Heroism: 1. The Classical Hero
Rory Stewart: The Long History of...
BBC
4.6 • 593 Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Rory Stewart explores ideas of what it means to be a hero from the ancient world to the present day. How have these ideas changed? Why do heroes matter? Who are the heroes we need today?
With the help of leading historians, psychologists, philosophers and theologians, he examines how heroism is continually questioned and re-invented in every age, and how these contrasting visions of the hero might speak to us in our own time. What does it mean for our moral life? How should we perceive and pursue human excellence?
In this episode, Rory explores ideas of the hero from the classical world to the middle ages.
Presenter: Rory Stewart Producer and sound design: Dan Tierney Editor: Tim Pemberton Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Transcript
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| 0:36.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:40.1 | This is Rory Stewart and welcome to the long history of heroism. |
| 0:44.8 | Episodes are released weekly, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:48.5 | But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the whole series right now, first, on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:56.7 | This is going to be embarrassing. |
| 1:01.6 | As a child, I grew up wanting to be Alexander the Great. |
| 1:07.2 | I wanted to match myself against dead heroes, to achieve magnificent things, and I told myself I even wanted to die, sacrificing my life for a noble cause before I was 13. |
| 1:14.7 | It was only later experiences in the Middle East and in politics that finally began to weaken my |
| 1:20.4 | fantasy of heroes. I'm Rory Stewart and in this series I want to go back to these ideas of |
| 1:27.2 | heroes and hero worship. |
| 1:30.3 | Ideas which have been the fixation, particularly, but not exclusively, of young men throughout time. |
| 1:38.4 | I want to ask what a hero is. |
| 1:41.7 | Courage is definitely a hero equality, whether you fight or not, just the idea of stepping forward. |
| 1:48.0 | Why people want to be heroes. |
| 1:50.0 | They didn't care what other people thought them, but boy, did they care what history thought of them. |
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