Epic Blog (not what you might think)

In the Iliad, Hektor and Achilles face each other in battle. At the beginning of the battle, Hektor is too scared to fight Achilles so he runs. He runs around the city three times before he stops. He is convinced by Athena to stop running and fight Achilles. They face off and Achilles ends up killing Hektor in his intense rage.

In the Greek culture, confronting death is considered heroic. Hektor and Achilles were considered heroes because they were willing to put their life on the line. Hektor was heroic because he fought Achilles even though he knew Achilles was much better than him at fighting and would probably kill him. Achilles was heroic because he fought Hektor because he had killed his friend Andromache. He was willing to stand in harms way and fight in honor of Andromache's death.

This connects to modern society in America in some ways. In some instances, facing death is heroic and others, it's quite the opposite. I will outline some of the ideas I think make facing death heroic and some ideas that make it not heroic.

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The troops of America that fight for us are considered American heroes. They put themselves in harms way every day that they are overseas to protect our freedom.

Some civilians have a good heart to save others while putting themselves in danger. This person was saved just seconds before the train came into the station.








There are also ways that I think putting your life in danger is not heroic at all. I will outline some examples of these non-heroic acts

This man is putting himself in extreme danger because he is suicidal. He is also putting his rescuers in danger. This is not heroic because he is risking the live of himself and others for no other reason than personal gain (or loss). He is risking 10,000 Volts of electricity going into his body.

This man is risking his life and others' lives on the highway to make a run for it in a possibly stolen car. He makes it worse when he crashes into the side of another car.








I have given you some examples of people facing death, some for the benefit of others, and some for the destruction of others. Putting yourself in harms way, even though it is considered heroic to the Ancient Greeks, is sometimes the farthest thing from heroic.

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RWLD Reactions:

The Aeneid has been a big influence of different cultures. The relationship between Dido and Aeneas has been the model of an "ilicit marraige". People also liked to trace their roots back to the ancient Romans and having the artwork of the Aeneid around made it more believable. His work is quoted often, and even the church used it as a model to show how men should act in the sort of situations like that of Aeneas. The Aeneid has had much influence on many works of art also. There are both paintings and statues depicting different part in the story.

I didn't know that so many things were based around The Aeneid. I thought the artwork was magnificent and it depicted the parts of the story well. It brings a whole new perspective of the story to me because I now have visuals in my brain of what is happening while I read the story.