On Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, is a collection of six essays by Thomas Carlyle, published in 1841, based on a series of lectures he delivered in 1840. The lectures, which glorified great men throughout history, were enormously popular. In the essays, Carlyle discusses different types of heroes and offers examples of each, including divinities (pagan myths), prophets (Muhammad), poets (Dante and Shakespeare), priests (Martin Luther and John Knox), men of letters (Samuel Johnson and Jean-Jacques Rousseau), and rulers (Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon).
Lecture I. The Hero as Divinity. Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology.
[May 5, 1840.] We have undertaken to discourse here for a little on Great Men, their manner of a...
Lecture II. The Hero as Prophet. Mahomet: Islam.
[May 8, 1840.] From the first rude times of Paganism among the Scandinavians in the North, we ad...
Lecture III. The Hero as Poet. Dante: Shakspeare.
[May 12, 1840.] The Hero as Divinity, the Hero as Prophet, are productions of old ages; not to b...
Lecture IV. The Hero as Priest. Luther; Reformation: Knox; Puritanism.
[May 15, 1840.] Our present discourse is to be of the Great Man as Priest. We have repeatedly en...
Lecture V. The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns.
[May 19, 1840.] Hero-Gods, Prophets, Poets, Priests are forms of Heroism that belong to the old ...
Lecture VI. The Hero as King. Cromwell, Napoleon: Modern Revolutionism.
[May 22, 1840.] We come now to the last form of Heroism; that which we call Kingship. The Comman...