AENEID
I believe that the ending of the Aeneid shows that Aeneas is very heroic. According to Webster?s New Dictionary, ?a man of distinguished bravery? and ?admired for his exploits.? Aeneas is very brave when he fights Turnus, especially because it is known that the gods are on his side. He successfully killed Turnus, which is an achievement that calls for admiration.
Turnus pleaded for his life, yet he did not deserve to have the privilege of being pardoned bestowed upon him. That is why Aeneas is looked up to for ending his life. I believe that when someone takes a life then the penalty of death should be reciprocated. A person who takes a life for revenge would usually not have my pardon either, but the poem takes place at a time where there was war and chaos, and so there would be no enforcement of punishing Turnus. Therefore, I believe it was right for Aeneas to take justice into his own hands by killing the man who killed Pallas.
We know that Aeneas was considering sparing his life, but when he saw the sword belt that used to belong to Pallas, he knew that Turnus deserved to be killed, just as he had killed Pallas. I think of it being the ancient form of the death penalty, which strongly gets my approval. The reason for Aeneas killing Turnus was out of vengeance and he felt it was the right thing to do. I agree with his decision and I would have done the same thing if I was in that position and living at that time.
A hero to me is a person that is brave and makes wise choices that are fair, as well as being morally and legally correct. In this case, Aeneas killed Turnus to reciprocate for Turnus killing Pallas. As the saying goes, eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth. Aeneas is a hero for not letting Turnus get away with killing Pallas, but instead giving him the punishment that he rightfully deserved. There was no organized government at the time to punish Turnus for his actions.
Turnus may have spared if he did not gloat about killing Pallas. After killing Pallas, Turnus stepped on his body and took his sword belt. He refused to bury Pallas, as well. If he would have buried Pallas instead of embarrassing him. Aeneas probably would have had some consideration being that the killing occurred during a war, in which many people killed each other. The only thing that made him stop his reconsideration of sparing Turnus was that he saw the sword belt, and so he remembered the arrogance and cruelty of Turnus.
Turnus deserved to die because he took another person?s life and boasted over the dead body of Pallas. Heroism is shown by Aeneas when he took justice in his own hands and got his revenge. The fact that Aeneas was considering the idea of sparing Turnus just continues to prove the fact of his heroism. He is compassionate and understanding for thinking about this idea. He was smart though for not forgiving Turnus because Turnus wanted Pallas dead and so he killed him. Therefore, he deserved to be killed by Aeneas. He started to plead to Aeneas to spare his life, but this would not have been morally correct because he did not spare Pallas. Instead, he bragged about his actions and took the sword belt. If he would have been compassonate and spared Pallas, then Aeneas would have spared him. He decided to kill Pallas, and so Aeneas killed him. It is all entangled in the principles of life and knowing what is right and what is wrong. Turnus made a wrong decision, but some people might then say that two wrongs do not make a right, referring to Aeneas killing Turnus as being wrong. I, on the other hand, believe that he right, and so that makes the statement using two wrongs invalid. Heroism is seen in those who achieve something and are therefore admired for their accomplishment. Aeneas achieved justice by using good judgment and punishing someone who deserved to be punished.