Achilles As An Epic Hero In Homer's Iliad

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The epic hero is the "main attraction" in an epic. An epic is a long poetic piece. An example of this type of writing would be Homer's Iliad. In this epic it tells the tale of the Trojan War that was fought one-thousand years B.C. Two men, Achilles and Hector, led their armies against each other in hope of a victory. Although it could be argued, Achilles seems to be the greater hero of this epic. He was significant and glorified by others, he was superior in strength and has superhuman like features, and he risked death for glory knowing his life would end.
The first epic hero characteristic that Achilles had was that he was glorified by the gods, and he played a significant role in the Greek camp. Achilles was referred to as "the great runner" …show more content…
Of the two fighters, it was Achilles who drove the spear into Hector's neck to kill him at last (Hamilton 275). By doing that he proved himself to be the better of the two. "...the spear hit the center of Achilles' shield. But what good? The armor was magical and could not be pierced" (Hamilton 274). He had the help of armor that no mortal like Hector could penetrate. Achilles also had superhuman like qualities because he was said to be immortal. His mom had dipped him into the River Styx when he was young to insure this (Hamilton 278). Hector was no match for a man with the advantages that Achilles had.
The last characteristic that this epic hero had was that he risked his life for the glory when he knew his life was going to end. "Achilles was kept back by his mother. The sea nymph knew that if he went to Troy he was fated to die there" (Hamilton 260). Knowing this information did not hold this great warrior back. Going into battle Achilles knew he was fighting "under the shadow of certain death" (Hamilton 263). The way his life ended was unfortunate. In the end, Achilles died due to the fault of his mother, Thetis. Foolish woman forgot his heel when she dipped him in the River Styx (Hamilton
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