The Hero's Journey

In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.

-Miguel de Cervantes

Joseph Campbell spent much of his professional career studying heroism in both classical and contemporary eras. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell outlines the journey of classical heroes from across the globe, detailing the road-markers that are common in the majority of hero myths/stories. The journey of the hero, called by Campbell the monomyth, is divided into three main parts: The Departure, the Initiation, and the Return (Campbell vii-viii). The Departure is begun by a call to adventure, the appearance of a herald or occurrence of an event that calls the hero to leave their world and begin a journey of torments, trials, and/or delights (Campbell 48). The final step of the Departure stage is the crossing of the first threshold. The first threshold is a gateway, guarded by “the highest spirit of reason,” marking the barrier between the world of the hero, and the world wherein the hero must journey (73).

The Initiation stage is where the hero begins the journey along the road of trials. Upon this road, the hero encounters a succession of obstacles that serve to thwart and hinder our hero (Campbell 81). Other encounters in the Initiation stage include meeting a goddess or some embodiment of feminine perfection, an encounter with a temptress, and ultimately confronting the figure from whom the boon of salvation comes, either peaceably or by force (91-126). Upon receipt of the ultimate boon, the hero now enters the third and final stage on the monomyth, the Return. The hero, possibly after some hesitation, returns to the world from whence they came, bringing the ultimate boon (148-169). The hero then often becomes the master of two worlds, allowing the old world to be renewed (196-209). Not all myths, legends, and folk-lore contain every element of the monomyth, but most contain many parts of Campbell’s heroic path (212).