Great Responsibilities, Great Sacrifices

Your loved ones only want the best for you. They don’t want to see you get hurt, let alone die right before their eyes. When you love someone, you forget about other things, even yourself. All your care goes to the one you love. In the case of the two epics, Iliad and Aeneid, the wives of Hector and Aeneas, Andromache and Creusa pleaded their husbands to cease their plans of fighting.

Both wives showed their care and compassion for their husbands. It can be truly be felt that Andromache and Creusa loved their husbands with all their hearts since they didn’t want them to get hurt. But despite their wives words, both heroes continued their attacks with tragic results. In the Iliad, Hector, along with his son was killed and Andromache survived. In the Aeneid, Creusa was the one who was killed. This was fate after all. It was the will of the gods. 

It seems to them, that their duties overpower their wives. That is why both husbands didn’t follow the will of their wives. Hector and Aeneas were heroes. Heroes have great responsibilities to fulfill. And with great responsibilities, there are also great sacrifices. 

Life Can Do Terrible Things

Being alive isn’t living with perfection. All of us will experience hardships. Sometimes, when you thought that these are over, more will take their place. Don’t forget, God gives us these challenges to, of course, challenge and test us. He tests how we face and find ways to solve them.

The epic, Aeneid is truly full of twists and turns. Aeneas experienced a lot of losses, especially when his father, Anchises and lover, Dido died. Even the fall of his homeland broke him apart. Despite everything he experienced, he never gave up. Some of his days felt like razor blades, and some tasted like lemonades, but still he continued to live on.  He used his losses as motivation instead of being sorry for himself. Though there were times when almost all hope was lost, Aeneas, along with his companions, saw the light through the darkness. Even if storms and a giant wooden horse blocked Aeneas’ way, he moved mountains, fought the toughest of armies and defied the gods.

Life can beyond doubt do terrible things. However, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth living.  Rain and winds may stop you from carrying on, but why not stop and think for a while? Your ultimate victory may not come now and how you may have expected it to, but it will, at the right time and at the right place.

Determination, Hope, Courage

Imagine your hometown being burned down, innocent people being killed right before your eyes and the seemingly never-ending dark of the night swallowing you whole. Who could ever live through that sight? If you would ask me, I would fall down to my knees as all my hope of surviving washed away. I couldn't bear to see all the memories I had in my town turn into ash with it. 

In Aeneas’ case, he didn't show weakness. Though he wasn’t able to defend his city, he was able to save some of his townspeople. It was smart to flee and live to fight another day. It was too late anyway, there was nothing else to save. I felt sympathy and pity for Aeneas since I somewhat felt how he felt when he stood at the sight of his beloved city burning down. When I heard that my grandparents’ house was burned, I felt a pain I never felt before. I was, of course worried about my family and sad about the house. It was a good thing not one of my family was hurt. But the thought of all our belongings being burned down, it tears us to pieces. 

Still, we moved on. There’s no use crying over spilled milk, right? Just as Aeneas did when he fled with the people he saved. He found ways to survive and live on, of course, with the help of the gods and the people he meets along the way. What’s done is done. Life has all these challenges lined up before us, all we have to do is to keep moving forward and use these hardships to our  advantage. With determination, hope and courage, there's nothing we can't overcome.

Yay

The last grading is finally here! :D