Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, And Roland

Idea of the Hero’s

A Review on the heroes

Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, and Roland

Over the past many years researchers have been studying the great hero’s (Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, and Roland) of the past. Just how great these heroes are is an exceptional question to most. Researchers agree to what extent of how great and far most these hero’s have come and to what extent they were driven. Below you will find conclusions addressing the following question:

1. What is there about these men that make them heroes?

a. Gilgamesh

b. Achilles

c. Aeneas

d. Roland

2. What is similar and what is different among them?

e. Gilgamesh

f. Achilles

g. Aeneas

h. Roland

3. How do you account for the differences and similarities?

i. Gilgamesh

j. Achilles

k. Aeneas

l. Roland

This paper is a review on the heroes Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, Roland

and the literature that focuses on these three questions.

Idea of the Hero’s

A Review on the heroes

Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, and Roland

Just how great these heroes are is an exceptional question to most. Researchers agree to what extent of how great and far most these hero’s have come and to what extent they were driven. Below you will find conclusions addressing the following question:

1. What is there about these men that make them heroes?

2. What is similar and what is different among them?

3. How do you account for the differences and similarities?

Over the past many years’ researchers have been studying the great hero’s (Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, and Roland) of the past, and this paper is a review on the heroes Gilgamesh, Achilles, Aeneas, Roland and the literature that focuses on these three questions.

What is there about these men that make them heroes?

Although little is known about the real Gilgamesh, historical evidence seems to indicate that he did indeed exist. The Nature of the Heroic Gilgamesh is understood to be every bit of superhuman; he is shown to be so powerful that the gods created an exact copy of him to keep his desires and actions fair. Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third human, is the greatest king on earth and the strongest super-human that ever existed; however, he is young and oppresses his people harshly (Hooker, tablet.1). Gilgamesh went to recover the thorny plant that pricks your fingers and grows under the water, to help the old men recover, but in return the serpent stole the thorny flower from his hands. Yet still, he went a long journey, was weary, worn out with labor, and returning engraved on a stone the whole story. You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, and everlasting life was not your destiny (Cunningham; Reich, pg.31). Despite all of Gilgamesh's power, he was unable to prevent death of any nature.

Achilles son of Thetis, unsuccessfully; but attempted to make her son an immortal. In the later version stories told of Achilles, she (Thetis) held the young child by his heel and dipped him in a river by the name of Styx. Everything that the sacred waters touched became incapable of being harmed, but his heel remained dry and therefore unprotected by the sacred waters. When Achilles was a young boy, Calchas declared that Achilles would have to help conquer the city of Troy, and that Troy could not be taken without his help. Thetis knew if Achilles went to Troy, he would die. So, she sent him to the court of Lycomedes, in Scyros. Sent there he was disguised as a young girl and what she thought was hidden from the evil. After Achilles identity was revealed; he willingly made his way to the city of Troy. It was Troy where he distinguished himself from all the other soldiers.

Achilles is part of the Achaean force Agamemnon takes to Troy to win back Helen for Agamemnon's brother Menelaus. Proud and autocratic Agamemnon antagonizes Achilles, and so Achilles sits out the fighting. Achilles is, at length, motivated by revenge to join the fray when his friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, the greatest of the Trojans. In a rage, Achilles kills Hector and then dishonors the body by dragging it around in a chariot for nine days (Gill, PG.1, #1). Then Achilles cried out “Be not angry with me, Patroklos, if you discover, though you be in the house of Hades, that I gave back great Hector to his loved father, for the ransom he gave me was not unworthy (Cunningham-Reich, PG.63).a Achilles' time on Earth was numbered after the death of Hector. He continued fighting heroically, killing many of the Trojans and their allies. Finally Alexander wounded Achilles in the heel with an arrow; Achilles died of the wound. After his death, it was decided to award Achilles' divinely-wrought armor to the bravest of the Greeks. We're puzzled by the qualities the ancient Greeks looked for in their heroes. What the Greek heroes most longed for was a reputation for excellence, time (worship, esteem, honor) and kleos (fame). What they shunned was anything that lessened their reputation (Gill, PG1, #2).

I tell about war and the hero who first from Troy’s frontier, Displaced by destiny (Cunningham-Reich, PG.156). Aeneas was the son of Anchises and Aphrodite’s. After the fall of Troy, he wondered the Mediterranean as he led a pack of Trojan refugees to Italy. It was there he became the founder of Roman