(hir′ō) noun plural ·roes
1. A person distinguished for valor, fortitude, or bold enterprise; anyone regarded as having displayed great courage or exceptionally noble qualities.
2. In classical mythology, the son of a god or goddess and a mortal: the eponymous founder of a city or family, as Cadmus, was sometimes locally worshiped as a hero.
3. The central male figure of a poem, play, romance, or the like; in modern fiction, the male character in whom the principal interest centers. [<L heros <Gk. hērōs]

(hir′ō)
In Greek legend, a priestess of Aphrodite at Sestos, for whom Leander, her lover, swam the Hellespont from Abydos every night: when he drowned one night, Hero cast herself into the sea.