Blake Walshaw, Paper #1 Ch 201. 1002 1
The Embodiment of an Epic Hero
In many stories collected from across the ancient world seemingly each and every
culture has some kind of an epic story which involves the telling of tales for great conquering
heroes that have overcome countless hardships during what often seems to be perilous
journeys. Regularly, men are portrayed as epic heroes and are described as being deceptively
cunning, tremendously courageous, and able to accomplish daunting superhuman feats in
routinely uncertain situations. Several cultivating stories, read in class, tell of Epic Heroes
having these before mentioned characteristics are: the Greek story of The Odyssey and the
comparative Hindus story of The Epic of Gilgamesh. With each story in comparison it is clear
that both societies took a sense of pride from the idea of nationalism and the mentality of
“superiority” over other peoples either in the same community or from separate domains.
Theoretically this reflects back on the idea of how members society either differed or similarly
projected their views of what an ancient Epic Hero was and in result revealed aspects of their
culture through daily lives and the overview of their civilization.
Values within Greek Culture
The Odyssey inside The Human Record describes how the ancient Greeks perceived
the world they lived in on three different levels. The first level describes how Greeks appreciated
the idea of a noble virtuous warrior, that capitalizes on the idea of “personal honor, bravery, and
loyalty to one’s comrades; furthermore personifies the motivation of humans through emotion
and loss. Lastly attempts to make sense of the age old question of ‘why are we [Humans]
here?”’ (Andrea- 51).
In the outlook on Greek Society at the time, what people seemed to value most was not
just the idea of the personified hero and warrior’s values of: honor, bravery, and loyalty, but
rather additionally the emphasis on social practices of the time period and also the values
placed on that of family, furthermore religion seems to be as equally important to the culture of
the Greeks.
Blake Walshaw, Paper #1 Ch 201. 1002 2
The Greek Hero— The Odyssey
Within the reading of the actual Epic poem itself a reader can notice the regard to each
level as before described, for example on the first level of how warriors are held in high regard a
reader can reference when Odysseus references the battle Troy and speaks of at the hero
Achilles, “As often we fought with bronze weapons on the Trojan plain he never lagged behind
in the ranks or crowd but would always run far out in front, yielding first place to no one, and
Slew many men in mortal combat. I could not name all whom he killed in defense of the
Argives.” (Andrea- 52) This quote gives direct attention to the idea virtuous hero that Greek
society held in such high esteem. The entire section composed about the triumph of Achilles
personifies the idea of a Epic Hero. He considered the greatest warrior, Achilles is transcribed
as being the epitome of the Epic Hero because of his great feats in battles, While in battle he is
the bravest and considered the fiercest when charging into the enemy. This is further mentioned
