heroic age

American  

noun

1. one of the five periods in human history, when, according to Hesiod, gods and demigods performed heroic and glorious deeds.

2. any period in the history of a nation, especially in ancient Greece and Rome, when great heroes of legend lived.

   Achilles, Agamemnon, and others of Greece's heroic age.

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heroic age British  

noun

1. the period in an ancient culture, when legendary heroes are said to have lived

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Etymology

Origin of heroic age

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

Is the heroic age of the photojournalist, though, coming to an end?

From BBC • Sep. 22, 2023

And even in bitterly cold East Antarctica, there are occasional warming events that likely would shock the explorers of the heroic age.

From Scientific American • Mar. 21, 2022

But it’s also a throwback to an earlier heroic age.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2019

Years of fruitless, icebound sallies into the polar seas culminated in the tragic Franklin expedition of the 1840s, when all hands were lost, and the heroic age of British Arctic exploration came to an end.

From Slate • Apr. 9, 2014

But if this was a story in the heroic age, they would give my great-grandfather a name, Jamshid, and a personality—ever-laughing Jamshid with a limp in the foot his father crushed with a plow.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri