Guide to Literary Terms

Guide to Literary Terms | Hero

Hero - the principal character of a play, novel, etc.
In classical Greek, Hero was the priestess of Aphrodite, goddess of love, at Sestos, a town on the Hellespont—now the Dardanelles. She was loved by Leander, who lived at Abydos on the Asian side of the channel. Since they couldn’t marry because of Hero’s vow of chastity, Leander swam over to Europe nightly guided by the lamp in Hero’s tower. One stormy night, the high winds blew out the light and he drowned. His body washed ashore beneath her tower, and she threw herself into the sea. In mythology, a hero is a man of godlike prowess and goodness who came to be honored as a divinity. Later, the word came to mean a warrior-chieftain of special strength, ability, and courage. Later still, hero meant an immortal being, or a demigod. During the last few centuries, the term evolved to mean a man of physical or moral courage, admired for bravery and noble deeds. Finally, the meaning evolved to the current definition offered above.

see: antagonist, protagonist

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