The Ideal Hero In Ovid's Metamorphoses

The ideal hero, is this mythical characterization that throughout literature authors either try to build characters up to the standard or strip down the standard. The ideal hero, is selfless, honored, cares for both family and country, has little regard for their own fate, and is a man. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the character of Polyxena is perceived as possessing many qualities of the ideal hero. Polyxena is selfless, willingly accepts her fate, is deeply concerned with the needs of her mother, but alas is a woman. Despite Polyxena’s status as a woman, she is often described as being unfeminine and the ties to her masculinity can be strengthen by looking at two of two heroic warriors, Mezentius and Turnus, in Virgil’s The Aeneid. Polyxena in
Mezentius requests for his body to be left in the earth so that he may die and be reunited with his son, “One thing is all I ask, if the vanquished may ask a favor of the victor: let my body be covered by the earth…Let me rest in the grave beside my son, in the comradeship of death, “(Aen. 10.1071-1077). Mezentius shared a very close relationship with his son, Lausus, who had been killed by Aeneas. Mezentius now faces Aeneas himself and asks for his body to be left so that he may be with his son, a personal request that will benefit him. While Polyxena makes a request for the sake of her mother, Mezentius is concerned with how he will be affected in the afterlife. Mezentius is selfish in his request pushing him further away from the ideal hero. In his own final battle with Aeneas, Turnus asks for his body to be left behind. Turnus mainly is concerned with the returning of his body tot the people but also calls in what it would mean to his father, “I pray you-you has such a father, in old Anchises- pity Daunus in his old age and send me back to my people, or if you would prefer send them my dead body stripped of life,” (Aen. 12.1086-1089). Similar to both Polyxena and Mezentius, Turnus brings in a familial appeal to his plea. However, Turnus also asks for his body to be returned to his people, so that they may
When faced with his death, Mezentius offers his throat up willingly to Aeneas, “With those words, fully aware, he offers up his throat to the sword and across his armor pours his life in waves of blood,” (Aen. 10. 1078-1079). Despite his renowned fighting skills and status as a great warrior, Mezentius chooses the sacrificial death. In his death, Mezentius is acting contrary to the role of an ideal hero. Mezentius willingly gives over his life like a sacrificial animal rather than fighting to the end. Though Mezentius takes the opposite form of death than Polyxena, he shares in the ideal of the acceptance of fate, “Mezentius cries grinning through his rage, ‘As for my own death the Father of Gods and King of men will see to that,’” (Aen. 10.876-878). Mezentius knows what will become of him and does not try to fight his fate. Death does not frighten Mezentius, his only concern is that he will be reunited with his son in the underworld. On the contrary to Mezentius willingness to face his fate, Turnus is frightened by his fate even begging Aeneas for mercy, “Here, the victor and the vanquished, I stretch my hands to you, so the men of Latium have seen me in defeat. Lavinia is your bride. Go no further down the road of hatred,’” (Aen. 12. 1089-1093). Turnus concedes to Aeneas, and asks for his life to be spared, a request which neither Mezentius nor Polyxena make. Due to his weakness in the