Virgin priestess of Aphrodite in Greek mythology. A resident of Sestos, she fell in love with Leander, who lived in Abydos, a town on the opposite side of the Hellespont. Every night she would light a torch atop a tower and he would use it as his guide as he swam across the strait to meet with her. One night a great tempest arose and extinguished the torch. Without the light to guide him Leander lost his way and drowned. The waves bore his body to the European shore, and when Hero saw it from her tower she cast herself into the sea.

Hero and Leander are two of the classic doomed lovers in literature.