Although this is a very controversial question, Aeneas is indeed a hero throughout the great work. Aeneas may have done some things that portray him like a wimp, but his overall leadership and ability to fulfill his duties assigned by the gods make him a hero. It may sound dumb to consider Aeneas a hero when he ran away at a very bad time, but that strategic move was in turn the correct thing to do. Also, it is important to remember that the journey he had from Troy to Italy is not an easy one, and not everything is going to go as expected. The event that really displays his great leadership and qualities of a hero was in Book X when Aeneas violently took down the Latin troops. During this event he killed numerous prominent Latin leaders, the strongest one being Mezentius. This event was really a turning point in his journey, and really shows how he is a hero.
I totally agree with you. Aeneas is a hero because he confronted all the obstacles he had in front of him and he never gave up. We all know he decided to run instead of staying fighting. He didn’t really have a choice if he wanted to reconquer and rebuild again. The turning point for me was when he was with Dido, he could have stayed and forget about everything. He didn’t stayed and he decided to leave his comfort zone succeeding his visions.
I agree with both of you, many hero’s and people with high power have done bad things, that sometimes could be over glorified. I think that people have this high expectation for what we would consider a modern day hero that we over look the fact they too, have done bad things. Even though running away may have seemed like a cowardly move, he was still young and had much to learn.