Hero

Galahad, a hero of arturoric legend, detail of a painting by George Frederic Watts.

In mythology and folklore, a hero or heroine is an eminent character who embodies the quintessence of key traits valued in their culture of origin. Typically the hero possesses idealized abilities and personality traits that enable him to perform extraordinary and beneficial feats to save people from danger, for which he is renowned (compare villain).

In the mythological narration, it is made up of an almost always extraordinary beginning, mediated by various conflicts that are resolved, and a final event in which the hero confronts his opposite (either an individual or group of individuals) and finally dies (whether lose or win) in a glorious way to serve as an example to the human race.

Etymology and definition

The word «hero» comes from the Latin heros, -ōis, and this from the Ancient Greek ἥρως hḗrōs (the feminine "heroine", from the Greek ἡρωΐνη hērōḯnē); and could be applied to both illustrious men and women. The concept first appeared in classical Greece and was applied in culture by Pindar, who distinguished between gods, heroes, and men. In turn, Plato distinguished between gods, demons, heroes, and men. In the archaic period Hesiod defines the hero as "demigod" or "local god" while Aristotle declares that heroes were, both physically and morally, superior to men. But the modern meaning of hero or demigod appears with Latinos like Cicero and the famous Virgil.

The definition that Károly Kerényi gives of the hero is:

It receives a cult (in fact, much of the cult is consecrated to the heroes [Greeks]); but it is not, in any way, a divinity. Nor is it a human being, or to say better, already It's not. a human being. He has been a man, or a woman, after having lived, suffered a heroizing death. Death has granted him a status as a religious figure, active both in worship and myth. For this reason current men can ask for their help, or try to conjure up their anger; they address him, invoke him and, Last but not leastThey sing their high deeds, the designs of God, have been constituted as mediators between divinity and other mortals, those who have not yet attained eternal bliss.

Northrop Frye divides fiction depending on the action of the hero:

• If it is superior to men and nature itself then we are talking about the field of mythology.

• If he is superior to men but not to nature, then we speak of epic and tragedy, similar to the idea of hero in mind Aristotle.
• If it is not superior to men or to nature then we talk about comedy and realistic fiction (which speaks about historical characters).

Hero Description

According to the critic of the Generation of '27 Pedro Salinas, the literary hero was, successively:

1. The immortal, or hero of the myth.
2. The warrior, or hero of the epopeia or song of medieval gestation.
3. Being excels, or idealized hero of the sentimental novels of rebirth and romance.
4. An ordinary man, or middle class or bourgeois hero of the realistic and naturalistic novel of the centuryXIX.

The transition from the third stage to the last one is verified, according to him, with the anti-hero of the Spanish picaresque novel, in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Hero in the broad sense

Sometimes a "hero" is considered a person who saves other people from serious danger, thereby producing a newsworthy or media event. Likewise, in the socialist world (Germany, USSR) there was talk of "heroes of work", the term being applied extensively to those who showed very special dedication or productivity at work. Nowadays, there is a tendency to confuse, sometimes for propaganda, political or sentimental reasons, the «heroes» with the «victims» (the «heroes of 9/11», the surviving heroes of the concentration camps, etc.), or simply with famous or famous people. In general, the popular heritage tends to associate the figure of the "hero" with that of someone exemplary and who serves as a reference to the extent that he champions justice and pursues the achievement of a better world.

Literary hero

In literature, or cinema, the hero is simply the central character of a work, whose actions or exploits are recounted. In literature, and especially in novels and tragedies, the hero can also have serious defects that lead to his downfall, as in the case of Hamlet. In opera and musical theater, the hero and heroine are usually played by a tenor and a soprano, with more vulnerable characters being played by lyrical voices, while the stronger ones are played by deep or dramatic voices. A modern subtype of the literary hero is the so-called "superhero", a comic book, novel or film character endowed with "superpowers", and usually dedicated to saving humanity from criminals and various dangers.

Mythological hero

Mythological heroes from Greek, Roman, Germanic and other cultures. The most celebrated heroes approach the status of gods in some cultures. The word hero comes from the ancient Greek (ἥρως hērōs), and describes the culture hero that appears in mythology. Greek heroes were mythological characters, eponymous founders of Greek cities and territories. These heroes were not always role models or possessed heroic virtues; many were demigods, children of mortals and gods. The time of these heroes in which the stories of Greek mythology are set is known as the "heroic age", which ends shortly after the Trojan War, when the legendary fighters returned to their homes or went into exile.

The classical hero has what Lord Raglan (a descendant of FitzRoy Somerset) called a "cultivated biography" made up of some two dozen common traditions that ignored the line between historical fact and myth. For example, the circumstances of his own birth are unusual: a powerful man attempts to kill him at birth, he is kidnapped and raised by foster parents in a faraway country. Routinely the hero meets a mysterious death, often on the top of a hill, his body is not buried, leaves no successors, and has one or more sacred tombs.

Hero Characteristics

General distinguishing features of the hero

1. A superior intelligence that allows them to solve puzzles and problems (e.g., Edipo versus the enigma proposed by the sphinx).
2. Eat a Pónos akoúsios, that is, an accidental death, so they must suffer a punishment that determines exile (e.g., Heracles).
3. He must be brave, honest, he must think of others, have values, be sure of himself, and pursue his goals regardless of obstacles.
4. Most of the time they have experienced exile, which implies a kind of knowledge or initiation by which, upon return, they are shown as somewhat different beings (think the case of Moses, Jesus, Eneas or the Cid).
5. They possess a morphology outside of the ordinary; in most cases they manifest visible marks – Libdaco is lame, Odysseus has a scar; some are giants; other dwarfs; others, such as Heracles, possess a dismal force; that singular morphology leads them to perform also singular actions.
6. For various reasons there is always some being (divine or mortal) who intends to get rid of the hero, so he submits it to extraordinary combats of those who are expected not to return; but the opposite always happens, and the hero returns victorious. (e.g., Perseus' work)
7. Draw various tests and other types of competitions, from which the hero always comes out airy. (e.g., any sport heroes)
8. City Foundation, most of the time for prediction of some oracle.
9. The carrying of certain weapons that characterize them (in the case of Heracles a chalk torn by the hero in the blossom or an arch inherited and which, after his death, reads to Filoctetes)
10. Having had a singular gestation and birth (so, in the case of Heracles, Zeus to enjoy Alcmena, triples the duration of one night and then Hera delays the gestation of Alcida).
11. Having already surprised in his childhood with unimaginable feats (Heracles for example strangles two snakes being a child).
12. It has a generally violent end since they die torn apart (Orpheus), burned (Heracles), in singular combats (Layo), fulminated by lightning, metamorphosed, which, in most cases, is followed by apotheosis or transfiguration (Heracles, Orpheus, Edipo).
13. To have a supernatural end; such the case of Edipo, according to Sófocles at the end of Edipo in Colononext to his death, as the messenger relates, he is invited by an omnipotent voice to rise and join the set of gods who in that trance recognize him as one of his.
14. To have an unsuccessful destiny with his children (Yocasta and Layo with Edipo, Heracles with whom he had with Megara).

Ethical, moral and intellectual traits

• Mixed Nature: Heroes usually have a mixed nature, that is, they are half humans and half gods.
• Conflict with the outside world: The hero puts himself, despite his superiority, at the same level as the common people who face similar problems. This is what makes the hero sympathetic and we identify with him.
• Courage: The courage to face life is one of the most obvious features for a hero, because he could not be called a hero if everything was afraid of him or did not venture. The hero always has the courage to face the problems of life and its own destiny.
• He is not afraid of death: He is not afraid of death. In their battles and companies that lead him to the brink of existence they show courage and courage.
• Utopian ideology: The hero is governed by universal values which refer to the cycle of life: the beginning, the end and the renewal of life. If he is not afraid of death, it is because he is not fixed on the individual's death, but on the survival of the human spirit.

Hero Action Traits

• Separation from the world: Heroes constantly suffer a change of place for reasons beyond their will, that is, they have been moved from their original place. This makes the hero look on his journey to get home at all costs, where his family, friends or others await him. Whether a hero is moved from his place of origin implies a journey to return or to find a new home. Such a journey may or may not be physical, because what really matters is the inner journey of self-knowledge, for knowing the nature of man and his connection with the world is how the renewal of life is glimpsed, the transcendence of the human spirit and that at the same time makes the mortal and immortal oneself as it really is.
• Adventure Search: The constant quest for adventure or blood thirst makes the initial combat a kind of initiation for the hero. These fights are committed to overcoming their mortal part, bringing the mortal to the limit and surpassing it, so undertaking various companies. Such companies are immersed in a time different from ours, rather they are in the times of the origin of man and the world, and they are the paradigm of human behavior. However, it also happens that your initiation into adventure is involuntary, either by accident, by chance force or by the intervention of a second.
• Answer to the Call: The answer to the call, whether voluntary or involuntary (fruit of curiosity), because of chance, fate or someone else, is essential for the hero to demonstrate his courage, courage, but also shows how he submits to destiny. That is, responding to the call is accepting the impossibility of acting in front of destiny.
• Unconscious death: Heroes are usually involuntaryly reached by death, because their error, imperfection or unworthy behavior put them in acts of alienation during battle, struggle or circumstances where they cannot think consciously. The hero is not afraid of death, he knows himself superior to it. It is above all a young and premature death that divinizes them, because their bodies do not pass the effects of time: they do not deteriorate, they do not show oldness or disease. And according to Campbell, the death of the hero is not taken negatively, but as an act for the renewal of the world.
• Battle with its opposite: The antagonist can be the cause of the separation of the hero with his home. Then the hero will be attracted to the cause of his journey or revenge as a means of achieving balance. And even if he loses the hero, that does not mean that his values and ideology have not transcended; on the contrary, his acts, thoughts and values pass to humanity.
• Return to improve the world: If after the battle the hero returns to his home, doubts the preset values, of social order, and can, either directly or indirectly, change and break those rules to improve society.