During classical times, people regarded heroes with the highest esteem and utmost importance, explaining their prominence within epic literature. While these heroes are incredibly resourceful and skilled, they are often foolhardy, court disaster, risk their followers' lives for trivial matters, and behave arrogantly in a childlike manner. Classical heroes are commonly semi-divine and extraordinarily gifted, such as Achilles, evolving into heroic characters through their perilous circumstances. Each classical hero's life focuses on fighting, which occurs in war or during an epic quest. Unlike medieval and modern heroes, classical heroes did great deeds out of esteem and fame rather than out of any concern for the good of peopleĪ classical hero is considered to be a "warrior who lives and dies in the pursuit of honor" and asserts their greatness by "the brilliancy and efficiency with which they kill". Perseus and the head of Medusa in a Roman fresco at Stabiae. Hera was a Greek goddess with many attributes, including protection and her worship appears to have similar proto-Indo-European origins. Beekes rejects an Indo-European derivation and asserts that the word has a Pre-Greek origin.
Partridge concludes, "The basic sense of both Hera and hero would therefore be 'protector'." R. According to Eric Partridge in Origins, the Greek word hērōs "is akin to" the Latin seruāre, meaning to safeguard. Hero as a name appears in pre-Homeric Greek mythology, wherein Hero was a priestess of the goddess Aphrodite, in a myth that has been referred to often in literature.Īccording to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the Proto-Indo-European root is *ser meaning "to protect".
Before the decipherment of Linear B the original form of the word was assumed to be * ἥρωϝ-, hērōw-, but the Mycenaean compound ti-ri-se-ro-e demonstrates the absence of -w. The word hero comes from the Greek ἥρως ( hērōs), "hero" (literally "protector" or "defender"), particularly one such as Heracles with divine ancestry or later given divine honors. Examples of heroes range from mythological figures, such as Gilgamesh, Achilles and Iphigenia, to historical and modern figures, such as Joan of Arc, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sophie Scholl, Alvin York, Audie Murphy, and Chuck Yeager, and fictional " superheroes", including Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, and Captain America.Ĭoronation of the Hero of Virtue by Peter Paul Rubens, c. Merriam Webster dictionary defines a hero as "a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities". The definition of a hero has changed throughout time. In classical literature, the hero is the main or revered character in heroic epic poetry celebrated through ancient legends of a people, often striving for military conquest and living by a continually flawed personal honor code. Other terms associated with the concept of hero may include good guy or white hat. Post-classical and modern heroes, on the other hand, perform great deeds or selfless acts for the common good instead of the classical goal of wealth, pride, and fame. The original hero type of classical epics did such things for the sake of glory and honor.
Like other formerly solely gender-specific terms (like actor), hero is often used to refer to any gender, though heroine only refers to women. FantasyĪ hero ( heroine in its feminine form) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Giuseppe Garibaldi is considered an Italian national hero for his role in the Italian unification, and is known as the " Hero of the Two Worlds" because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe.