and The cult of heroes, except in the case of Hercules, of whom the Greeks themselves were not sure whether he was a god or a hero (Herod. 2. 44, Paus. 2, 10, 1), was always sharply differ entiated from that of the higher gods, but had indeed, much in common with the homage paid to the chthonian gods. The centre of the wor ship was the grave where the mortal remains of the hero were supposed to be interned. This was generally located in a sacred grove and surmounted by a temple. Altars were erected over the place of sepulture or nearby, where divine honors were paid to the hero, sacrifices made to him, and votive or propiti atory gifts presented. These ritualistic observ ances, however, generally took place in the evening to mark the distinction from the hom age paid to the gods, for whom the morning hours were reserved. Like the designations of the gods, too, the names of heroes became ejaculatory expletives and words of asserva tion. A survival of ancestor worship, and inci dentally an indication of the human origin of heroes, is seen in the offering of food and drink to them on their special feast days and on other stated occasions. Along with the mortal remains of the heroes, relics of them were cherished and diligently sought out, offi cially transferred from one place to another, or even stolen from one shrine to be venerated at another. Thus, for instance, was held in esteem the house of Cadmus at Thebes and that of Menelaus at Sparta, the sceptre of Agamemnon at Charoneia, the stone at Salamis on which Telamon sat, and elsewhere the lance of Achilles, the wings of Daedalus, and the skin of the Calydonian boar and a tusk of the Erymanthian boar whose depredations had summoned so many heroes to the hunt. Most heroes were worshipped at places with which they were definitely identified during life, or where at all events their tombs were; but we not infrequently find that a cult was instituted elsewhere for a specific purpose, as to obtain a hero's help in war (Pans. 3, 3, 5f) or to ward off an epidemic or other national evils (Pans. 9, 38, 3). The cult-heroes and their worship were objects of legislative enactments. Porphyry recalls the decree of Draco ordering "gods and indigenous heroes' to be worshipped "publicly conformably to the laws of the coun try' and according to the ability of each individual.' ('De iv, 22). This is the first recorded law anent the wor ship of heroes, but its provisions suggest great antiquity for the cult. Later legislators also paid heed to the honors due the heroes. Solon enjoined the greatest respect to their tombs, and Cleisthenes set up statues of the epony mous Attic heroes in the Agora with a view of building up a spirit of pan-Athenianism. Cleisthenes attempt is not a solitary example of this method of developing national con sciousness and civic pride. The chief charac ters of the older Greek myth and fable, and even historical personages of note, especially statesmen and conquerors, were in the course of time appropriated by one or the other of the Greek cities or communities, or by clans and families, as the eponymous hero and appropri ately worshipped. The cult of heroes became so active indeed throughout the whole Greek world that it led, perhaps supported by the equally widespread ancestor worship, to a process of raising distinguished rulers, states men, poets, philosophers, and even citizens of lower rank, to the dignity of heroes with all the observances of worship. The dramatists, /Eschylus and Sophocles, and the physician, Hippocrates, along with such public personages as the tyrants Gelon of Syracuse and Theron of Agrientum, and Timesius, founder of Ab dera, enjoyed such heroization. Alexander the Great, after his return from the Orient, among other ideas thence imported, made heroic apotheosis an official act, and himself decreed the raising of Hephatstion to the status of a hero, whose worship spread rapidly. In some countries the custom became so general that every person, even to slaves, was described as a hero in his epitaph, and at Theos incense was offered to a flute-player during his lifetime.
Teutonic Teutonic heroes are best known to-day through the operas of Wag ner and popular renderings of the Norse Edda stories. The gods of northern mythology, Odin (Woden, Wotan), Thor (Thunor, the thunder god with his hammer), Frey, and the mischiev ous Loki, together with the genuine legendary hero Siegfried, who like Achilles of old was invulnerable except in one spot, and the Val kyrie Brunhild, or Brynhild, are household words at least in America. The mythical ele ments of the last two suggest, at first hand, a connection with the Norse gods in origin and nature, which scholarship once maintained and popular feeling still holds to. It has been un
mistakably shown, however, that, 'except for chance influences one way or the other, the Norse gods and the heroes of Teutonic legend ary history had independent origin and went in dependent ways of development. (Cf. especially Mogk in (Forschungen zur dent. Phil., Festgabe fiir Rudolf Hildebrand' 1894, p. 1, and Golther in Germania, xxxiii, 469, 476). S. Bugge even has pointed out that a number of the Northern gods were really developed during the Viking age out of Christian legends, later, therefore, than the poetic invention of the heroes. Teutonic heroes are usually connected with the migra tion of nations in the 4th and 5th centuries and the origin of heroic saga is assumed to be indi cated by Tacitus who tells us that the deeds of Arminius were sung as late as a hundred years after his death. ii, 88). The histori cal period of the sagas, it is true, is separated from Tacitus' narrative by quite 400 years, but it is not inept to suppose that other notable characters in the history of the Teutonic nations were in like manner immortalized. The great national awakening that must have come to some of the northern races in their conquest and possession of the fair and opulent Roman provinces brought with it leaders and warriors whose renown could not but eclipse that of their predecessors and draw to themselves the lime light of epic popularity. Among the great his torical characters of the period who are thus held to have become the theme of minstrel song and epic saga are Ermanric, the East Goth, who ruled in southern Russia at the end of the 4th century; Theodoric the Great, who founded the East Gothic kingdom in Italy; and Attila, the Hun, who, though not himself a Teuton, was so prominently identified with the migration that poetic fancy appropriated him and made him a powerful and generous Teuton king, surrounded by his loyal retainership. Many other heroes of saga are thought to have historical prototypes in Teutonic kings, of the age of migration. Among these the more prominent are: Hagen, the Frank; King Gunther, the Burgundian; Walter of Aquitaine and the Burgundian Prin cess Hildigund. The 'Beowulf,' the Old Eng lish epic, the earliest in composition of all Teu tonic poetry, introduces in epidosic narratives a host of heroes who are better known to modern readers through the longer stories of the Edda and the 'Nibelungenlied.' A figure who runs through many of the Teutonic legendary his tories, and perhaps is the only one who sur vived to later literature is Wieland—Walter Scott's Wayland the Smith.
Celtic The Celts possessed many myths regarding heroic figures, who were either ideal creations, or in the rich fantasy thrown around them tended to become mythical. The three best known are Cuchulainn, Finn (Fionn mac Cumhail) and Arthur. Cuchulainn and Finn belong to Irish legendary history; Arthur, the central character of mediaeval romance, is in _44 legendary history at home in Britain, or more narrowly in Wales, though we first meet him in French works. Cuchulainn is the hero of Ul ster and was one of the courtiers around King Conchobar. His wanderings and exploits re call the deeds of Hercules. Finn belongs to Leinster and fights the rest of the Irish, includ ing the men of Ulster. J. A. Macculloch sug gests that the hero's identification with Leinster may be due to Leinster annalists of the Ilth century rewriting history in the light of later developments and with an eye single to the glory of their own part of the country. Finn has sur vived to modern liteaature in the fame of his son Ossian (Oisin), the warrior-bard of Mac pherson's poem of that name. Saint Patrick in the legend converts Ossian's son, Oscar, and meets the old Caoilte, the last of the Feinn, or Finn's men, who had survived the last dreadful battle of Gabhra. But the glory of Celtic he roic saga is Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, U king of Britain. Unlike the Teutonic Arthur and the Knights of the Table Round have but fabulous historical antecedents. Even this they lose, and in later literature become more and more creations of myth and fancy until with Tennyson they become like Excali bur 'mystic, wonderful,'" emblems and types of moral virtues and vices. A Welsh legendary character of the 'Mabinogion,> Peredur, the (Seeker of the Basin,p later mediaeval romance made into Parzival, the Knight of the Grail, and thus joined to the Arthurian cycle the stories of the mystical Cup of the Last Supper.