These are the only passages I can discover, to which the mythological notion seems applicable; and I think it may be safely asserted that, if we had the word no where else, these would not have been sufficient to establish, or even suggest, such an interpretation. We shall soon find that we must give the title a much humbler meaning. Before going further, I will refer to the interpretations offered by Damm^^. He says it is honoris vocabulum^ and that heroes were to men much as Oeol to Sai/more^* This analogy of ratios comes, in fact, from Eustathius, whose words I transcribe. ^^' Hp(joa<$ tj iraXaia aocbia y€vo9 tl Oeiov elvai co^oCgl^ liecfov Oecov kul avOpojTrwv. Kcu to juev Oeiov (pvXov 669 deov^ oiaipel Kal caiijiova^. . . . toils' oe av9pco7rov<^ et9 xe rjpcoas Kal €t9 avTo tovto avOpcoTTOvs. Kal vTrofjejoT^Kei^ac fX€V (prjai Oeo^^ caijuova^j, dvOpooTrovs oe rjpijocnVy 01/9 Koi e/c Oeiov Kai avOpcoTriuov crc0/uaTO9 (pvvai Xeyovai. Ato Kai 'Hcrto^o9 rit^ideov^ avrov^ XeyGi. This, as I observed before, belongs to an age later than that of the Homeric poems. The heroes, says Damm, were usually of divine blood, but the principal warriors got the name also. " In Homero autem omnes fortes bellatores et viri, si sunt illustres natalibus, dicuntur heroes.'"' He makes dpd-, prayer or imprecation, the theme, and places i^pcos between the words dper}]^ apiaTo^^ and so on, and ea^dpa. He also suggests that it may be derived from one of the following words ; epa^ the earth ; €0^9 ; di^p ; i6i0O9. Some of these he seems to me to have taken from the scholiasts on the passage of Hesiod. Proclus says ^^'QcTTrep ra dWa yevrj awo ttJ^ Trepi avra uXi]^ e/ca- Xccrei;, y^pvaovv Kal apyvpovv^ ovto) Kai tovto airo ttj^ yv^^ hv tjpiOLKOv. ' EjOa yap rj yrj, Kai rjpta ra ywfxaTa' wpoei- prjKe oe otl 6 Z61/9 eKeXevaei/ ' H^aicrroi/,
TrepiKXvTOV OTTL TayjLCTTa yaiav voet (pvpeiv.
referring to the 60th line of the '^Epya Kal rjinepat. Tzetzes says as follows : ^^Uptjoe^ XeyovTai rj ctTro Tr}^ hpas^ rjyovv t^s 7^9, KaTd ^idXeKToV e^ >}9 7ra9 dvOpcowo^ 7]p(o^ dv Xe^^Oeir],
12 V. //>a)s. 13 Ad 11. A. p. 17—135 36.
14 Schol. Hes."E. /earn. 15H.
15 Schol. in Hes."E. AcarH. 158.
