Junak

Junak (grč. ἥρως /hērōs/) je pojam kojim se često naziva izuzetno hrabar čovek koji spašava druge ljude i brani ih od zla, čija je definicija često korišćena u fiktivnom svetu, no nekad se koristila i u istoriji.

Milunka Savić, srpska junakinja Balkanskih ratova i Prvog svetskog rata.

Kroz prošlost

Antička mitologija

U antičkoj mitologiji čovek čije je ljudsko biće prožeto božanskim svojstvima, zatim polubog, sin boga i smrtne žene i obrnuto (npr. Herakle). Homer junacima naziva likove svojih epova. Kasnije se pojam junak proširuje i na različite istaknute ličnosti, ratnike, državnike, zakonodavce (Likurg), umetnike, kojima su nakon njihove smrti iskazivali božanske počasti. Grčka tradicija i legenda spominje junake po kojima su pojedina plemena dobila ime, a i junake neke pokrajine, grada ili kolonije, za koje se verovalo da direktno utiču na delovanje i sudbinu ljudi. Junacima su se podizala svetilišta i spomenici, prinosile su im se žrtve i održavale u njihovu čast svečane igre. Prema antičkom verovanju, junak odlazi posle smrti na Olimp ili na Ostrva blaženih, blista na nebu kao zvezda ili boravi u hramovima i gajevima kao genije zaštitnik. Pojedince su poštovali kao junake još za života (Lizimah iz Samotrake; tiranin Nikija s Kosa).

Rimsko carstvo

Pridavanje božanskih svojstava istaknutim ličnostima imalo je izrazitog odjeka u Rimskom carstvu gde su se pojedinim vladarima prinosile žrtve i uzdizali su ih u red bogova (apoteoza).

Literatura

• Allison, Scott (2010). Heroes: What They Do and Why We Need Them. Richmond, Virginia: Oxford University Press. 
• Bell, Andrew (1859). British-Canadian Centennium, 1759–1859: General James Wolfe, His Life and Death: A Lecture Delivered in the Mechanics' Institute Hall, Montreal, on Tuesday, September 13, 1859, being the Anniversary Day of the Battle of Quebec, fought a Century before in which Britain lost a Hero and Won a Province. Quebec: J. Lovell. str. 52. 
• Blashfield, Jean (1981). Hellraisers, Heroines and Holy Women. New York: Saint Martin's Press. 
• Burkert, Walter (1985). „The dead, heroes and chthonic gods”. Greek Religion. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 
• Calder, Jenni (1977). Heroes. From Byron to Guevara. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-241-89536-8. 
• Campbell, Joseph (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 
• Chatterji, Roma (1986). „The Voyage of the Hero: The Self and the Other in One Narrative Tradition of Purulia”. Contributions to Indian Sociology. 19: 95—114. doi:10.1177/006996685019001007. 
• Carlyle, Thomas (1840) On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History
• Craig, David, Back Home, Life Magazine-Special Issue, Volume 8, Number 6, 85-94.
• Dundes, Alan; Rank, Otto; Raglan, Lord (1990). In Quest of the Hero. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 
• Hadas, Moses; Morton Smith (1965). Heroes and Gods. Harper & Row. 
• Hein, David (1993). „The Death of Heroes, the Recovery of the Heroic”. Christian Century. 110: 1298—1303. 
• Kerenyi, Karl (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson. 
• Hook, Sydney (1943) The Hero in History: A Study in Limitation and Possibility
• Khan, Sharif (2004). Psychology of the Hero Soul. 
• Lee, Christopher (2005). Nelson and Napoleon, The Long Haul to Trafalgar. headline books. str. 560. ISBN 978-0-7553-1041-8. 
• Lidell, Henry and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. link
• Rohde, Erwin (1924). Psyche. 
• Price, John (2014). Everyday Heroism: Victorian Constructions of the Heroic Civilian. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4411-0665-0. 
• Raglan, Lord (1936). The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.  (Republished 2003)
• Smidchens, Guntis (2007). „National Heroic Narratives in the Baltics as a Source for Nonviolent Political Action”. Slavic Review. 66,3: 484—508. doi:10.2307/20060298. 

Spoljašnje veze

• The British Hero - online exhibition from screenonline, a website of the British Film Institute, looking at British heroes of film and television.
• Listen to BBC Radio 4's In Our Time programme on Heroism
• "The Role of Heroes in Children's Lives" by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD
• 10% - What Makes A Hero directed by Yoav Shamir