” is the Franco-Prussian war. The Franco-Prussian war was an actual event. Therefore, it makes the story more realistic. The two friends have similar tastes, and they understand each other without words. That is what a real friendship is like. Both of them have similar hobbies, which is fishing and drinking. The story realistically shows how close they are. However, in “Damon and Phythias”, the …show more content…
In “Damon and Pythias”, Pythias was accused by King Dionysus of trying to overthrow him. Therefore, he was sentenced to death. Pythias asked if he could go back to his hometown to settle his business affairs. The King said yes. However, Pythias needed to have a hostage replace him. If he failed to return, then the hostage replacing Pythias would die. Damon volunteered to become the hostage. He held great faith in Pythias that he would come back, and he did. “Presently the excitement grew more intense still as a swift runner could be seen approaching the palace courtyard at an astonishing speed, and wild shrieks of relief and joy went up as Pythias, breathless and exhausted, rushed head long through the crowd and flung himself into the arm of his beloved friend…” (Russell, 1232). In “Two Friends”, Morissot and Sauvage were caught by the German soldiers. They were forced to reveal the password. They would die if they did not reveal it; however, neither of them spoke. Then the officer grabbed one of the two friends aside, and he tried to get one of them to say the password. “Quick, the password? Your friend won’t know.” (Maupassant, 1239). Neither of them would say the password. In the end, they were both shot to