Aheroön orheroon (pluralheroa) (/hɪˈroʊ.ɒn/;Ancient Greek:ἡρῷον,romanized: hērôion,pl.ἡρῷα,hērôia), alsoLatinized asheroum, is a shrine dedicated to anancient Greek orRoman hero and used for the commemoration orcult worship of the hero. They were often erected over his or her supposed tomb orcenotaph. They were erected from the time ofarchaic Greece to theAugustan Roman period, and as far afield asAi-Khanoum inAfghanistan.
The Romans and the Greeks practised an extensive and widespreadcult of heroes. Heroes played a central role in the life of apolis, giving the city a shared focus for its identity. The cult typically centred on the heroön in which thehero's bones were usually believed to be contained. In a sense, the hero still lived: he was offered meals; he was imagined to be sharing feasts. His allegiance was seen as vitally important to the continued well-being of the city. This led to struggles between Greek cities for control of heroic remains.
Greek literature records howCimon ofAthens avenged the death of the legendary heroTheseus in 469 BC, finding a set of bones allegedly belonging to the hero and returning with them in triumph to Athens. Similarly,Herodotus records in hisHistories that theSpartans raided the heroön of the city ofTegea, stealing the bones ofOrestes. This was regarded as changing the hero's allegiance from Tegea to Sparta, ensuring that the Spartans could defeat the Tegeans as foretold by theOracle of Delphi.[1] (For an analogous practice in ancient Rome, seeevocatio).
Many examples of heroa can be found around thetholos tombs ofMycenaeanGreece and in or near the sacred areas of a number of Greek cities around the Mediterranean. A particularly well-preserved example, the so-called Tomb of Theron, can be found atAgrigento inSicily. The Greek city ofPaestum, south ofNaples, has an unlooted heroon of an unknown figure, perhaps the city founder, with its contents intact (now in the museum there), including large metal vases. Another notable one, atVergina inGreek Macedonia (the ancient city ofAigai - Αἰγαί), is thought to have been dedicated to the worship of the family ofAlexander the Great and may have housed the cult statue of Alexander's father,Philip II of Macedon. The sanctuary of Zeus inNemea also contains a heroön, this one dedicated to the infant heroOpheltes. TheHeroon at Nemea was known as a popular place to practice magic due to the nature of Opheltes' death.[2]
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A well-preserved Roman heroön from theAugustan period is situated in the ancient city ofSagalassos in what is nowTurkey. Another well-preserved and well-known heroön is theLibrary of Celsus inEphesus, Turkey. It was built to honor aRoman senator,Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, aconsul andproconsul ofAsia from 92 to 107 andgovernor of Asia when he died in 114. He bequeathed a large sum of money for its construction which was carried out by his son. Apart from thelibrary in Alexandria, Egypt, it was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world.
Heroa sites were often linked to hero cults, due to the variety of different uses for hero cults that they provided. They acted as places of worship, where cult followers could leave grave goods and other worship offerings, and were used as locations where feasts could be held to honor the hero and remember the hero's great feats. These events occurred primarily because of the Greek belief of heroes possessing special abilities that lingered locally even when he died, and it was believed that offerings and worship towards this hero would allow living cult members to tap into this power.[3]
The first examples of heroa in Greece were found atLate Bronze Age sites from theMycenaean civilization.[4] These tombs were built much like other tombs during the time, either as ashaft tomb (grave shaft) filled with elaborategrave goods, or as atholos tomb (beehive tomb), a type ofchamber tomb. In an untouched example of a Mycenaean heroön found inPylos, the grave shaft-style tomb was dedicated to a "Griffin Warrior" whosevotive objects include a mix of Mycenaean andMinoan objects. This grave group includes a largebronze sword, gold rings, jewels, and craftedseals.[5] This shows that the Griffin Warrior Tomb might be an example of Mycenaean interaction with other areas of Greece.[6]
The tradition of building tombs to honor heroes continued from Mycenae into other areas of Greece.[4] This can be seen by the heroön found atLefkandi inEuboea.[7] This site dates to around 950 BC during the Iron Age.[7] This site differs from earlier sites, as it was built in an apsidal style.[7] This means that one end of the tomb was shaped like a half-circle.[7] In addition, the site is much larger than previous tombs as it reaches up to 50 meters long.[7] The inside of this heroön contains two human remains, which have been cremated and placed in bronze amphoras.[7] One of these remains is the hero himself, who can be identified by the hunting scene found on his amphora, as well as the many swords that were left by his tomb as grave gifts.[7] The other set of human remains at this site is believed to be the hero's wife, who possibly was slaughtered with him when the hero died.[7]
This idea of using a tholos tomb for heroa continued in Greece even into the Classical Age.[4] This is illustrated by a heroön found at thePanhellenic Sanctuary ofOlympia. This tomb, which was established around 450 B.C., follows the typical tholos tomb structure with a large dome with several other rooms flanking the tomb to provide the building with a square shape. Within the tomb, there is a large earthen mound that held the ashes of the cremated hero. This tomb must is likely to have been erected for an important figure that was known across Greece, as it was located at a Panhellenic Sanctuary rather than in theastu of a particularpolis. This heroön also shows the wide variety of architectural styles used on heroa depending on time period and geography, as it differs considerably from the heroa found at Leftkandi and Acragas.[8][9]
Heroa were common not only on the Greek mainland but also in thecolonies. This can be seen at the heroön ofAcragas on the south coast of Italy. This heroön, known as the oratory ofPhalaris, was much more similar to classical architecture, with the building beingprostyle,tetrastyle, and having columns in theIonic order and bothtriglyphs andmetopes, as in theDoric style. The building was constructed in 1st century BC and is surrounded by many other Greek temples. It was used as a church for a time after the end of the Greek and Roman periods.[10]
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