concept
Hero
A figure of story whose deeds are told as exemplary or cautionary. Greek hērōs cult and modern “hero’s journey” talk are not one template.
Hellenic religion
Hero appears in Hellenic religion.
Pausanias constantly names heroes and hero-cult seats among Greek tombs and sanctuaries. A named hero class in that periegesis, not a comic-book dump and not demigod as a missing id.
from Pausanias · Description of Greece, c. 150–180 CE
appears in · sourced · documented
Vedic tradition
Hero appears in Vedic tradition.
The Ṛgveda praises the hero (śūra) among warrior and Indra-companion speech. A named Vedic hero figure in that corpus, not a mood-shelf virtue dump and not a Greek hero cult alone.
from Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation) · The Rigveda, 2014 (this translation); hymns much older
appears in · sourced · documented
Norse tradition
Hero appears in Norse tradition.
The Poetic Edda’s heroic lays seat named deed-figures whose acts are told as exemplary and fatal. A named hero craft in that verse corpus, not Greek hērōs cult and not a modern hero’s-journey dump.
from Anonymous (Eddic poems); Carolyne Larrington (translation) · Poetic Edda, medieval Icelandic compilation; Larrington trans. 1996/2014
appears in · sourced · documented
Roman religion
Hero appears in Roman religion.
Virgil’s Aeneid seats heros speech for Aeneas and war-dead as cult-hero and epic hero ranks. Hero as a published concept inside Roman epic diction, not Pausanian hellenic hero-cult alone and not aeneas being restated.
from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)
appears in · sourced · documented
sources
- Description of Greece · Pausanias
Pausanias, Description of Greece.
- The Rigveda · Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton (translation)
Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India.
- Poetic Edda · Anonymous (Eddic poems); Carolyne Larrington (translation)
The Poetic Edda, trans. Carolyne Larrington.
- Aeneid · Virgil
Virgil, Aeneid.