A hero is a person who is distinguished to have brave deeds. Other individuals in the society are the one who crowns someone to be a hero after they perceive the person to have special abilities that not everyone possesses. In Europe, from ancient period through classical to medieval periods, many changes were observed. Among these changes are the nature of heroes the culture and many more aspects. The qualification to make someone be a hero has changed with time. The changes are mostly attributed to the time difference as it brings a lot of variations regarding behaviors and beliefs within the society.
Heroes’ characteristics are based on the author, they portray them as they want them to be depending on the authors writing techniques. The selected heroes for this paper to represent different ages are Sir Gawain, Aeneas from Virgil and Achilles from Homer's Iliad. Sir Gawain is a famous person who in the poem is portrayed to have qualities of being courageous and loyalty. He represents the medieval period. Achilles is a hero representing the classical period, he is a soldier with a zeal to fight for the people. Finally, Aeneas is known to be a Trojan hero and the first real hero in his country. He is representing the ancient period.
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Comparing the hero of Gawain to the hero of Virgil's and Homer's Iliad who represent the different time and age that is the ancient, the classical and the medieval, will be a good example for this paper. Sir Gawain represents the medieval periods. During the medieval time the nature of a hero is different from the ancient days. For instance, the hero does not fight for his society as it used to be, but now it is for their interest. In the ancient period heroes were known for fighting and saving their people but not for their gains.
Achilles is a hero who does not perceive himself as weak in any way as compared to Sir Gawain of the medieval period who accepts that he has weaknesses. In the past years, a hero would not accept to be weak despite acknowledging their mortality being. This has changed with the time that the heroes can now recognize and confess they do not possess super human strength. Change in time and cultural practices brought about new things in the society which were not there originally ( West, 2017) . The presence of gods in the ancient and the classical periods made their heroes have the super human strength which elapsed after Christianity came in. Christianity was embraced during the medieval period, and the people now believed in the Supreme Being thus removing the aspect of the heroes feeling super natural, and they can now accept and confess their weakness.
These heroes also had several similarities. They all possess characteristics like courage, loyalty and the society know them to be brave and are honored in the society. For instance, from Homer's Iliad, Achilles have characteristics which match with Sir Gawain. Achilles and Aeneas, both consulted the gods on issues regarding their lives. They asked for directions to follow from the gods before taking actions. The two believed that they had super human abilities unlike during the later period of medieval represented by Sir Gawain, who did not use to consult gods for direction. Himself he was not a god, unlike his counterpart who were perceived to be gods.
During the ancient and the classical periods, represented by Aeneas and Achilles respectively, they treated women the same way. They treated women as property; they were not respectful to the women. This way of handling women as goods has been there since the ancient period. In medieval periods, as portrayed by Sir Gawain, women were treated in a better and respectful manner. Sir Gawain addresses a woman in a way that shows their value in the society.
The heroes in the earlier period seem to be flawless as compared to the heroes in the medieval period. As depicted from the literature they seem to have been born to become great heroes in the society. They were selfless, and they are working with the aim to save the people. They serve their people as the priority and give themselves to protect their society. In the medieval periods, heroes were guided by those who were there in the earlier times. They did not have the supernatural strength as those in the ancient and the medieval times. This made Sir Gawain confess his weakness. It shows that the medieval heroes need help from others so that they can become heroes. The earlier works influenced the medieval works by keeping the standards of a hero high as they seem to be flawless. For those in the medieval periods were given a hard time to get to that level. For instance, they would not ask for direction from the gods as they did not believe in them. They only depended on their knowledge and power ( West, 2017) .
Within these different periods, they portray love in different ways thus changing the meaning of heroism to some people. For ancient and the classical time, the form of love that the heroes show is for their country and their people. For the medieval age, the form of love shown is self-centered to the persons themselves, mainly the influence for the earlier ages and the present is that the real meaning of a hero in changed when it comes to the medieval terms. The heroes in later years did not portray selflessness but personal prestige. As a result, the perception of heroism is modified in these different ages. If the real meaning of a hero were not shown in the olden ages, it would not be any different for the medieval period. Heroism will be the one portrayed by them that is for self-gain, prestige, and honor yet uphold the name hero.
References
Curtius, E. R. (2013). European literature and the Latin middle ages . Princeton University Press.
West, K. R. (2017). Tokens of Sin, Badges of Honor: Julian of Norwich and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Renascence , 69 (1), 3-16.
