It tells us who we are and the rewards that await us if we would only set aside our focus on the day-to-day humdrum of life and embrace the hero’s journey. When viewed this way, mythology is deeply egalitarian. Through their arduous trial, the hero learns new things about himself or herself and discovers hidden strengths that were dormant within them the entire time-in fairy tales, this is often made literal by the revelation of the hero to have been “the Chosen One” or “the King’s son.” These new (but latent) powers enable a thorough transformation of the hero’s outward being and psyche. They then return home to share this heavenly reward with their people-and in doing so, redeem all mankind.Īlthough the hero’s journey is often filled with daring exploits, the slaying of fantastical monsters, and unions with strange and beautiful goddesses, it is at heart a deeply introspective and inward-looking adventure, one with profound spiritual and psychological implications. They gain new powers, and with those powers, achieve their goal-they receive the ultimate boon. The hero undergoes great trials and tribulations during the course of their quest, undergoes a spiritual (and sometimes literal) death and rebirth, and transforms into an entirely new being. This can be something material (like Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail) or something with far greater spiritual weight (like the Buddha’s journey to find ultimate enlightenment). The hero sets out on a journey to acquire some object or attain some sort of divine wisdom. Thus, they start out with some essential element of the gods already inside them. Frequently, this hero is born to lowly circumstances in a remote corner of the world and is the product of immaculate conception and virgin birth. But the hero can also start out as an obscure figure of humble origins, on the fringes of society.
The archetypal myth is that of the hero’s journey, which details the exploits of an exalted figure such as a legendary warrior or king. It explores the common themes and story elements that define the world’s mythologies-though cultures are separated by vast gulfs of space and time, they all tell their stories in similar ways, using the same essential mythological template: the hero’s journey.
The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a journey through the world’s mythological traditions, from the ancient Egyptians, to the Romans, the Hindu and Buddhist legends of the east, and the folk-tales and foundation myths of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania. 1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of The Hero with a Thousand Faces
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