In Anglo-Saxon's literature, the heroes are capable of defeating a vigorous beast relatively easily, depicting what Greek considered impossible as possible. For instance, the Greek hero Oedipus eventually yields to his fate, whereas Anglo-Saxon hero tries more to fight against the harsh situations and eliminate his doom by battling. Beowulf reflects the cultural conflict in that the main character, Beowulf, defeats the monster, Grendel, who ends up with a torn arm and circumvents with a mortal wound. Common motifs from folklore are shown in the fight between Beowulf and Grendel's mother where Beowulf runs after her in her cave at the base of a mere and slays her. In addition, Anglo-saxon literature is a reference to one supreme deity whereas Ancient Greek worshipped many gods of different powers. One significant cultural component of Beowulf is the practice of wergild, or reciprocity. For instance, Grendel's mother comes back to compensate for her son's death. Then, Beowulf has to stand up and (average) the murder the monsters have caused. Also, there's always exchange of gifts and sacrifices to equalize the debts that they owe. In Ancient Greece, the ethic of reciprocity suggests that "What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not impose on others," credited to Epictetus.
The ethical values in Beowulf are evidently the Germanic code of loyalty to chief and tribe and vengeance to enemies of the civilization and of the community. It necessitates the retaliation of the blood feud in that Beowulf fights against super creatures rather than men. In contrast, Greek's ethical values were more generous. For example, "One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him," credited to Socrates which is found in Plato's Crito, 49c.
dibs
ReplyDeleteYour answer to synthesis question is well written and shows some well-thought analysis. To start off with the critique our group would like to point out that your answer is slightly over the set 250 word approximation (which means + or – 10), while such an error shows your enthusiasm for the project try to achieve the goal of around 250 words, as it is important in this project to concisely state your points. Also, some of your analysis seems a bit incoherent as you switch from one point to another without a transition which ultimately may confuse the readers if they quickly browse through your response. Additionally the principle of reciprocity seems a bit broad as every individual of a thinking society feels the need to right wrongs at some point in their lives. However, the point you make about loyalty does not suit the characters in the book (and slightly obvious and broad), almost all of Beowulf’s men abandon him when they are badly threatened by the dragon. Where is the loyalty you speak of? In fact, often Beowulf is fighting some powerful entity without support. We would say that although loyalty is verbally mentioned by the characters, rarely is the same loyalty apparent in their actions. Beowulf is the only loyal character and it is him that you should use as an example of the Anglo-Saxon’s belief in loyalty. Additionally your use of the parentheses in the answer is unnatural; additionally the word inside is incorrect (avenge was incorrectly spelled), which would cause a passing reader confusion.
ReplyDeleteNAMES PLEASE ON COMMENT
ReplyDeleteMs Wylie