THE AENEID-Choices

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Choices

Life is full of difficult choices. There is no getting around it. One must “suck it up” and “deal with it” because it is a part of life that will never change. These choices range from what clothes to wear in the morning to the person one is going to marry. Choices effect every part of everyday life. Some even effect years to come. So many times people believe that choices and their outcomes are all coincidence. Begging to differ, many times, choices are given to us to be made by God. Aeneas faced many adversities and had to make many choices throughout his lifetime and especially in his adulthood. The decisions Aeneas made were decisions that not many people would want to ever have to.
For example, when Troy was first being attacked and Aeneas had to decide whether he was going to run and live to fight for his country or die trying to defend it when there was no hope. Even in a time of immense pressures, Aeneas made the choice to run, not as a coward, but as a man of hope and determination. This choice may have resulted in many losses of life and of faith, but in the end there was nothing but victory.
Another instance of being faced with a choice to make was when Mercury was sent by Jupiter to give a message to Aeneas concerning his future. The choice was clear, he would either stay with his love, Dido, or he would follow the plan of the gods and head towards Italy. His heart was Dido’s and to take it back was the last thing he wanted to do. Aeneas had to choose between a relationship that had been consummated as would have been a marriage or the well being of his people. These people trusted Aeneas, and he knew that their lives were in his hands. When it came down to it, something had to be sacrificed and Aeneas knew what that sacrifice had to be. Even though Dido had difficulty understanding and never accepted the will of the gods as a reason, in the end all was well. Dido did take her own life, but in th...