Beowulf, Gilgamesh, The oddyssey Essay

Beowulf, Gilgamesh and The Odyssey are all great epics written by different cultures in different time periods. But being from different civilizations, they share certain values that make them similar. These similarities can be seen through the actions, appearance and fights of the epic heroes’ enemies. Both Humbaba from Gilgamesh and the Cyclops from The Odyssey had certain human aspects to them. Like any human Humbaba pleads for his life, as he’s about to die, making the reader feel pity for him. “The monster plead in strangled sobs and desperate appeals” (188-189). For one moment we feel that Gilgamesh should let the monster live. If we were in that situation, we would also desperately plead for our lives. By personifying the sobs as “strangled”, the author is describing the magnitude of the sobs and screams. Humbaba was screaming as loud as he could, and pleading for his life. But the pity we feel doesn’t last long because Ekidu tells Gilgamesh Humbaba is deceiving him, and he has to die. Also the Cyclops from The Odyssey is depicted with certain human aspects to him. “When all these chores were done, he poked the fire” (195). The Cyclops does chores like any human does. And the most interesting thing is that he has a set routine. He is very organized, and after doing chores, he makes a fire and gets ready for dinner. But unlike the Cyclops and Humbaba, Grendel from Beowulf has less human characteristics defining him. He is described as being “Mankind’s enemy” (79), which would meke him an anti-human. But in the beginning of the story, he is described as being “impatient”, a human characteristic. So there is a certain contrast in Grendel that w don’t see in the other monsters. By saying he’s mankind’s enemy, means he is barely human, but because he is one of God’s creatures, he has a certain human aspect to him.
And at the same time he can feel no guilt,