The Power of Kings in the Iliad and Beowulf

Kings play an important role in both Beowulf and The Iliad. In both poems, the leaders have complete authority over their people. It is considered dishonourable in both poems to disobey the king. The leader’s orders are rarely even questioned by anyone other than advisors and fellow kings. Yet even though kings from both The Iliad and Beowulf wield tremendous power, their roles do differ.

In The Iliad, kings are looked at as the ultimate leaders of their country, as well as being the best warrior on the battlefield in times of war. In Homer’s Greece the king was supposed to be the greatest person to lead the country. As Odysseus says “Too many kings can ruin an army – mob rule! Let there be one commander, one master only.” These leaders are under tremendous pressure to perform in both roles. In battles, leaders in Homeric Greece are always near the front lines. Frequently they seek out other leaders to fight and fight the other side’s best warriors. All of this fighting was for the leaders to gain glory. When trying to raise the morale in battle, Sarpedon says to Glaucus, “in we go for attack! Give our enemy glory or win it for ourselves!”. For all of this effort, the leader is rewarded with unimaginable honour. As Nestor, one of the wisest characters in Homer’s famous poem says, “No one can match the honours dealt a king.”. Not only do leaders acquire great wealth and fame in ancient Greece, but they do not have to give gifts to any of their subjects. The only wealth that the warrior subjects get is what they plunder from battle themselves. These warriors get great honour and glory as well, but not as much as the king. The king also gets the majority of the plunder of any military campaign.

Not only do the leaders of ancient Greece gain glory and recognition in their time, but they are remembered for generations after their death. This glory is handed down to their children and they are given a chance to uphold the family honour. Kings are often referred to as the son of whoever their father was, as when Homer tells of when Polypoetes kills Damasus, “There-Pirithous’ son of the rugged Polypoetes who skewered Damasus.” This meant that leaders in Homeric Greece not only had to gain honour and glory for themselves, but also had to gain glory so that their sons would enjoy being from good lineage.

As said before, leaders in The Iliad had tremendous power over their subjects. Leaders simply were not questioned by their teams. Throughout the entire Iliad, no king is ever disobeyed by someone other than fellow royalty. Even when one leader does something that takes away from another leader, the results are full of anger from both sides. A good example of this is when Agamemnon takes Achilles concubine, Briseis. Just being ordered by an oracle to give up his concubine makes Agamemnon so angry that he seeks revenge. Not only does Agamemnon need revenge, but he has to go after a powerful person to prove his own strength. And of course Agamemnon chooses to go after the most powerful Greek, and his most powerful ally, Achilles. After this, Agamemnon begs and pleads with Achilles to come back to the fighting, but Achilles has been so offended that he refuses to rejoin the war.

The leaders in The Iliad are very powerful. In fact, the only things more powerful than kings are the gods. The kings in The Iliad feared only the gods and listened to oracles concerning the will of the gods. Very rarely would a leader disobey or fight the gods, and when they did they always met with disastrous results. Even if a king, or any royalty, makes disastrous decisions for his people, such as Paris kidnapping Helen, the leader remains in absolute control over his people. The leader is never questioned by his team, and is expected to gain glory for himself and the rest of his family through victories in battle. The time period of The Iliad may be the peak of royal power and authority.

Kings in Beowulf have many similarities with those in The Iliad. The biggest is their quest for honour and glory. Honour is the second greatest asset that a leader can have, next to wealth. Starting on line 407, Beowulf introduces himself to Hrothgar. In his introduction speech, Beowulf announces the deeds that he himself had accomplished. In the speech he says “every elder and councilman… supported my resolve… because all knew of my awesome strength.” He also says “They have seen me bolstered in the blood of enemies”. Beowulf, to establish his credibility, states his accomplishments in battle. Also like The Iliad, this honour and glory is passed down to the sons of those who gain it. When Beowulf lands on the shores of Denmark and meets the coast guard, he states his father’s name before his own, saying, “In his day, my father was a famous man, a noble warrior lord named Ecgtheow. After Beowulf does finally mention his name, he asks to speak to Hrothgar, but does not say Hrothgar’s name, but instead says, “If your lord and master, the most renowned son of Halfdane, will hear me out.” Clearly people in this society are judged at least partially by what their father does. And in order to keep the family name honourable, each male is required to gather glory for themselves. In the way that royal families keep and gain glory and honour, the leaders in Beowulf and The Iliad are very much the same.

Like the kings of The Iliad, the rulers of Beowulf are very religious and try to honour God. Yet, unlike the Greek kings, the Beowulf kings honour God as something that can only bring goodness and righteousness to the world. While the Greeks obeyed their gods so that they would not be punished, the hierarchy in Beowulf’s time believed that all of their success was due to the divine will of God and that He was never wrong. Whereas the Greeks were occasionally reluctant about following the directions of their gods, characters in Beowulf believed that not doing God’s will to the fullest would be a disgrace, as God does only what is absolutely good. When he hears that Beowulf has arrived in Denmark, Hrothgar says “Now Holy God has, in His goodness, guided him here to the West-Danes.” Here, the credit for bringing Beowulf to fight Grendel does not go to Hrothgar, but to God. And when Beowulf announces that he will fight Grendel, he says “Which ever one death fells must deem it a just judgement by God.” Beowulf is saying that if he dies, it will be by God’s will and therefore it will be justified. Compare this to Greeks such as Diomedes, who fights Aphrodite, or Achilles, who fights the river-god Scamander.

Another big difference was how the leaders held on to their power. In Homer’s poem, kings ruled by gaining glory and never relinquished their power unless they were killed in battle. In Beowulf, kings must reward their subjects for heroic deeds by giving them gold and other valuable items. For this reason many kings and other important figures are known as “ring givers”. When kings are introduced in Beowulf, their qualities are usually given before their name. Things such as the king’s lineage, how noble they are, exploits of theirs, and how kind the king is are very usual things to hear. When Wulfgar meets with Beowulf he says, “I will take this message, in accordance with your wish, to our noble king, our dear lord, friend of the Danes, the giver of rings.”

This gift giving marks a clear distinction that exists between Greek and Scandinavian leaders. The Greek kings need only to win battles. The Scandinavian kings need not only to win battles and reward their subjects, but also protect their people, sometimes at the expense of personal honour. In fact, half of the poem Beowulf is an example. Hrothgar is watching Grendel kill many of his people, yet is powerless to stop him. When Hrothgar allows Beowulf to kill Grendel, he is admitting that neither he, nor any of his Danish warriors can defeat Grendel. Even though Hrothgar knows he will take this slight insult, he recognizes that he must protect his people.

Yet the loss of honour that Hrothgar must take is small. Beowulf never dishonours Hrothgar and in fact treats him with the utmost respect, just as Beowulf would treat any king. The reason for this is that Hrothgar is being a good king by asking for help, if not a good warrior. This exemplifies the difference between kings in The Iliad and Beowulf. Hrothgar eventually tells Beowulf “Do not give way to pride.” Hrothgar goes on to explain to Beowulf that he must be careful in assuming that he will have strength forever and says, “I came to believe my enemies had faded from the face of the earth. Still, what happened was a hard reversal from bliss to grief.” It is impossible to imagine a Greek king warning a fellow warrior of the dangers of pride. Hrothgar willingly took an insult to protect his people by calling on Beowulf. Agamemnon sent his people to war to avenge an insult that his brother, the king of a different country, took. The inability to swallow their pride made the Greek kings of The Iliad inferior to the Scandinavian kings of Beowulf.

So the kings in the two epic poems have many similarities, and even more differences. In conclusion, the unquestionable authority of the Greek leaders make them more powerful. Yet this is their greatest fault. This authority leads to massive egos and inflated pride. That same pride is what Hrothgar warned Beowulf about. Even though the Scandinavian kings must reward their armies with vast amounts of land and wealth, they are the better leaders. They are willing to put the good of the people in front of themselves. They also are bound to a code of good moral character that is mandated by their faith in God. Both nationalities of kings covet glory, wealth, and honour, and are responsible for collecting them. Yet the Beowulf kings are responsible for the well being of their people in a way that Iliad kings are not.