Athens and the concept of the Hero

The Athenians of the Classical Age, like all the other Greeks of the Hellenic World, emphatically and consciously regarded Heroism as the supreme value characterizing humans. The Hero is a Human in transition to become a God, or at least a symbol of mediation between the common and the uncommon.

Heroism was manifested ideologically, politically and artistically. The Athenian Hoplite must be a hero as a warrior on the battlefield, but as a citizen too who is concerned about the general good, while women as heroines possess a stable part of the wider meaning of Heroism in the Hellenic Universe.

Heroes and Heroines compose one of the most meaningful archetypes of Athens and Hellas, as living examples of a lifestyle which required the uppermost qualities for the social influence upon Polis. The ideology of how to be a Hero/Heroine educated generations of Ancient Greeks, but which is the meaning of Heroism in the Modern World? Is it still alive? In this presentation the archetype of the Hero/Heroine is analyzed digging the strata of concepts and ideologies from the ancient to the modern ages.