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69-399: A hero (feminine: heroine ) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage , or strength . The original hero type of classical epics did such things for the sake of glory and honor . Post-classical and modern heroes, on the other hand, perform great deeds or selfless acts for the common good instead of
138-551: A scholium to Pindar 's Fifth Nemean Ode: "Much weaker in strength than the Minotaur , Theseus fought with it and won using pankration , as he had no knife." Pankration , a martial art that featured in the ancient Olympic Games, means "total power and knowledge", one "associated with gods and heroes ... who conquer by tapping every talent". Protagonist A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής prōtagōnistḗs 'one who plays
207-407: A gulag camp. Leo Tolstoy 's War and Peace depicts fifteen major characters involved in or affected by a war. Though many people equate protagonists with the term hero and possessing heroic qualities, it is not necessary, as even villainous characters can be protagonists. For example Michael Corleone from The Godfather (1972–1990) film series (1978–1983). In some cases, the protagonist
276-422: A hero (masculine) or heroine (feminine) protagonist is typically admired for their achievements and noble qualities. Heroes are lauded for their strength, courage, virtuousness, and honor, and are considered to be the "good guys" of the narrative. Examples include DC Comics' Superman (hero) and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (heroine). An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine
345-409: A childlike manner. During classical times, people regarded heroes with the highest esteem and utmost importance, explaining their prominence within epic literature. The appearance of these mortal figures marks a revolution of audiences and writers turning away from immortal gods to mortal mankind, whose heroic moments of glory survive in the memory of their descendants, extending their legacy. Hector
414-451: A good son, husband and father, and without darker motives. However, his familial values conflict greatly with his heroic aspirations in the Iliad, as he cannot be both the protector of Troy and a father to his child. Hector is ultimately betrayed by the deities when Athena appears disguised as his ally Deiphobus and convinces him to challenge Achilles, leading to his death at the hands of
483-646: A hero has changed throughout time. Merriam Webster dictionary defines a hero as "a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities". 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 , Supergirl , Spider-Man , Batman , and Captain America . The word hero comes from
552-466: A hero's sphere include: Propp distinguished between seekers and victim-heroes . A villain could initiate the issue by kidnapping the hero or driving him out; these were victim-heroes. On the other hand, an antagonist could rob the hero, or kidnap someone close to him, or, without the villain's intervention, the hero could realize that he lacked something and set out to find it; these heroes are seekers. Victims may appear in tales with seeker heroes, but
621-519: A massive role in the stories of classical heroes. The classical hero's heroic significance stems from battlefield conquests, an inherently dangerous action. The deities in Greek mythology , when interacting with the heroes, often foreshadow the hero's eventual death on the battlefield. Countless heroes and deities go to great lengths to alter their pre-destined fates, but with no success, as none, neither human or immortal can change their prescribed outcomes by
690-423: A poet named Thespis introduced the idea of one actor stepping out and engaging in a dialogue with the chorus. This was the invention of tragedy, and occurred about 536 B.C. Then the poet Aeschylus , in his plays, introduced a second actor, inventing the idea of dialogue between two characters. Sophocles then wrote plays that included a third actor. A description of the protagonist's origin cited that during
759-807: A role above and beyond risk type in determining the ascription of heroic status. Psychologists have also identified the traits of heroes. Elaine Kinsella and her colleagues have identified 12 central traits of heroism, which consist of brave, moral integrity, conviction, courageous, self-sacrifice , protecting, honest, selfless, determined, saves others, inspiring, and helpful. Scott Allison and George Goethals uncovered evidence for "the great eight traits" of heroes consisting of wise, strong, resilient, reliable, charismatic, caring, selfless, and inspiring. These researchers have also identified four primary functions of heroism. Heroes give us wisdom; they enhance us; they provide moral modeling; and they offer protection. An evolutionary psychology explanation for heroic risk-taking
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#1732765971165828-560: A single altar. Many other places had cults of the twelve gods, including Delos , Chalcedon , Magnesia on the Maeander , and Leontinoi in Sicily . As with the twelve Olympians, although the number of gods was fixed at twelve, the membership varied. While the majority of the gods included as members of these other cults of twelve gods were Olympians, non-Olympians were also sometimes included. For example, Herodorus of Heraclea identified
897-410: A superior warrior. Achilles was a Greek hero who was considered the most formidable military fighter in the entire Trojan War and the central character of the Iliad . He was the child of Thetis and Peleus , making him a demi-god . He wielded superhuman strength on the battlefield and was blessed with a close relationship to the deities . Achilles famously refused to fight after his dishonoring at
966-567: A supporting protagonist appears, the story is told from the perspective of a character who appears to be minor. This character may be more peripheral from the events of the story and are not as involved within the "main action" of the plot. The supporting protagonist may be telling the story while viewing another character as the main influence of the plot. One example is Nick in The Great Gatsby . Euripides ' play Hippolytus may be considered to have two protagonists, though one at
1035-432: A time. Phaedra is the protagonist of the first half, who dies partway through the play. Her stepson, the titular Hippolytus, assumes the dominant role in the second half of the play. In Henrik Ibsen 's play The Master Builder , the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist. In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet , Romeo
1104-593: Is a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage, and morality. Examples include Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye , Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind , Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby , and Walter White from Breaking Bad . A tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy. Examples include Oedipus from Oedipus Rex and Prince Hamlet from Shakespeare's Hamlet . The protagonist
1173-924: Is a multibillion-dollar industry that includes comic books, movies, toys, and video games. Superheroes usually possess extraordinary talents and powers that no living human could ever possess. The superhero stories often pit a super villain against the hero, with the hero fighting the crime caused by the super villain. Examples of long-running superheroes include Superman , Wonder Woman , Batman , and Spider-Man . Research indicates that male writers are more likely to make heroines superhuman, whereas female writers tend to make heroines ordinary humans, as well as making their male heroes more powerful than their heroines, possibly due to sex differences in valued traits. Social psychology has begun paying attention to heroes and heroism. Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo point out differences between heroism and altruism, and they offer evidence that observer perceptions of unjustified risk play
1242-496: Is his own antagonist). Sometimes, a work will have a false protagonist , who may seem to be the protagonist, but then may disappear unexpectedly. The character Marion in Alfred Hitchcock 's film Psycho (1960) is an example. A novel may contain a number of narratives, each with its own protagonist. Alexander Solzhenitsyn 's The First Circle , for example, depicts a variety of characters imprisoned and living in
1311-503: Is no perfect solution. Instead, he hopes that gradual realization of humanity's innate motivations, namely death, may help to bring about a better world. Terror Management Theory (TMT) has generated evidence supporting this perspective. Examining the success of resistance fighters on Crete during the Nazi occupation in WWII , author and endurance researcher C. McDougall drew connections to
1380-786: Is not a human: in Richard Adams ' novel Watership Down , a group of anthropomorphised rabbits, led by the protagonist Hazel, escape their warren after seeing a vision of its destruction, starting a perilous journey to find a new home. Twelve Olympians In ancient Greek religion and mythology , the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon , commonly considered to be Zeus , Poseidon , Hera , Demeter , Aphrodite , Athena , Artemis , Apollo , Ares , Hephaestus , Hermes , and either Hestia or Dionysus . They were called Olympians because, according to tradition, they resided on Mount Olympus . Besides
1449-484: Is not always conventionally good. Contrasting the hero protagonist, a villain protagonist is a protagonist who is a villain , driving the story forward regardless of the evil qualities the main character has. These traits can include being cruel, malicious, and wicked. Examples include Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Richard III in the eponymous play by William Shakespeare . When
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#17327659711651518-408: Is that it is a costly signal demonstrating the ability of the hero. It may be seen as one form of altruism for which there are several other evolutionary explanations as well. Roma Chatterji has suggested that the hero or more generally protagonist is first and foremost a symbolic representation of the person who is experiencing the story while reading, listening, or watching; thus the relevance of
1587-464: Is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist . The antagonist provides obstacles and complications and creates conflicts that test the protagonist, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character, and having the protagonist develop as a result. The term protagonist comes from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής ( prōtagōnistḗs ) 'actor who plays
1656-419: Is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet , Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist is the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius (though, in many ways, Hamlet
1725-533: The Ancient Greek heroes and a culture of integrated physical self-mastery, training, and mental conditioning that fostered confidence to take action, and made it possible for individuals to accomplish feats of great prowess, even under the harshest of conditions. The skills established an "ability to unleash tremendous resources of strength, endurance, and agility that many people don't realize they already have." McDougall cites examples of heroic acts, including
1794-525: The Greek ἥρως ( hērōs ), "hero" (literally "protector" or "defender"), particularly one such as Heracles with divine ancestry or later given divine honors. 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-. Hero as a name appears in pre-Homeric Greek mythology , wherein Hero
1863-569: The Horae , the Graces , the Muses , Eileithyia , Iris , Dione , and Ganymede . Besides the twelve Olympians, there were many other various cultic groupings of twelve gods throughout ancient Greece. The earliest evidence of Greek religious practice involving twelve gods ( Greek : δωδεκάθεον , dōdekátheon , from δώδεκα dōdeka , "twelve", and θεοί theoi , "gods") comes no earlier than
1932-550: The biographies of individuals, as in Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches and History of Frederick the Great . His heroes were not only political and military figures, the founders or topplers of states, but also religious figures, poets, authors, and captains of industry . Explicit defenses of Carlyle's position were rare in the second part of the 20th century. Most in the philosophy of history school contend that
2001-568: The dilemma of mortality through heroism, by focusing attention mainly on the symbolic self. This symbolic self-focus takes the form of an individual's " immortality project" (or " causa sui project"), which is essentially a symbolic belief-system that ensures that one is believed superior to physical reality. By successfully living under the terms of the immortality project, people feel they can become heroic and, henceforth, part of something eternal; something that will never die as compared to their physical body. This he asserts, in turn, gives people
2070-456: The "Mythic Hero Archetype" was first developed by Lord Raglan in his 1936 book, The Hero, A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama . It is a set of 22 common traits that he said were shared by many heroes in various cultures, myths, and religions throughout history and worldwide. Raglan argued that the higher the score, the more likely the figure is mythical. The concept of a story archetype of
2139-559: The Alpheus, to the "twelve ruling gods": [Heracles] enclosed the Altis all around and marked it off in the open, and he made the encircling area a resting-place for feasting, honoring the stream of the Alpheus along with the twelve ruling gods. Another of Pindar's Olympian odes mentions "six double altars". Herodorus of Heraclea (c. 400 BC) also has Heracles founding a shrine at Olympia, with six pairs of gods, each pair sharing
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2208-868: The Christian notion of an upstanding, perfectly moral hero. For example, Achilles's character-issues of hateful rage lead to merciless slaughter and his overwhelming pride lead to him only joining the Trojan War because he did not want his soldiers to win all of the glory. Classical heroes, regardless of their morality, were placed in religion. In classical antiquity , cults that venerated deified heroes such as Heracles , Perseus , and Achilles played an important role in Ancient Greek religion. These ancient Greek hero cults worshipped heroes from oral epic tradition , with these heroes often bestowing blessings, especially healing ones, on individuals. The concept of
2277-470: The Crucified and Risen Christ was fit to bring a new warmth, immediacy, and humanity, to the old motifs of the beloved Tammuz , Adonis , and Osiris cycles." Vladimir Propp , in his analysis of Russian fairy tales , concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personæ , of which one was the hero, and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian folklore. The actions that fall into such
2346-564: The Departure, Initiation, and Return. Within these stages, there are several archetypes that the hero of either gender may follow, including the call to adventure (which they may initially refuse), supernatural aid, proceeding down a road of trials, achieving a realization about themselves (or an apotheosis), and attaining the freedom to live through their quest or journey. Campbell offered examples of stories with similar themes, such as Krishna , Buddha , Apollonius of Tyana , and Jesus . One of
2415-564: The chief or first part', combined of πρῶτος ( prôtos , 'first') and ἀγωνιστής ( agōnistḗs , 'actor, competitor'), which stems from ἀγών ( agṓn , 'contest') via ἀγωνίζομαι ( agōnízomai , 'I contend for a prize'). The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece . At first, dramatic performances involved merely dancing and recitation by the chorus. Then in Poetics , Aristotle describes how
2484-433: The classical goal of wealth, pride , and fame. The antonym of hero is villain . Other terms associated with the concept of hero may include good guy or white hat . 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. The definition of
2553-586: The clearly defined anti-hero), with the plot focused on the eventual marriage of these two characters to rich men, revealing character flaws as the story progresses. Even the most sympathetic characters, such as Captain Dobbin, are susceptible to weakness, as he is often narcissistic and melancholic. The larger-than-life hero is a more common feature of fantasy (particularly in comic books and epic fantasy ) than more realist works. However, these larger-than life figures remain prevalent in society. The superhero genre
2622-656: The deities. Thus, Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera ", even though he was tormented all his life by Hera, the Queen of the Greek deities. Perhaps the most striking example is the Athenian king Erechtheus , whom Poseidon killed for choosing Athena rather than him as the city's patron deity. When the Athenians worshiped Erechtheus on the Acropolis , they invoked him as Poseidon Erechtheus . Fate , or destiny, plays
2691-466: The early period of Greek drama, the protagonist served as the author, the director, and the actor and that these roles were only separated and allocated to different individuals later. There is also a claim that the poet did not assign or create the protagonist as well as other terms for actors such as deuteragonist and tritagonist primarily because he only gave actors their appropriate part. However, these actors were assigned their specific areas at
2760-547: The epoch of globalization an individual may change the development of the country and of the whole world, so this gives reasons to some scholars to suggest returning to the problem of the role of the hero in history from the viewpoint of modern historical knowledge and using up-to-date methods of historical analysis. Within the frameworks of developing counterfactual history , attempts are made to examine some hypothetical scenarios of historical development. The hero attracts much attention because most of those scenarios are based on
2829-407: The exaggeration of the role of individual subjects in history. Indeed, Braudel distinguished various time scales, one accorded to the life of an individual, another accorded to the life of a few human generations, and the last one to civilizations , in which geography , economics , and demography play a role considerably more decisive than that of individual subjects. Among noticeable events in
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2898-652: The feeling that their lives have meaning, a purpose, and are significant in the grand scheme of things. Another theme running throughout the book is that humanity's traditional "hero-systems", such as religion , are no longer convincing in the age of reason . Science attempts to serve as an immortality project, something that Becker believes it can never do, because it is unable to provide agreeable, absolute meanings to human life. The book states that we need new convincing "illusions" that enable people to feel heroic in ways that are agreeable. Becker, however, does not provide any definitive answer, mainly because he believes that there
2967-403: The first part, chief actor') is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot , primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot , or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist. The protagonist
3036-463: The god Hermes divide a sacrifice of two cows he has stolen from Apollo, into twelve parts, on the banks of the river Alpheus (presumably at Olympia): Next glad-hearted Hermes dragged the rich meats he had prepared and put them on a smooth, flat stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each portion wholly honorable. Pindar, in an ode written to be sung at Olympia c. 480 BC, has Heracles sacrificing, alongside
3105-546: The great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown...[b]efore he can remake his society, his society must make him." Michel Foucault argued in his analysis of societal communication and debate that history was mainly the "science of the sovereign ", until its inversion by the "historical and political popular discourse". The Annales school , led by Lucien Febvre , Marc Bloch , and Fernand Braudel , would contest
3174-530: The hands of Agamemnon, and only returned to the war due to unadulterated rage after Hector killed his beloved companion Patroclus . Achilles was known for uncontrollable rage that defined many of his bloodthirsty actions, such as defiling Hector's corpse by dragging it around the city of Troy. Achilles plays a tragic role in the Iliad brought about by constant de-humanization throughout the epic, having his menis (wrath) overpower his philos (love). Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with
3243-416: The hero is more and more a problematic concept. In 1848, for example, William Makepeace Thackeray gave Vanity Fair the subtitle, A Novel without a Hero , and imagined a world in which no sympathetic character was to be found. Vanity Fair is a satirical representation of the absence of truly moral heroes in the modern world. The story focuses on the characters, Emmy Sedley and Becky Sharpe (the latter as
3312-523: The hero to the individual relies a great deal on how much similarity there is between them and the character. Chatterji suggested that one reason for the hero-as-self interpretation of stories and myths is the human inability to view the world from any perspective but a personal one. In the Pulitzer Prize -winning book, The Denial of Death , Ernest Becker argues that human civilization is ultimately an elaborate, symbolic defense mechanism against
3381-403: The knowledge of our mortality, which in turn acts as the emotional and intellectual response to our basic survival mechanism . Becker explains that a basic duality in human life exists between the physical world of objects and a symbolic world of human meaning. Thus, since humanity has a dualistic nature consisting of a physical self and a symbolic self, he asserts that humans are able to transcend
3450-491: The late sixth century BC. According to Thucydides , an altar of the twelve gods was established in the agora of Athens by the archon Pisistratus (son of Hippias and the grandson of the tyrant Pisistratus ), around 522 BC. The altar became the central point from which distances from Athens were measured and a place of supplication and refuge. Olympia apparently also had an early tradition of twelve gods. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes ( c. 500 BC ) has
3519-408: The motive forces in history may best be described only with a wider lens than the one that Carlyle used for his portraits. For example, Karl Marx argued that history was determined by the massive social forces at play in " class struggles ", not by the individuals by whom these forces are played out. After Marx, Herbert Spencer wrote at the end of the 19th century: "You must admit that the genesis of
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#17327659711653588-616: The original twelve being "cast out". In the Iliad , the goddess Themis , who is listed among the twelve Titans , dwells on Olympus alongside the other gods, making her a Titan and an Olympian at the same time. According to Hesiod, the children of Styx — Zelus (Envy), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Strength), and Bia (Force)—"have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus". Some others who might be considered Olympians include
3657-596: The place of Vesta (Greek Hestia), who played a crucial role in Roman religion as a state goddess maintained by the Vestals . There is no single canonical list of the twelve Olympian gods. The thirteen Greek gods and goddesses, along with their Roman counterparts, most commonly considered to be one of the twelve Olympians are listed below. Some lists of the Twelve Olympians omit her in favor of Dionysus, but
3726-580: The previous generation of ruling immortal beings, the Titans , children of the primordial deities Gaia and Uranus . They were a family of gods, the most important consisting of the first generation of Olympians, offspring of the Titans Cronus and Rhea : Zeus, Poseidon , Hera , Demeter and Hestia , along with the principal offspring of Zeus: Aphrodite , Athena , Artemis , Apollo , Ares , Hephaestus , Hermes and Dionysus . Although Hades
3795-499: The river god Alpheus, with the status of the Graces (here apparently counted as one god) being unclear. Plato connected "twelve gods" with the twelve months and implies that he considered Pluto (Or Hades) one of the twelve in proposing that the final month be devoted to him and the spirits of the dead. The Roman poet Ennius gives the Roman equivalents (the Dii Consentes ) as six male-female complements, preserving
3864-512: The six pairs of gods at Olympia as: Zeus and Poseidon, Hera and Athena, Hermes and Apollo, the Graces and Dionysus, Artemis and Alpheus , and Cronus and Rhea . Thus, while this list includes the eight Olympians: Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, and Dionysus, it also contains three clear non-Olympians: the Titan parents of the first generation of Olympians, Cronus and Rhea, and
3933-419: The stage with the protagonist always entering from the middle door or that the dwelling of the deuteragonist (second most important character) should be on the right hand, and the tritagonist (third most important character), the left. In Ancient Greece, the protagonist is distinguished from the term "hero", which was used to refer to a human who became a semi-divine being in the narrative. In literary terms,
4002-432: The standard monomythical "hero's quest " that was reputed to be pervasive across all cultures is somewhat controversial. Expounded mainly by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces , it illustrates several uniting themes of hero stories that hold similar ideas of what a hero represents despite vastly different cultures and beliefs. The monomyth or Hero's Journey consists of three separate stages:
4071-617: The studies of the role of the hero and great man in history one should mention Sidney Hook 's book (1943) The Hero in History . In the second half of the twentieth century such male-focused theory has been contested, among others by feminists writers such as Judith Fetterley in The Resisting Reader (1977) and literary theorist Nancy K. Miller , The Heroine's Text: Readings in the French and English Novel, 1722–1782 . In
4140-440: The suppositions: what would have happened if this or that historical individual had or had not been alive. The word "hero" (or "heroine" in modern times), is sometimes used to describe the protagonist or the romantic interest of a story, a usage which may conflict with the superhuman expectations of heroism. A good example is Anna Karenina , the lead character in the novel of the same title by Leo Tolstoy . In modern literature
4209-464: The tale does not follow them both. The philosopher Hegel gave a central role to the "hero", personalized by Napoleon , as the incarnation of a particular culture's Volksgeist and thus of the general Zeitgeist . Thomas Carlyle 's 1841 work, On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History , also accorded an essential function to heroes and great men in history. Carlyle centered history on
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#17327659711654278-464: The themes he explores is the androgynous hero, who combines male and female traits, such as Bodhisattva: "The first wonder to be noted here is the androgynous character of the Bodhisattva: masculine Avalokiteshvara, feminine Kwan Yin." In his 1968 book, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology , Campbell writes, "It is clear that, whether accurate or not as to biographical detail, the moving legend of
4347-742: The three powerful Fates . The most characteristic example of this is found in Oedipus Rex . After learning that his son, Oedipus , will end up killing him, the King of Thebes, Laius , takes huge steps to assure his son's death by removing him from the kingdom. When Oedipus encounters his father when his father was unknown to him in a dispute on the road many years later, Oedipus slays him without an afterthought. The lack of recognition enabled Oedipus to slay his father, ironically further binding his father to his fate. Stories of heroism may serve as moral examples . However, classical heroes often did not embody
4416-422: The twelve Olympians, there were many other cultic groupings of twelve gods. The Olympians were a race of deities , primarily consisting of a third and fourth generation of immortal beings, worshipped as the principal gods of the Greek pantheon and so named because of their residency atop Mount Olympus . They gained their supremacy in a ten-year-long war of gods , in which Zeus led his siblings to victory over
4485-786: The word has a Pre-Greek origin. Hera was a Greek goddess with many attributes, including protection and her worship appears to have similar proto-Indo-European origins. A 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". Each classical hero's life focuses on fighting, which occurs in war or during an epic quest. Classical heroes are commonly semi-divine and extraordinarily gifted, such as Achilles , evolving into heroic characters through their perilous circumstances. 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
4554-531: Was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War , which is known primarily through Homer 's Iliad . Hector acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, "killing 31,000 Greek fighters," offers Hyginus. Hector was known not only for his courage, but also for his noble and courtly nature. Indeed, Homer places Hector as peace-loving, thoughtful, as well as bold,
4623-590: Was a major deity in the Greek pantheon and was the brother of Zeus and the other first generation of Olympians, his realm was far away from Olympus in the underworld , and thus he was not usually considered to be one of the Olympians. Olympic gods can be contrasted to chthonic gods including Hades and his wife Persephone , by mode of sacrifice, the latter receiving sacrifices in a bothros ( βόθρος , "pit") or megaron ( μέγαρον , "sunken chamber") rather than at an altar. The canonical number of Olympian gods
4692-774: Was a priestess of the goddess Aphrodite , in a myth that has been referred to often in literature. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language , the Proto-Indo-European root is *ser meaning "to protect". According to Eric Partridge in Origins , the Greek word hērōs "is akin to" the Latin seruāre , meaning to safeguard . Partridge concludes, "The basic sense of both Hera and hero would therefore be 'protector'." R. S. P. Beekes rejects an Indo-European derivation and asserts that
4761-404: Was twelve, but besides the (thirteen) principal Olympians listed above, there were many other residents of Olympus, who thus might be considered to be Olympians. Heracles became a resident of Olympus after his apotheosis and married another Olympian resident Hebe . According to Diodorus Siculus , some said that Heracles was offered a place among the twelve, but refused as it would mean one of
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