CLA204H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Bronze Age, Atra-Hasis, Aegean Civilizations
Document Summary
Chapter 12 the main characters in legends are humans, sometimes with assistance by gods. In modern times a hero is someone who is brave and courageous and blah blah. In ancient greece a hero was used by homer to mean noble" or well-born" male, al- ways alive. Late the term was applied to noble figures from the distant past, all dead. The shift in meaning from homeric warrior to subject of myth and religious cult seems to have taken place hen the heroes of epic came to be worshiped as powers dwelling beneath the earth. Cult places for worship of heroes were called heroa (singular = heroon) Tombs normally had shape of enormous earthmounds heaped up to protect and mon- umentalize the grave of heroes. There are heroa to achilles at troy, pelops at olympia and aeneas at lavinium. They were specifically built in well known places to give the dead everlasting renown.
