Hero
A hero (heroine is always used for females) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs), in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. A demigod is the son or daughter from one immortal and one mortal parent, an example would be Heracles, son of the mortal queen Alkema and the god Zeus. Later, hero (male) and heroine (female) came to refer to characters who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice—that is, heroism—for some greater good of all humanity. This definition originally referred to martial courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.
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Some articles on Hero:
... An evolutionary psychology explanation for heroic risk-taking is that it is a costly signal demonstrating the ability of the hero ... It can be seen as one form of altruism for which there are also several other evolutionary explanations ...
... Everyone's Hero is a 2006 computer animated comedy film, directed by Colin Brady, Christopher Reeve (who was working on this film at the time of his death), and Daniel St ... Everyone's Hero had a moderate performance at the box office, earning only $16 million worldwide during its theatrical run, but the film was not released in several major countries ...
... Serial fictional narratives of heroes often present the hero contending against an archenemy whose capabilities match or exceed those of the hero, thereby establishing tension as to whether the hero will be ...
... Echtrai) is one of a category of Old Irish literature about a hero's adventures in the Otherworld (see Tír na nÓg and Mag Mell) the otherworldly setting is the distinctive trait of ... Earlier on, however, an echtra's emphasis was on the hero's time in the Otherworld, the journey to which served merely as a frame story ... echtrai from the Immrama, or "Voyages", which focus on the hero's journey rather than the otherworldly destination ...
... Joseph Campbell, in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, writes that the Universal Hero from monomyth must pass through a stage of Apotheosis ... According to Campbell, apotheosis is the expansion of consciousness that the hero experiences after defeating his foe ...
More definitions of "Hero":
- (noun): (Greek mythology) priestess of Aphrodite who killed herself when her lover Leander drowned while trying to swim the Hellespont to see her.
- (noun): (classical mythology) a being of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits; often the offspring of a mortal and a god.
- (noun): The principal character in a play or movie or novel or poem.
- (noun): A large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States.
Synonyms: bomber, grinder, hero sandwich, hoagie, hoagy, Cuban sandwich, Italian sandwich, poor boy, sub, submarine, submarine sandwich, torpedo, wedge, zep
- (noun): Greek mathematician and inventor who devised a way to determine the area of a triangle and who described various mechanical devices (first century).
Synonyms: Heron, Hero of Alexandria
Famous quotes containing the word hero:
“While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy “Man”,
And its hero the Conqueror Worm.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“The best bribe which London offers to-day to the imagination, is, that, in such a vast variety of people and conditions, one can believe there is room for persons of romantic character to exist, and that the poet, the mystic, and the hero may hope to confront their counterparts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“So much of truth, only under an ancient obsolete vesture, but the spirit of it still true, do I find in the Paganism of old nations. Nature is still divine, the revelation of the workings of God; the Hero is still worshipable: this, under poor cramped incipient forms, is what all Pagan religions have struggled, as they could, to set forth.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)