Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, J.R.R Tolkien's Hobbit, and the Quest of Change

Essay by Eh PlusCollege, UndergraduateA-, March 1996

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Most comparisons derived from actual books, especially 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces.' The essay uses those three books and proves how a main character, who partakes on a quest, changes.

The Quest:

An Adventure of Change

A hero, usually the principle character of a story, is an individual of distinguished courage who is admired for their brave deeds. These characteristics and respected accomplishments are established in an adventure or a quest that they have been involved in. On these adventures that is a search for something, the character encounters obstacles testing their skills of strength and intelligence. The quest is a process of mental and spiritual transformation for the characters, and this is evident of Theseus from a combination of Greek mythological writings, Bilbo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey.

Theseus is a character who was written by many Greek mythological writers, and a person of many quests.

His first quest was a decision on his own, and it was a quest where there was nothing to be searched for. The journey along the land route across the Isthmus of Corinth proved that Theseus was a courageous warrior. At the age of 16 he knew he was strong and believed that he was the son of the god Poseidon, however, he had never tested his skills as a warrior and was not sure if he would succeed in his quest along the Isthmus. Since childhood he had listened to the tales of Heracles and wished to make his name known for his actions, and this was his chance. Setting out on his voyage, alone and unarmed, he soon met with Periphetes who enjoyed cracking the skulls of people with his bronze club. Theseus was obviously no match for this beast, but he...