HERO

(Gr. jfja;?.) Lennep derives it from the verb atgai, / lift. But the root of it is probably to be found in the same original word which appears in the Latin her us, 771 aster; Germ, ari-mann; perhaps the Sanscrit sura. The heroes of the Greeks were deceased mortals to whom divine honours were paid. It is probable, indeed, that such was the origin of their gods themselves (see Polytheism); but if so, hero worship was a secondary or added system, which grew up in a later age. The word " hero," in Homer, is simply synonymous with warrior; nor is there any trace (at least in the Iliad) of hero-worship. It seems to have commenced not long after the composition of that poem. The last to whom any honours approaching to divine seem to have been paid were the A then i ans slain at Marathon. The heroic age, commonly so called in Grecian poetry, seems to have ended with the descendants of those who returned from Troy. ( Wachsmuth. Hist. Antiq. qf the Greeks j ThirlwaWs History of Greece, chap. 5. Carlyle's Hero Worship) [s. 566]