=Different Kinds of Heroes.=—­Of these heroes many are legendary persons (Achilles, Odysseus, Agamemnon); some without doubt never existed (Herakles, OEdipus); others like Hellen, Dorus, AEolus are only names.  But their worshippers regarded them as men of the olden time; and, in fact, the most of the heroes lived at one time.  Many are historical personages:  generals like Leonidas, Lysander; philosophers like Democritus and Aristotle; legislators like Lycurgus and Solon.  The people of Croton adored even one of their fellow-citizens, Philip by name, because he had been in his time the most beautiful man in Greece.  The leader who had guided a band of colonists and founded a city became for the inhabitants the Founder; a temple was raised to him and every year sacrifices were offered to him.  The Athenian Miltiades was thus worshipped in a city of Thrace.  The Spartiate Brasidas, killed in the defence of Amphipolis, had divine honors paid to him in that city, for the inhabitants had come to regard him as their Founder.

=Presence of the Heroes.=—­The hero continued to reside in the place where his body was interred, either in his tomb or in the neighborhood.  A story told by Herodotus (v. 67) depicts this belief in a lively way.  The city of Sicyon adored the hero Adrastus and in a public place was a chapel dedicated to his honor.  Cleisthenes, the tyrant of Sicyon, took a fancy to rid himself of this hero.  He went to the oracle at Delphi to ask if it would aid him in expelling Adrastus.  The oracle replied to his question that Adrastus was king of the Sicyonians and Cleisthenes was a brigand.  The tyrant, not daring to evict the hero, adopted a ruse; he sent to Thebes to seek the bones of Melanippus, another hero, and installed them with great pomp in the sanctuary of the city.  “He did this,” says Herodotus, “because Melanippus during his life had been the greatest enemy of Adrastus and had killed his brother and his son-in-law.”  Then he transferred to Melanippus the festivals and the sacrifices formerly paid to the honor of Adrastus.  He was persuaded, and all the Greeks with him, that the hero would be irritated and would flee.

=Intervention of the Heroes.=—­The heroes have divine power; like the gods, they can according to their whim send good or evil.  The poet Stesichorus had spoken ill of the famous Helen (that Helen who the legend states was carried away to Troy); he suddenly became blind; when he retracted what he had said, the heroine restored his sight.

The protecting heroes of a city kept it from plagues and famine and even fought against its enemies.  At the battle of the Marathon the Athenian soldiers saw in the midst of them Theseus, the mythical founder of Athens, clad in shining armor.  During the battle of Salamis the heroes Ajax and Telamon, once kings of Salamis, appeared on the highest point of the island extending their hands to the Greek fleet.  “It is not we,” said Themistocles, “that have