The Arrogance of the Epic Hero (or You kinda asked for that...)
It is a human flaw that we become increasingly arrogant the more we achieve. After proving that they are strong and heroic for a couple of times, epic heroes become vain and to bold. They just start doing reckless things because they think that they can get away with stuff like that.
A good example for this kind of behavior is Odysseus. The hero of the Trojan War who came up with the brilliant Trojan horse idea, is struggling to get back into his home country Ithaca and lands on this island which is inhabited by Polyphemus, a cyclops and Poseidon's SON. Knowing how vengeful ancient Greek gods can be you should be really alarmed already. But what is our brilliant hero doing? He tricks the cyclops so that he and his men can escape from the cave. He is more than just successful in doing so. Polyphemus ends up blind and screams that Nobody has hurt him. Brilliant, so far. But then suddenly, as Odysseus is reaching his ship, he starts bragging and gives away his name. If that isn't arrogant, then I don't know what is. So it is not surprising that Poseidon eventually takes revenge for his son.
Another smart guy is Gilgamesh. First off, he starts out as this very arrogant guy who sleeps with every virgin in town because he is the most powerful man. This goes on until Enkidu challenges him and tells him that he disapproves of his practice. The second time Gilgamesh proves his hubris is when he kills Humbaba the monster who was put in the Cedar Forest by the gods to terrify men. He just disregards the gods will. On top of that, he proves his arrogance when Ishtar tries to make him her lover. He does not just reject her but he humiliates her. But all of these deeds can, of course, not go unpunished. Therefore, his best friend Enkidu has to die.
Thus, arrogance is certainly another characteristic of the epic hero. However, after the hero is punished for his arrogant behavior, he grows and changes that. So this is part of the hero becoming mature. Whereas, in antique tragedies, the hubris brings about the hero's downfall, it only leads to a severe punishment for him in the epic.
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| Odysseus blinding Polyphemus |
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