From: Adam Flinton 

James Adams wrote:

>>
>>
>> These days the terms hero, heroic, warrior etc are thrown about so
>> much by the media as to dilute them. T
>>
>
> All too true.  What annoys me is using the word hero as a synonym for
> victim.
>
>
The orig hero'es were all tragic victims in one way or another e.g.
achilles & his heel, odysseus & his wanderings, Oedipus in general
etc.

& then there was Perseus & his unfortunate killing of his grandfather &
then death at the hands of dionysus,  Theseus & his forgetting to hoist
the white sails, hercules & the poisoned cloak/burning to death,
&...
&... &....

& then there are the non-Greek but still generally tragic hero'es such
as Gilgamesh, Samson, Beowulf etc.


So oddly.....the modern meaning is already a bastardization as noone thinks
that when they say "xyz is a hero" they mean that he will meet a
very unfortunate end, possibly including patricide, incest & death at
the hands of a close family member...

e.g. good old Agamemnon who got killed by his wife on return from Troy but
then his son killed his wife (i.e. his son's mother) in revenge etc.etc.

Arguably Hamlet is one of the last fictional proper heros.

Adam

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