The Hero-Myth According to Joseph Campbell

1. The Hero-Myth According toJoseph Campbell

2. Call to Adventure . . . • The Hero is “lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds to the threshold of adventure” (Campbell 245). • This adventure draws the hero out of his every day, normal world.

3. Initial reluctance . . . • Initially, the hero feels reluctance • The hero receives encouragement from a protective figure (perhaps a wise old man or woman) • The protective figure provides “amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass” (Campbell 69).

4. The first threshold . . . • A “shadow presence” guards the passageway • The hero must “defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark” (Campbell 245)

5. Beyond the threshold . . . • Once through, 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)” (Campbell 246). • This amounts to a kind of training for the hero.

6. The innermost cave . . . • A place of danger • A black moment • Often deep underground • The place of a “supreme ordeal” that the hero must survive in order to earn his or her “reward” (Campbell 246).

7. The Road Back . . . • The return journey is another scene of danger and pursuit. The hero isn’t safe yet! • The return is the “final work” (Campbell 246).

8. The Return Threshold . . . • At the return threshold, the “transcendental powers” of the hero must remain behind (Campbell 246). • The hero “re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return, resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir)” (Campbell 246).

9. Works Cited Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton U P, 1973.