PORTRAY OF AN ENEMY

PORTRAY OF AN ENEMY

enemy [en-uh-mee] noun, person, nation, etc., that are hostile to one another.
If you type the word 'enemy' on google, the definitions you will find will be similar to one another, but if you ask a man about his enemy you will be able to hear thousands of different descriptions, thousand of different stories, thousands of different perceptions.
 In the Hellenistic Greece - 2200 years ago-, under commission of Attalus I of Pergamon, an anonymous sculptor represented his enemy as a wounded man that refuses to bend in front of death: TheDying Gaul. Although the sculpture is a reminder of the Celts' defeat, it demonstrates that the Greeks were able to see nobility and heroism even in their own enemies. The white marble statue, that originally was made of bronze, depicts a man lying on the battlefield ground with remarkable realism and pathos. His chest is bleeding, wounded by a sward and although his face expression and his position suggest great pain, with a second attentive glance you can see his struggle. He knows that death and defeat are near but he doesn't let pain win over him, he fights until the end as a warrior whom he is and knows that he's dying with honor.
 The Dying Gaul is one of the greatest examples of the use of pathos, it's the victor showing empathy to the victim in a period of our history when it was completely normal to kill a man for a matter of honor or revenge.
 The Greeks had been able to represent his enemy with the best qualities and the best attitude in front of death an Hellenistic man could have had, can we now, 2200 years later, think of our enemy with the same respect?  I bet most of the people would say yes, but then why, -in a time when we have been taught to forgive, to treat our enemy as our friends- why would we decide to bomb other nations, other men? Why would we like to see more people falling, more children crying, more buildings crumbling? Why would we let other people live in smoke and ashes and fire and fear?
Why would man kill another man only because he's labeled as enemy?