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Not to be confused with heroin. ‹See Tfd›
Sir Galahad, a hero of Arthurian legend, detail of a painting by George Frederic Watts

A hero (masculine) or heroine (feminine) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs) refers 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.

Stories of heroism may serve as moral examples. In classical antiquity, cults that venerated deified heroes such as Heracles, Perseus, and Achilles played an important role in Ancient Greek religion. Politicians, ancient and modern, have employed hero worship for their own apotheosis (i.e., cult of personality). Stories of the anti-hero also play a major role in Greek mythology and much of literature. The anti-hero is a protagonist whose qualities are the last expected from a person in certain situations; an anti-hero often lacks the typical characteristics of heroism, such as honor, nobility, bravery, compassion, and fortitude. The favorite type of anti-hero is a characterless individual.[1]


Coined in 1387, the word hero comes from the Greek "ἥρως" (hērōs), "hero, warrior",[2] literally "protector" or "defender",[3] the postulated original forms of these words being *ἥρϝως, hērwōs, and *ἭρFα, Hērwā, respectively. It is also thought[citation needed] to be a cognate of the Latin verb servo (original meaning: to preserve whole) and of the Avestan verb haurvaiti (to keep vigil over), although the original Proto-Indo-European root is unclear.


Heroic monomyth[edit]


The concept of a story archetype of the standard "hero's quest" or monomyth pervasive across all cultures is somewhat controversial. Expounded mainly by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (published in 1949), 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 including the Departure, Initiation, and Return. Within these stages there are several archetypes that the hero or heroine 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.[4] 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 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."[5]

Examples of Campbell's formula can be found in modern stories such as The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and Star Wars.[6]

Mythic hero archetype[edit]

The "Mythic Hero Archetype" is a set of 22 common traits shared by many heroes in various cultures, myths and religions throughout history and around the world. The concept was first developed by FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan (Lord Raglan) in his 1936 book, The Hero, A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. Raglan argued that the higher the score, the more likely the figure is mythical.[7] Otto Rank and Alan Dundes later elaborated on the list:

  1. Mother is a royal virgin
  2. Father is a king
  3. Father related to mother
  4. Unusual conception
  5. Hero reputed to be son of god
  7. Hero spirited away as a child
  8. Reared by foster parents in a far country
  9. No details of childhood
  10. Returns or goes to future kingdom
  11. Is victor over king, giant, dragon or beast
  12. Marries a princess (often daughter of predecessor)
  13. Becomes king
  14. For a time he reigns uneventfully
  15. He prescribes laws
  16. Later loses favor with gods or his subjects
  17. Driven from throne and city
  18. Meets with mysterious death
  19. Often at the top of a hill
  20. His children, if any, do not succeed him [i.e., does not found a dynasty]
  21. His body is not buried
  22. Nonetheless has one or more holy sepulchers or tombs

Dundes offered the following list of top ten figures who best matched the archetype along with their scores of 22 when he appeared in the documentary The God Who Wasn't There.

  1. Oedipus (22)
  2. Theseus (20)
  3. Jesus (19)
  4. Romulus (17)
  5. Hercules (17)
  6. Perseus (16)
  7. Zeus (15)
  8. Jason (15)
  9. Robin Hood (13)
  10. Apollo (11)

Lord Raglan did not score Jesus as agreed with his publisher, but contemporary author Robert M. Price argues that the high score among otherwise mythical figures supports the Christ myth theory.[8]

Classical hero cults[edit]

Hera suckling Heracles as an infant.
Main article: Greek hero cult

When Cleisthenes divided the ancient Athenians into new demes for voting, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi about what heroes he should name each division after. According to Herodotus, the Spartans attributed their conquest of Arcadia to their theft of the bones of Orestes from the Arcadian town of Tegea.


In the Hellenistic Greek East, dynastic leaders such as the Ptolemies or Seleucids were also proclaimed heroes.[citation needed]

Validity of the hero in historical studies[edit]

Further information: Philosophy of history and Great man theory



The Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest during World War II.[10][11]


The Annales School, led by Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel, would contest 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. Foucault's conception of an "archeology" (not to be confused with the anthropological discipline of archaeology) or Louis Althusser's work were attempts at linking together these various heterogeneous layers composing history.[clarification needed]

Among noticeable events in the studies of the role of the hero and Great man in history one should mention Sydney Hook's book The Hero in History.[12]


Within the frameworks of developing counterfactual history, attempts are made to examine some hypothetical scenarios of historical development. And the hero attracts much attention because most of those scenarios are based on the suppositions: what would have happened if this or that historical individual had or had not been alive.[14]

Folk and fairy tales[edit]

Vladimir Propp, in his analysis of the Russian fairy tale, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personæ, of which one was the hero,[15]:p. 80 and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian folklore. The actions that fall into such a hero's sphere include:

  1. Departure on a quest
  2. Reacting to the test of a donor
  3. Marrying a princess (or similar figure)



Christianity traditionally has emphasized humility as its main form of heroics. To illustrate 'that no virtue can possibly be perfectly acquired or continue without the grace of discretion', St John Cassian relates the story of a monk, 'Heron', who in pride and vanity was persuaded by a demon to assume that he was invincible from bodily harm. The demon advised Heron that this miracle would be proved if he threw himself into a deep well - however upon doing so, Heron was severely injured and shortly thereafter died and was nearly refused burial as a suicide by his abbot.[16]

The modern fictional hero[edit]

The word "hero" or "heroine" is sometimes used simply to describe the protagonist of a story, or the love interest, a usage which can conflict with the superhuman expectations of heroism. William Makepeace Thackeray gave Vanity Fair the subtitle A Novel without a Hero.[17] The larger-than-life hero is a more common feature of fantasy (particularly sword and sorcery and epic fantasy) than more realist works.[18]

In modern movies, the hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end. In some movies (especially action movies), a hero may exhibit characteristics such as superhuman strength and endurance to the point of the hero being nearly invincible. Often a hero in these situations has a foil, the villain, typically a charismatic evildoer who represents, leads, or embodies the struggle the hero is up against. Post-modern fictional works have fomented the increased popularity of the antihero, who does not follow common conceptions of heroism. Examples of modern heroes are Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, Percy Jackson, Bilbo Baggins, Luke Skywalker, and Superman.

Hero as self[edit]


Psychology of heroism[edit]



See also[edit]


  1. ^ “Hero.” Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought. London: Bloomsbury Publishing LTD, 1993. Credo Reference. Web. 17 September 2012.
  2. ^ ἥρως, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
  3. ^ Hero: Online Etymology Dictionary, entry "Hero"
  4. ^ Clinton Bennett In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images Continuum, 2001, p. 206, ISBN 0-8264-4916-6
  5. ^ Joseph Campbell. 'T'he Masks of God: Occidental Mythology Penguin, reprinted, ISBN 0-14-004306-3
  6. ^ "Heroes of History - The Heroic Monomyth". Oracle Thinkquest. 
  8. ^ Robert M. Price, 2011, The Christ Myth Theory and it's Problems p. 425, ISBN 978-1-57884-017-5
  16. ^ St John Cassian, Conferences, Ch 2.5. http://www.osb.org/lectio/cassian/conf/book1/conf2.html#2.5
  17. ^ Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism, p 34, ISBN 0-691-01298-9
  19. ^ Chatterji, Roma (January 1986). "The Voyage of the Hero: The Self and the Other in One Narrative Tradition of Purulia". Contributions to Indian Sociology (19): 95–114. 
  20. ^ Franco, Z., Blau, K. & Zimbardo, P. (2011). Heroism: A conceptual analysis and differentiation between heroic action and altruism. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 99-113.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]