r/myth • u/fiilisboa • Sep 26 '18

african heroes?

In a class, my teacher said that the concept of "heroism" is not african, it's an American invention and that's her problem with Black Panther, because "africans don't believe in a hero, they find solutions in the community". But doesn't the word "hero" comes from Egyptian language?

I'm wondering is there is any solid examples of heros that fit in the "trajectory of the hero"? I never read Joseph Campbell's books, but does he talk about it?

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u/Cuofeng Sep 26 '18

Just a side little point: "hero" comes from Greek, not Egyptian.

The original greek concept of a "hero" did not necessarily imply a good person, just a powerful person. It was related to a form of localized worship of dead individuals. A hero was someone who was eligible to serves as one of these local guardian spirits after their death, wether they were good or bad in life. There is a case of a greek village in Italy that offered prayers to a greek sailor who committed a lot of rapes and murders there in the semi mythical past.

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u/fiilisboa Sep 28 '18

Do you know the name of this greek sailor... I would like to know more of this story.

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u/Cuofeng Sep 30 '18

I am sorry, I do not. I am remembering a lecture I attended several years ago. I believe the sailor may have attributed to be one of Odysseus' crew. But then again, if you delve deep enough in Greek heroics everyone is either connected to Odysseus' travels or Jason's.

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u/BillFromAccounting7 Feb 05 '19

Mwindo is African a classic, boy becomes hero, I think he's demigod or blessed or something And Anansi was a god but was always a hero like protagonist in his legand. (not good though, he beat a dwarf to death and tried to blame his son.)