Editing Hero (section)

== Etymology ==
[[File:The Coronation of the Hero of Virtue - Peter Paul Rubens (Unframed).jpg|thumb|left|''Coronation of the Hero of Virtue'' by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], {{circa|1612}}-1614]]<!--Something is causing this image and the ones below it to be pushed down into the "Myths and monomyth" section, leaving a blank rectangle where the image of Perseus is supposed to go.-->
The word ''hero'' comes from the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] ἥρως (''hērōs''), "hero" particularly one such as [[Heracles]] with divine ancestry or later given divine honors.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dh%28%2Frws ἥρως]
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref> Before the [[decipherment]] of [[Linear B]] the original form of the word was assumed to be *{{Lang|grc|ἥρωϝ-}}, ''hērōw-'', but the Mycenaean compound ''ti-ri-se-ro-e'' demonstrates the absence of -w-. [[Hero (given name)|Hero]] as a name appears in pre-Homeric [[Greek mythology]], wherein [[Hero and Leander|Hero]] was a priestess of the [[Aphrodite|goddess Aphrodite]], in a myth that has been referred to often in literature.

According to ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]'', the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] root is ''*ser'' meaning "to protect". According to Eric Partridge in ''Origins'', the Greek word ''hērōs'' "is akin to" the Latin ''seruāre'', meaning ''to safeguard''. Partridge concludes, "The basic sense of both [[Hera]] and hero would therefore be 'protector'." [[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]] rejects an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] derivation and asserts that the word has a [[Pre-Greek substrate|Pre-Greek]] origin.<ref>[[Robert S. P. Beekes|R. S. P. Beekes]], ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 526.</ref> [[Hera]] was a [[Greek mythology|Greek goddess]] with many attributes, including protection and her worship appears to have similar [[Proto-Indo-European language|proto-Indo-European]] origins.

The female term ''heroine'' was taken from the [[Latin]] word ''heroina'', from Greek ''hērōinē'', feminine of ''hērōs''.<ref name="Merriam2">[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heroine#h1 Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Heroine]</ref> Its first use in the English language, however, was in 1587 to denote of strong and well-abled women of divine origins, as seen in myths and legends.<ref name="Merriam2"/>