Hero cult was one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion.

In Homeric Greek, herōs (cognate with Latin vir and English "virile") means simply "an aristocratic man". By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a dead man, worshiped at his tomb because his fame during life or unusual manner of death gave him power over the living.

Nature of hero cult

Greek hero-cults were distinct from ancestor worship: they were usually a civic rather than familial affair, and in many cases none of the worshipers traced their descent back to the hero. Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ... The ancient Greeks proposed many different ideas about the primordial gods in their mythology. ... In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek Τιτάν, plural Τιτᾶνες) are among a series of gods who oppose Zeus and the Olympian gods in their ascent to power. ... The Twelve Olympians, in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. ... The ancient Greeks had a large number of sea gods. ... For other uses see Muse (disambiguation). ... Asclepius (Greek also rendered Aesculapius in Latin and transliterated Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death. ... In mythology chthonic (from Greek χθονιος-pertaining to the earth; earthy) designates, or pertains to, gods or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek mythology. ... Hades (Greek: - HadÄ“s or - HáidÄ“s) (unseen) means both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. ... Bust of Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone (per-SE-fo-neh) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... Gaia (land or earth, from the Greek Γαία; variant spelling Gaea—see also also Ge from Γη) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... Dêmêtêr (or Demetra) (DEH-MEH-ter) (mother-goddess or perhaps distribution-mother) is the Greek goddess of agriculture, the pure nourisher of youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of marriage and the sacred law. ... In later Greek mythology, Hecate (or Hekate; Greek Ἑκάτη HekátÄ“) was scarcely more than the goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. ... In Greek mythology, Iacchus is an uncertain person. ... Trophonius (the Latinate spelling) or Trophonios (in the transliterated Greek spelling) was a Greek hero or daimon or god - it was never certain which one - with a rich mythological tradition and an oracular cult at Lebadaea in Boeotia. ... Triptolemus (also Buzyges), in Greek mythology, was the son of King Celeus of Eleusis in Attica. ... In Greek mythology the Erinyes or Eumenides (the Romans called them the Furies) were female personifications of vengeance. ... Ancestor worship, also ancestor veneration, is a religious practice based on the belief that ones ancestors possess supernatural powers. ...

They were distinct on the other hand from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or become a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo. Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ... In mythology chthonic (from Greek χθονιος-pertaining to the earth; earthy) designates, or pertains to, gods or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek mythology. ... In later Greek mythology, Hecate (or Hekate; Greek Ἑκάτη Hekátē) was scarcely more than the goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. ... Bust of Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone (per-SE-fo-neh) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... Statue of Zeus The Greek sculptor Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall Statue of Zeus in about 435 bc. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt). ...

The two exceptions to the above were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honored as either gods or heroes. Statue of Heracles In Greek mythology, Heracles, or Heraklês (glory of Hera, Ἡρακλῆς) was the demigod son of Zeus and Alcmene, the grand-daughter of Perseus and the wife of Amphitryon. ... Asclepius (Greek also rendered Aesculapius in Latin and transliterated Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death. ...

Heroes in cult behaved very differently from heroes in myth. They might appear indifferently as men or as snakes, and they seldom appeared unless angered. A Pythagorean saying advises not to eat food that has fallen on the floor, because "it belongs to the heroes". In a fragmentary play by Aristophanes, a chorus of anonymous heroes describe themselves as senders of lice, fever and boils. Pythagoras (582 BC – 496 BC, Greek: Πυθαγόρας) was an Ionian mathematician and philosopher, known best for formulating the Pythagorean theorem. ... A bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes (c. ...

Types of hero cult

Hero cults were offered to predominantly to men, but also to women and even children. Cult status was given to many classes of people, a few of them being the following:

• Famous men of the mythical past (heroes in the modern English sense), like Oedipus at Athens or Pelops at Olympia.
• Founders of cities, like Battus of Cyrene

Most reasons involved violent or unusual deaths, as in the following cases: Sir Galahad, a hero of Arthurian legend In many myths and folk tales, a hero is a man or woman (the latter often called a heroine), traditionally the protagonist of a story, legend or saga, who commonly possesses abilities or character far greater than that of a typical person, which... Å’dipus and the Sphinx, from an 1879 illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church Oedipus (Greek Οἰδίπους, Oidipous, swollen-foot; rarely Οἰδίπος; Latin Oedipus) or Å’dipus was the mythical king of Thebes, son of Laius and Jocasta, who, unknowingly, killed his father and married his mother. ... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ... In Greek mythology, Pelops (Greek Πέλοψ) was a son of Tantalus and Dione, and father of Pittheus, Plisthenes, Atreus and Thyestes. ... Olympia (Greek: Ολυμπία Olympía or Ολύμπια Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a city of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. ... In Greek mythology, Battus is the name of two different people. ... Cyrene can refer to: Cyrene, a figure from Greek mythology Cyrene, a Greek colony in Libya (north Africa) 133 Cyrene, an asteroid See also: Cyrenaica, the region around Cyrene This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

• Those killed in war. This was usually collective rather than individual, so as not to upset the delicate balance of the Greek polis, as in the case of the dead from the Battle of Marathon.
• Those struck by lightning, as in several attested cases in Southern Italy.
• Those who disappeared into the ground, as in the cases of Oedipus and Amphiaraus.

A polis (πολις) — plural: poleis (πολεις) — is a city, or a city-state. ... The Battle of Marathon (490 BC) was the culmination of King Darius I of Persias first major attempt to conquer the remainder of the Greeks and add them to the Persian Empire, thereby securing the weakest portion of his Western border. ... Magna Graecia (Latin for Greater Greece, Megalê Hellas/Μεγάλη Ελλάς in Greek) is the name of the area in ancient southern Italy that was colonised by ancient Greek settlers in the 8th century BCE. Sources differ on whether it included Sicily, as well as Apulia and Calabria. ... Å’dipus and the Sphinx, from an 1879 illustration from Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church Oedipus (Greek Οἰδίπους, Oidipous, swollen-foot; rarely Οἰδίπος; Latin Oedipus) or Å’dipus was the mythical king of Thebes, son of Laius and Jocasta, who, unknowingly, killed his father and married his mother. ... In Greek mythology, Amphiaraus, or Amphiaraos (doubly-cursed) was the son of Oicles and husband of Eriphyle. ...

Heroes, politics, and gods

Hero cults could be of the utmost political importance. When Cleisthenes divided the Athenians into new demes for voting, he consulted Delphi on 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. Cleisthenes (also Clisthenes or Kleisthenes) was a noble Athenian who reformed the constitution of ancient Athens and set it on a democratic footing in 508 BC. He was a relative of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, through the latters daughter Agarista and her husband Megacles. ... A view of the Acropolis of Athens during the Ottoman period, showing the buildings which were removed at the time of independence The history of Athens is the longest of any city in Europe: Athens has been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years. ... In biology, a deme (rhymes with team) is another word for a local population of organisms of one species that actively interbreed with one another. ... The amphitheater, seen from above Delphi (Chech Δελφοί - Delphoi) is an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece. ... Bust of Herodotus Herodotus (Greek: ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ, Herodotos) was an ancient historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC - c. ... Sparta (Grk. ... Arcadia or Arkadía (Greek Αρκαδία) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. ... The Remorse of Orestes by William-Adolphe Bouguereau Electra and Orestes, from an 1897 Stories from the Greek Tragedians, by Alfred Church Orestês, in Greek legend, was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. ... There is also an ancient Tegea near Kissamos in the island of Crete, see Tegea, Crete Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greek containing the Temple of Athena Alea. ...

Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera", even though he was tormented all his life by the queen of the gods. This was even truer in their cult appearances. Perhaps the most striking example is the Athenian king Erechtheus, whom Poseidon killed for choosing Athena over him as the city's patron god. When the Athenians worshiped Erechtheus on the Acropolis, they invoked him as Poseidon Erechtheus. Statue of Heracles In Greek mythology, Heracles, or Heraklês (glory of Hera, Ἡρακλῆς) was the demigod son of Zeus and Alcmene, the grand-daughter of Perseus and the wife of Amphitryon. ... Andrea Doria as Neptune by Agnolo Bronzino: a potent allegory of Genoas hegemony in the Tyrrhenian Sea In Greek Mythology, Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea, known to the Romans as Neptune, and to the Etruscans as Nethuns. ... Athena from the east pediment of the Afea temple in Aegina After a sculpture of Athena at the Louvre. ... The Acropolis of Athens lit up at night, seen from Phillopappus Hill Satellite picture of the Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the north, with the restored Stoa of Attalus in the foreground...

Reference

• Karl Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks, 1959
• Erwin Rohde, Psyche, 1924