Week 10 - The Hero and His Men

The Hero and His Men (or When Friends become Family)

El Cid is very similar to all the other epic heroes in the sense that he is too separated from his family for an immense amount of time. He and Jimena have to part already at the beginning of of the epic. Therefore, the Cid spends most of his time with his closest companions and his whole entourage. His family only plays a marginal role in his life. Although he is trying to gain his good reputation back for his wife too, he seems to do it mainly for himself because he cannot live in dishonor. So he deliberately chooses a life without his wife. And in the broader sense a life without women at all because he is only surrounded by man (INTERESTING, hmmm).

Odysseus also spends years away from his wife. But he obviously suffers. He can hardly stand being away from Penelope and he even breaks out crying in one scene. Indeed, he has female companions throughout his journey (Circe and Calypso), with whom he even has sex but it is only because he has to stay alive somehow, and cheating on Penelope is kind of the only way to do it. He does not enjoy himself while he is away. His only companions are his crew but he even loses them. 

Gilgamesh as another example does not really have a family to begin with (apart from his mother that is). He does not have a romantic interest but he sleeps with all the virgins in town to prove that he is the strongest and basically just because HE CAN. His closest companion, and thus, something like a family is Enkidu. They are extremely close, do everything together, and Gilgamesh beasically dotes on him. 

Consequently, part of being a hero is living without your family for some time and being surrounded by a bunch of guys which is of course always only a Platonic relationship. So, if you go on one of your epic journeys you can either be a loner (such as Siegfried) or you can take all your guy friends and spend a couple of years away from your wife only with them (did they not realize that this even SOUNDS wrong???). So the question is if some epic heroes have a homosexual side to them.

The Cid and his MEN