Hē'ro, n.

(89), n.; pl. HĒ'RŌĒS. [Fr. héros, Sp. heroe, It. eroe, Lat. heros, Gr. ἦρως.]

1. A man of distinguished valor, intrepidity, or enterprise in danger; a prominent or central personage in any remarkable action or event; hence, a great, illustrious, or extraordinary person.
2. The principal personage in a poem, story, and the like, or the person who has the principal share in the transactions related; as Achilles in the Iliad, Ulysses in the Odyssey, and Æneas in the Æneid.
3. (Myth.) An illustrious man, supposed by the populace to partake of immortality, and after his death to be placed among the gods.