Joseph Campbell - The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949)

Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all shared a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In a well - known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarised the monomyth:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.


PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero

Chapter 1: Depature

1. The Call to Adventure

The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a 'herald'. The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance.

2. Refusal of the Call

In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call.

3. Supernatural Aid

After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a 'threshold guardian', an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience

5. The Belly of the Whale

The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes into the new zone by means of rebirth. Appearing to have died by being swallowed or having their flesh scattered, the hero is transformed and becomes ready for the adventure ahead

Chapter 2: Initiation

1. The Road of Trials

Once past the threshold, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambigious and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting him in his passage.

2. The Meeting with the Goddess

The ultimate trial isoften represented as a marriage between the hero and a queenlike, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure

3. Woman as the Temptress

His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure

4. Atonement with the Father

The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure

5. Apotheosis

The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself

6. The Ultimate Boon

The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left

Chapter 3: Return

1. The Refusal of the Return

Having found bliss and elightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man

2. The Magic Flight

When the boon's acquisition comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns

3. Rescue from Without

The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the oridnary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego

4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real

5. Master of the Two Worlds

Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now percieve both the divine and human worlds

6. Freedomn to Live

The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man