Résumé
Ancient Greek heroes form a particular category of supernatural beings between gods and departed humans. On a general level, it is easy to keep them apart but a closer inspection shows that the category “hero” is often blending over to that of gods and ordinary dead persons in a manner that makes too tight definitions uncomfortable and even incomprehensible to the modern eye. This presentation explored the hero-concept and how we are to define what a hero is, both as to definitions made from the ancient evidence (written, iconographical and archaeological) and modern scholarly approaches. Of particular interest is the body of the hero, as a living entity but also in the form of his or her bones after death. Moreover, the intriguing feature that heroes had a “second” life after they died, sometimes even more important and forceful than their first existence, will also be considered. A fixed definition of who is a hero and why cannot be arrived at, but mapping the heterogeneous character of “heroes” is an important part of the understanding of this category of beings within the wider field of recipients of religious attention in ancient Greece.
