Similarities Between Beowulf And Odysseus

“The hero sees values beyond what's possible. That's the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately. But it makes the whole struggle of humanity worthwhile. ”(Gardner 89). Epic heroes have epic strengths, and handle much more than any normal human ever could. Most epic heroes have commonalities with one another, Beowulf from Beowulf and Odysseus from The Odyssey are an example of this. Beowulf and Odysseus exhibited strength and longevity through all of the respective adventures. The amount of similarities between these characters is extensive. Although Odysseus mirrors Beowulf there are some key differences in their relationship to their gods, strengths, and motives; society can change what happens to a hero and what a hero values, but not how a hero behaves. Divine intervention affects both Beowulf and Odysseus. The deity figures in both epics work for and against the heroes. In Beowulf God

Epic heroes are said to, “accomplish feats no real human could”(Drake). While they both have an epic hero’s strength, Beowulf and Odysseus have completely different strengths. Beowulf has superhuman strength physically, he can rip off arms and wield swords not meant for humans. In Beowulf he defeats Grendel’s mother with a sword crafted by giants that was, ”so huge and heavy in itself only Beowulf could wield it in battle”(Heaney 1561-1562). Odysseus’ strength is his intellect. On multiple occasions he uses his brain instead of his brawn. One example of this intellect use is shown with his run in with Polyphemus the cyclops. Odysseus attacks a sleeping Polyphemus and tells him his name is Noman, so the cyclops screams out that Noman is hurting him and that Noman is killing him. Odysseus’ has been described as cunning while Beowulf has often been described as mighty. So even though they both have epic hero-like strength, their strengths are very