The story of Hero and Leander is one of the best known in the whole mythology of Greece. The myth, in its simplest form, is as follows:—Hero was a priestess in the service of Venus at Sestos, and her lover, Leander of Abydos, used nightly to swim across the strait of the Hellespont to pay his court to her. One stormy night he was drowned, and in the morning the billows washed his body ashore to the feet of his betrothed, who, when she saw it, threw herself into the sea, and perished by the same fate as her lover.

Hero. This term was of somewhat indiscriminate application. It was applied to those who were partly of human, partly of divine origin, or to men who did illustrious actions for the benefit of mankind. Homer applies it to the whole of the Grecian army, and sometimes to individual heralds. The warriors who took part in celebrated sieges and battles, such as Troy and Marathon, were called heroes. Etymologically, the word indicates the possession of extraordinary strength and courage, and is supposed to be connected with the Latin Vir, and the German Herr. This points naturally to the leadership or mastery which results from the possession of superior courage and strength. It is said that this etymology can be traced in the designation of the body from which sprang the military adventurers of the Lombards. In the same way the primitive heroes may have been the leaders who particularly distinguished themselves amongst the wandering hordes who sought new settlements in different parts of Greece. The heroic age is variously estimated at six centuries between 1800-1200 B.C., or six generations terminating at the same epoch, that is, about the time of the Trojan War. The heroic age was certainly past when Hesiod wrote.

In after times the reverence with which the heroes were regarded assumed the form of worship. The national vanity and the martial poetry of the Greeks were directly favourable to the posthumous fame of the heroes. Raised above the rank of mortals, the next step was to admit heroes to a participation with the nature of the gods. Elevated thus far, they were naturally considered as still exerting a powerful influence over the destiny of mortals. Hence splendid temples and costly monuments were built in honour of them, and propitiatory sacrifices offered to them. The canonization and worship of saints in later times affords an obvious analogy to the case of the classic heroes.