Hyperetes was an Ancient Greek title. It is derived from ἐρέσσω (eresso), and therefore originally signifies a rower, but in later times the word was, with the exception of the soldiers or marines, applied to the whole body of persons who performed any service in a vessel. In a still wider sense it was applied to any person who acted as the assistant of another, and performed manual labour for him, whether in sacred or profane things. Consequently, the word is sometimes used as synonymous with slave. The name was sometimes given to those men by whom the hoplites were accompanied when they took the field, and who carried the luggage, the provisions, and the shield of the hoplites, although the more common name for this servant of the hoplites was skeuophoros.