JOURNEY OF THE HERO

Throughout the ages, humans always wanted to reach beyond what they
are capable of. Maybe because of greed, fear of death or personal reasons,
heroes chose or were chosen to act out and embark upon certain quests. These
heroes were fighters with extraordinary strength, courage or intelligence who just
had what it takes to finish the job. Various cultures had various understandings
when it came to heroes but one thing remained the same: the journey.
Originated in ancient Mesopotamia, Gilgamesh is considered to be one of
the first great work of literature. Written on stone tablets, the story is about the
Mesopotamian king called Gilgamesh who aims to find the plant which restores
youth. Before his journey to find this plant, a friend of his called Enkidu gets
cursed and is killed by the gods, reminding Gilgamesh of his own mortality and
making him fear death. After hearing about the plant, Gilgamesh overcomes any
obstacles in his way through his courage and finally acquires it. But, a snake
steals the plant and Gilgamesh comes home with empty hands. His city is now
much more wealthy, which helps him come into terms with his mortality. Even if
he is going to die, at least he is going to see his city thrive. It is as if mankind has
come into terms with its mortality through human progress and that's how he
ends his journey.
After a couple of centuries, another great piece of heroic literature has
been formed in Ancient Greece. The Iliad and Odyssey are two different journeys
which are connected to each other. The Iliad is the epic story of the Trojan war.
During that era, war was glorified by the people of Ancient Greece and in the Iliad
we can observe that clearly. For Ancient Greeks war was inevitable because every
soldier wanted to be glorious and famous for fighting in a war bravely like
Akhilleus and Hektor but for them, it was a whole different story. Heroes like
Akhilleus and Odysseus did not want to fight in a war. They had different reasons

not to but they both were forced to fight this war. It was their destiny to fight in
this war, which Akhilleus did know because of his mums prophecy, and they paid
a really great price for going agains their destiny and ended up fighting the war
willingly but not for the glory, but for vengeance. In the other side, Hektor was
getting ready for the war. This war to him was a journey to prove everyone that
he is as brave, strong and glorious as his father, and by fighting this fight, he
could teach his son how he should be when he grows up and becomes a king to
his homeland. After the Trojan War, the epic of Odysseus starts, which tells us
about the journey of cursed-in-many-ways Odysseus back to his home. It does
not just tell about the incidents that happens to Odysseus after the war; it also
informs us about his past, as in what he went through before the Trojan war.
These both stories are connected in many ways, but both journeys in the stories
are different. While Iliad is more of a personal journey, Odysseus is more literal.
The origin story of Rome, which is called Aeneid, is also an epic about a
hero who fought in Trojan war, Aeneas, and his peoples journey to find a new
homeland, is written by Virgil. This epics plotline is similar to Odysseus. But what
is important about this story is the motivation of the hero for going on this
journey. Just like in Iliad, Aeneas starts his journey with a prophecy. After the
invasion of Troia, Aphrodite reaches him to tell the prophecy which promises him
and his people a new home. Because of his belief, he actually leaves behind his
African warrior lover, Dido, and fights against Turnus to marry Lavinia. His feeling
of duty for his homeland results a successful journey to the promised land. With
this epic, what the writer aims to do is to infuse the idea that duty towards the
country is far more important than love. Unlike other epics mentioned in this
essay, Aeneid does not come from oral tradition.
Different from the epic stories originated in Aegean /Mediterranean area,
Beowulf is a part of Nordic literature. This epics form is more poetic than others.

In the epic, Beowulf, a famous monster hunter, goes to Danes to help the king,
Hrothgar, with a monster called Grendel. He kills him and as a consequence, his
mother attacks the people. So as a hero, Beowulf goes on a journey again, to kill
the mother. But instead of killing, he lays with her. A couple of years later, after
Beawulf becomes King, a dragon; which is his son from the monsters mother,
attacks on his territory. And so he also kills the Dragon but he gets wounded
mortally. After he becomes the king and before he kills the dragon, he started to
fight against other kingdoms which resulted his country to get bigger. In this epic,
as if the only reason why people started to fight each other was because there
were no other creatures to fight against. And because of the aggressiveness and
the blood thirst in humans, they immediately started to fight against each other.
His journey in this epic, was to kill the monster and his mother. Because his lust
for the mother of the creature was more than he can handle, he betrayed his
people and he partially failed his quest. But in future, he paid the price and he
died because of his mistake.
All these epics comes together in one basic theme; Journey. Either it is a
journey to the underworld, or a journey back home; they all had the same effect
on the protagonists. They ended up learning so much, losing so many, loving so
dearly and perhaps paying so heavily and became heroes to their people thanks
to a journey of a lifetime.

Asl Akaln
28.11.2014
Heroic Literature
Prof. Dr. Murat Belge