Heroism In The Odyssey And Sir Gawin And The Green Night

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Heroism in The Odyssey and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
A hero is defined as a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). In The Odyssey and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight two characters are introduced that are heroes of their story. Each story tells of a different voyage and each hero fights a different battle; however, each character has certain moral fibers that make them heroic.
Odysseus and Sir Gawain are both heroes written about in the same era but their voyages do not take place in the same time era. Odysseus was a noble mortal that fought at Troy. He had struggles but was looked up to by most men and regarded highly by the gods; ‘[Odysseus] is not only the wisest man alive but has been the most generous in his offerings to the immortals who live in the wide heaven’ (Homer 4). Sir Gawain was a knight for King Arthur and a brave man to stand up for his lord knowing that it would cost him his life; ‘The court assays the claim. And in counsel all unite / To give Gawain the game / And release the king outright’ (Borroff 23). A hero must be made through heroic action and these characters completed heroic action while standing up for their own authority, which were the lords of the sky and the lords of the castle. While on their voyages they each encountered sin as well. The Greeks in The Odyssey were not worried much about their hero sleeping with goddesses because it was expected; however, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight it was looked more down upon. Nonetheless, each hero dealt with the temptation of a female force and each hero surrendered to this temptation at one level or another. In some ways giving into sin would symbolize the fall of a hero, but being the men they were it just showed that they were so heroic and such great men that women yearned to be with them...