Heroes

Saviours, Traitors and Supermen (TEXT ONLY)

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781857026863
• eBook ISBN:
  9780007404674
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

From the author of 'The Pike' – winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction – a compelling story of heroism told through eight famous lives that span from Achilles to Sir Francis Drake.

Beginning beneath the walls of Troy, ending in 1930s Europe, 'Heroes' is a compelling evocation of heroism through eight famous lives – Achilles, Odysseus, Alcibiades, Cato, El Cid, Francis Drake, Wallenstein and Garibaldi.

Not necessarily all good – sometimes quite the reverse – but all great, they possessed a charisma, a strength of will powerful enough to persuade those around them that they alone could do the incredible and unprecedented.

It is a story of morality and dictatorship; money and sorcery; seduction and mass hysteria.

REFERENCES

PROLOGUE

‘the only person living’: Thucydides, 8: 53

‘born in a happy hour’: The Poem of the Cid, 70

‘an unhappy land’: Brecht, The Life of Galileo, scene 13

‘The Argonauts left …’: Aristotle, Politics, III. xiii

‘divine stupidity …’: Hibbert, 340

‘Heartfelt prostrate admiration …’: Carlyle, 11

‘indemnification for populations …’: Emerson, 169, 157

‘no name comes down …’: Sprawson, 45

‘Alcibiades, leaning …’: Plutarch (1965), 10

‘There is no law …’: Aristotle, Politics, III. xiii

‘This people has no cities …’: Herodotus, IV. 46. 298

‘a non-cooperator …’: Aristotle, Politics, I. ii

‘a fearful tyranny …’: Hollingdale, 118

‘like a star …’: Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 89

‘a hero of antiquity …’: Ridley, 324

‘It is the finery …’: Martin and Parker, 33

‘Go tell the people …’: Strachey, 305

‘defeat in battle …’: quoted in Sprawson, 39

‘What is he …’: Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, II. iii. 144–5

‘thou picture of what’: ibid., V. i. 6

‘his usual sickness’: Meier, 326, 423

‘Madam … the wings’: Madan, ***

‘You chose life …’: quoted in Knox, 34

‘Many men …’: Sallust, II

‘They shall not …’: Laurence Binyon, ‘For the Fallen (1914–1918)’

‘Being dead …’: quoted in Parker, 217

ACHILLES

Quotations from the Iliad are from Robert Fagles’ translation

‘Yes, says the beast …’: Homer, Iliad, 19: 483–98

‘dank mouldering horrors …’: ibid., 20: 78–9

‘Like the generations …’: ibid., 6: 171

‘let that man …’: ibid., 1: 164

‘so you can learn …’ ibid., 1: 219

‘because he rules …’: ibid., 1: 329

‘hands like Ares’ …’: King, 64

‘You are nothing …’: Iliad, 1: 213

‘The same honour …’: ibid., 9: 386

‘I say my honour …’: ibid., 9: 741

‘the famous deeds …’: ibid., 9: 228

‘hungry as wolves …’: ibid., 16: 187

‘sudden, plunging death’: ibid., 16: 333

‘Twelve of their finest …’: ibid., 18: 265

‘The man who is incapable …’: Aristo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue
• I: Achilles
• II: Alcibiades
• III: Cato
• IV: El Cid
• V: Francis Drake
• VI: Wallenstein
• VII: Garibaldi
• VIII: Odysseus
• Author’s Note
• References
• Bibliography
• Index
• P.S. Ideas, Interviews & Features …
• About the Author
• Praise
• Also by the Author
• Copyright
• About the Publisher