Do Heroes Need Divine Support?

     Throughout history, hero term has occupied a very important place. Hero means that a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Almost all legends have a hero story. All heroes have significant importance for each nation such as Oghuz Khan for Turks, Thor for Norwegians or Brahma for Hindus. Relationship between god and hero has been discussing for many years. Some people argue that heroes cannot be formed without god support and heroes have to need divine power. However, other people support that heroes do not need any divine support or power. They can be a hero thanks to their bravery, courage and altruism. In my opinion, a hero should need a divine support and it cannot be thought without any holy backing.

     First of all, some thinkers and researchers support that heroes do not have to need divine support. Namely, they can be hero without a god support. British adduce the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill because of his win about Adolf Hitler, Russians (Communists) show Joseph Stalin because of the same reason or some Turks exemplify Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as a hero. They generally adduce historical persons from history. As you see, they were just important and apparent historical persons, not heroes. Because a hero has to have divine support and power. Unless they have divine support, everyone does not accept them as a hero in a nation as the above examples. On the other hand, these people claim that Odysseus from the Epic of Odysseia is an example of their arguments. According to them, Odysseus was not related to any divine supports. However, he was an ordinary soldier in the Trojan War. Therefore, he is a just historical character. Other soldiers may have lived through this kind of similar stories. Secondly, some people argue that heroes need divine support from a god or gods. When we look at history, we can see easily heroes’ divine supports. Heroes were formed by god’s holy existence. In history, all heroes had divine backing from god or gods before the New Era. In the Middle Age and the Antiquity Era, all heroes are connected to their nations’ gods. Gılgamesh from the Epic of Gılgamesh is a very good example of my argument. Gılgamesh was a semi-human and semi-god hero. His story occurred among gods and his struggle generally was connected to gods. Although he was a king, he was associated with god powers. In its time, god term was the most important thing. All notions were related to gods or divine approach. All areas such as agriculture, weather, population and disasters were being associated with divine powers. This situation continued until the end of the Middle Age. 

     When everything is taken into account, hero term should have divine support from a god or gods. Otherwise, they cannot be a hero and they can be just an important personality such as Atatürk or Stalin. As seen, in history, all heroes were connected to holy powers and they needed divine supports from gods such as Gılgamesh. Shortly, I think divine powers form a hero because he takes his power, courage and bravery from a divine existence.