Richard D.
Erlich 27/VIII/96
English
Department
MIAMI
UNIVERSITY
Oxford,
Ohio 45056-1633
(ErlichRD@MUOhio.edu)
Summary of The Monomyth of the Hero
From Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
(1949, 1968)
The
mythological hero, setting forth from his commonday hut or castle, is lured,
carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence
that guards the passage. The hero
may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark
(brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent
and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion). Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world
of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten
him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers). When he arrives at the nadir of the
mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the
hero's sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his
recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divinization
(apotheosis), or again—if the powers have remained unfriendly to
him—his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft);
intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being
(illumination, transfiguration, freedom).
The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under
their protection (emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation
flight, obstacle flight). At the
return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero
re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the
world (elixir).