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A heroön or heroon (plural heroa) (; , Plural. ), also latinized as heroum, is a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greece or Ancient Rome hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero. They were often erected over his or her supposed tomb or cenotaph. They were erected from the time of archaic Greece to the Augustus, and as far afield as Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan.
Greek literature records how Cimon of Athens avenged the death of the legendary hero Theseus in 469 BC, finding a set of bones allegedly belonging to the hero and returning with them in triumph to Athens. Similarly, Herodotus records in his Histories that the raided the heroön of the city of Tegea, stealing the bones of Orestes. This was regarded as changing the hero's allegiance from Tegea to Sparta, ensuring that the Spartans could defeat the Tegeans as foretold by the Oracle of Delphi. (For an analogous practice in ancient Rome, see evocatio).
Many examples of heroa can be found around the of Greece and in or near the sacred areas of a number of Greek cities around the Mediterranean. A particularly well-preserved example, the so-called Tomb of Theron, can be found at Agrigento in Sicily. The Greek city of Paestum, south of Naples, has an unlooted heroon of an unknown figure, perhaps the city founder, with its contents intact (now in the museum there), including large metal vases. Another notable one, at Vergina in Greek Macedonia (the ancient city of Aigai - Αἰγαί), is thought to have been dedicated to the worship of the family of Alexander the Great and may have housed the cult statue of Alexander's father, Philip II of Macedon. The sanctuary of Zeus in Nemea also contains a heroön, this one dedicated to the infant hero Opheltes. The Heroon at Nemea was known as a popular place to practice magic due to the nature of Opheltes' death. A well-preserved Roman heroön from the Augustus period is situated in the ancient city of Sagalassos in what is now Turkey. Another well-preserved and well-known heroön is the Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey. It was built to honor a Roman senator, Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, a Roman consul and Promagistrate of Asia from 92 to 107 and Roman governor of Asia when he died in 114. He bequeathed a large sum of money for its construction which was carried out by his son. Apart from the library in Alexandria, Egypt, it was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world.
The tradition of building tombs to honor heroes continued from Mycenae into other areas of Greece. This can be seen by the heroön found at Lefkandi in Euboea. This site dates to around 950 BC during the Iron Age. This site differs from earlier sites, as it was built in an apsidal style. This means that one end of the tomb was shaped like a half-circle. In addition, the site is much larger than previous tombs as it reaches up to 50 meters long. The inside of this heroön contains two human remains, which have been cremated and placed in bronze amphoras. One of these remains is the hero himself, who can be identified by the hunting scene found on his amphora, as well as the many swords that were left by his tomb as grave gifts. The other set of human remains at this site is believed to be the hero's wife, who possibly was slaughtered with him when the hero died.
Heroa were common not only on the Greek mainland but also in the colonies. This can be seen at the heroön of Agrigento on the south coast of Italy. This heroön, known as the oratory of Phalaris, was much more similar to classical architecture, with the building being prostyle, tetrastyle, and having columns in the Ionic order and both and , as in the Doric style. The building was constructed in 1st century BC and is surrounded by many other Greek temples. It was used as a church for a time after the end of the Greek and Roman periods.
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