* * * * *
The typical myth
[Notes taken from Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces. The text
is quoted directly from his book. Typographical errors are most likely mine.]
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, resurection). The boon that he brings restores the
world (elixir).
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