Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HE'RO, n. [L. heros, Gr. ηρως, a demigod. It coincides in elements with Ir. earr, noble, grand, a champion, and with the G. herr, D. heer, lord, master.]

1. A man of distinguished valor, intrepidity or enterprise in danger; as, a hero in arms. Cowley.
2. A great, illustrious or extraordinary person; as, a hero in learning. [Little used.]
3. In a poem, or romance, the principal personage, 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.
4. In pagan mythology, a hero was an illustrious person, mortal indeed, but supposed by the populace to partake of immortality, and after his death to be placed among the gods. Encyc.