Saturday, April 25, 2009
Cuchulainn
In the Tain, Cuchulainn is depicted as basically the perfect warrior- he is brave, noble, dangerous and handsome and saves Ulster at the young age of seventeen. Achilles, Hector, and the Pandavas, the heroes of the Iliad and the Mahabharata were not without their own faults yet Cuchulainn seems to be faultless. Were there any flaws in Cuchulainn's character?
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Yes, Cuchulainn does appear to be the absolutely perfect hero that any guy would want to be. It's very hard to find faults in him. He is strong and courageous and fights for the honor of his land and protection his people. But I think one thing that could somewhat be counted as a flaw is that he kills his own son. While its true that he did do it for honor, but this would be greatly looked down upon in today's world. He took honor to the extreme by doing this.
ReplyDeleteI think that all depends. If you put the act in today's culture, sure it would be considered a fault. But to take his honor to such an extreme that he is willing to kill his own son was probably a reflection of good character in his time. I think the only fault I could find in him would be some selfishness. Like when he shirks his duties to continue playing with the boy group.
ReplyDeleteFor all his god-like abilities it does seem he has no faults or weaknesses, but one thing does stick out to me. No-one would ever listen and follow sound advice. They were going to do things their way and no-one else's.
ReplyDeleteAnother weakness I saw in Cu Chulainn was his temper. If anyone insulted him, he was quick to kill. No hurling insults back and forth like in the Maharabhata, it was, you said something mean so you are dead.
Other than thinkgs like this he doesn't seem to have any real flaws like Achilles.
I would say he does have one 'fault' I noticed, but it'd only be seen as a fault in other cultures/mythologies. Ultimately, Cu Culhainn was human and could be killed, so he was vulnerable. Vulnerability wasn't something revered in Greek or Hind culture, but I believe in Celtic that's what makes them value and think so highly of their heroes - they perform all these great feats despite the fact that they have grave limitations.
ReplyDeleteCu Culhainn does stick out of the hero bunch in all of the texts we read in that he is pretty much faultless. I don’t find him having any faults. He did have a slight temper but I think this attribute made him human. Outside of that he did not have anything to be frowned upon. Without an attribute like that (I consider it an attribute not a fault) Cu Culhainn would have seemed to perfect and that would make him seem more divine and less human. In the Celtic mythology it seems that that human factor of frailty, mortality, and being like your fellow man seems to be what makes their heroes so revered and in his case that temper is necessary.
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