The Epic Hero

What is an epic hero? You might be wondering. To me an epic hero is a character who endures a great deal of adversity and comes out on top as the top dog. This character is usually a male based upon society's dominance of males being the dominant sex there really has been no female influence upped the epic hero population. I believe this is because throughout English classes the most recently written piece of literature was from the 1980s. Although there have been some very dominant females in society their numbers have been small. Therefore, one does not read about an epic female hero. Rather we here more about guys like Beowulf or Odysseus who kill, dominate, and find women. Not all heroes are like these two but as far as literature goes for me they are very popular.
The difference between an epic hero such as Beowulf and someone who is an actual hero like Tim Tebow is that Beowulf is a killer while Tebow was a great COLLEGE quarterback and it's a shame he could not cut it in the NFL because you hope for your heroes to succeed. Beowulf never failed, but real life heroes happen to fail many times before they succeed. I think this is what appeals to people. The fact that their heroes are human makes them relatable until they succeed and they become unbelievable. It seems interesting how once that hero reaches their peak how easily it is taken away from them. It is sad to see but at the same time that is life you never go out on top.