a hero via one shrine. Unlike the Roman beliefs it was thought that the Heroes did not ascend to the skies and be with the gods of Olympus, but rather they would go down into and become one with the earth. This impacted not only how the Greeks treated the Heroes, but thought about them in a political sense. They were respected and worshiped, but could even at times turn vicious if ignored and be the supposed cause of diseases or mishaps. Hero cults could also be of the utmost political importance beyond propaganda too. When Cleisthenes divided the Athenians into new demes for voting, he consulted Delphi on what heroes he should name each division after. According to Herodotus, the Spartans attributed their conquest of Arcadia to their theft of the bones of Orestes from the Arcadian town of Tegea. Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus, Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera", even though he was tormented all his life by the queen of the gods. This was even truer in their cult appearances. Perhaps the most striking example is the Athenian king Erechtheus, whom Poseidon killed for choosing Athena over him as the city's patron god. When the Athenians worshiped Erechtheus on the Acropolis, they invoked him as Poseidon Erechtheus. List of heroes Achlae – Greek river god, Achelous Achle, Achile – Legendary hero of the Trojan War, from the Greek Achilles Achilles at Leuce Actaeon pupil of the centaur Chiron Aeneas Ajax Akademos Alexander the Great at Alexandria Amphiaraus Atalanta Asclepius Battus at Cyrene Bellerophon Bouzyges Cadmus – the Phoenician founder of Thebes Cyamites – of the Eleusinian mysteries who presided over the cultivation of Fava beans. Diomedes Erechtheus at Athens Hector Hephaestion Heracles Homer, venerated at Alexandria by Ptolemy IV Philopator Jason Leonidas Lycurgus Meleager Odysseus Oedipus at Athens Orion at Boeotia Orpheus Pandora the first woman, whose curiosity brought evil to mankind Penthesilea Peleus – he fathered the famous hero Achilles. Pelops at Olympia Perseus Philippus of Croton Theseus Tantalus Paris See also Demigod Culture hero Epic poetry Imperial cult of ancient Rome Kami Bodhisattva Dharmapala Deification Shen (Chinese religion) Thracian religion Relics in classical antiquity Chinese hero cult Notes References Carla Antonaccio, An Archaeology of Ancestors: Tomb and Hero Cult in Ancient Greece, 1994 Lewis R. Farnell, Greek Hero-Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Oxford), 1921. E.