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In Homeric Greek, heroes (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.

1 Nature of hero cult

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.

The two exceptions to the above were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honored as either gods or heroes.

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.

2 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 OlympiaOlympia is an ancient city in Greece, in antiquity site of the Olympic Games. Due to its fame, a number of cities and places in other parts of the world have been named after it: Olympia, Washington, United States A music hall in Paris, France, see Paris.
• Founders of cities, like BattusIn Greek mythology, Battus is the name of two different people. Son of Polymnestus, founded Cyrene, thus fulfilling a prophecy given to his ancestor, Euphemus. A shepherd from Pylos, Battus witnessed Hermes stealing Apollo's cattle. Though he promised his of CyreneCyrene 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.

Most reasons involved violent or unusual deaths, as in the following cases:

• Those killed in war. This was usually collective rather than individual, so as not to upset the delicate balance of the Greek polisA polis pi;ολι&sigmaf — plural: poleis pi;ολει&sigmaf — is a city, or a city-state. The word originates from the ancient Greek city-states, which developed in the Hellenic period and survived (though with de, as in the case of the dead from the Battle of MarathonThe Battle of Marathon ( 490 BC) was the culmination of King Darius I of Persia's 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. Background Hippias.
• Those struck by lightning, as in several attested cases in Southern ItalyMagna Graecia ( Latin for "Greater Greece," Megale Hellas/ in Greek) is the name of an area in ancient southern Italy and Sicily that was colonised by ancient Greek settlers in the 8th century BCE. Originally, Magna Graecia was the name used by the Romans.
• Those who disappeared into the ground, as in the cases of Oedipus and AmphiarausIn Greek mythology, Amphiaraus or Amphiaraos ("doubly-cursed") was the son of Oicles and husband of Eriphyle. Amphiaraus was the King of Argos along with Adrastus, brother of Eriphyle, and Iphis. Eriphyle persuaded Amphiaraus to take part in the Seven Aga.