Contreras 1

Renata Contreras
Mr. Galceran
English IVA
12 September 2016
Respectful Warriors

Beowulf is not the only man that its described as a strong, brave and courageous warrior.

Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the greatest warrior of Greek mythology.

Achilles was a strong, brave, and courageous man just as Beowulf. They were both half

man and half god so they were very strong. We can say one was a real warrior and the other

one was not. Both of them have few differences but although they bear some superficial

differences, the similarities between Beowulf and Achilles are clear.

The first difference between them was their view of faith. Beowulf believed that whatever

happened to him was because of God`s will, whereas Achilles believed that he would make

his own fate and whatever happened to him was because of the choices he made and the

things he did. By knowing this, we might think that Beowulf is more a kind hero than

Achilles, because his actions are always undertaken to protect his people, with glory for

himself as an added bonus, and never an incentive for or against taking action, as with

Achilles. Another thing is that they kill for different reasons. Achilles was drove by emotion

and he killed Hector for revenge but Beowulf was drove by pride and fame and killed

Grendel to protect people.

There are also a few similarities in these two character`s attitudes. They are both

good leaders, they give their fellow warriors courage when they fight. Their warriors were

the best of the best. Their way to express a triumph in a battle was by taking their enemy's

body and hang it up as a trophy for winning a battle. They are quick tempered men and they

both really wanted their image to be positive and well respected. They are stubborn and
 Contreras 2

ambitious man who seek fame but their purpose to fight are different. Achilles was once a

man full by pride and glory, but Achilles later becomes full by vengeance over the slaying

of his friend best friend.

It was difficult to find similarities between Beowulf and Achilles because they have more

similarities on physical matters than in emotional matters. For example, they are both

considered the greatest warriors and they both have superhuman like qualities. But I didnt

want to compare them by their physical matters. For me, both of them are great warriors but

I think Beowulf is better than Achilles. My reason to think this is because Beowulf fought

against monsters and Achilles fought against humans and I imagine that monsters are

stronger. Another reason why I think Beowulf is better is because I couldnt find a real

weakness of him. Achilles`s weakness is his heel and he died because of it and Beowulf

dies in an encounter with dragon. So Beowulf`s dead was more epic. Besides, what I

respect about them is their confidence to fight. That is why they both seemed quite stubborn

in their ways of making choices and if they were to meet, I don`t think that they would get

along very well together.