Books - The Hero with a Thousand Faces

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	Books - The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) is the seminal work of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. In this text Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies and religions.

Overview

Campbell used the work of early 20th century theorists to develop his model of the hero (see also: structuralism), including Freud (particularly the Oedipus complex), Carl Jung (archetypal figures and the collective unconscious), and Arnold Van Gennep (the three stages of The Rites of Passage, translated by Campbell into Departure, Separation, and Return). Campbell also looked to the work of ethnographers James Frazer and Franz Boas and psychologist Otto Rank.

Campbell called this journey of the hero, The Monomyth . As a a noted scholar of James Joyce (in 1944 he authored the text (with Henry Morton Robinson), A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake ), Campbell borrowed this term from Joyce's Finnegans Wake
. In addition, Joyce's Ulysses
was also highly influential in the structuring of The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The Princeton University Press published all editions of this text. Originally issued in 1949 , The Hero with a Thousand Faces has been reprinted a number of times. Reprints issued after the release of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977 used the image of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover . The Commemorative Edition (published in 2004) has both a new introduction by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., as well as a new cover .

Quotes

Preface:

"There are of course differences between the numerous mythologies and religions of mankind, but this is a book about similarities; and once they are understood the differences will be found to be much less great than is popularly (and politically) supposed. My hope is that a comparative elucidation may contribute to the perhaps not-quite desperate cause of those forces that are working in the present world for unification, not in the name of some ecclesiastical or political empire, but in the sense of human mutual understanding" (third edition, p. viii).
"As we are told in the Vedas: 'Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names,' " (third edition, p. viii).

Prologue: The Monomyth

1. Myth and Dream
2. Tragedy and Comedy
3. The Hero and the God
4. The World Navel

PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero

Chapter I: Departure

1. The Call to Adventure
2. Refusal of the Call
3. Supernatural Aid
4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
5. The Belly of the Whale

Chapter II: Initiation

1. The Road of Trials
2. The Meeting with the Goddess
3. Woman as the Temptress
4. Atonement with the Father
5. Apotheosis
6. The Ultimate Boon

Chapter III: Return

1. Refusal of the Return
2. The Magic Flight
3. Rescue from Without
4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
5. Master of the Two Worlds
6. Freedom to Live

Chapter IV: The Keys

PART TWO: The Cosmogonic Cycle

Chapter I: Emanations

1. From Psychology to Metaphysics
2. The Universal Round
3. Out of the Void -Space
4. Within Space -Life
5. The Breaking of the One into the Manifold
6. Folk Stories of Creation

Chapter II: The Virgin Birth

1. Mother Universe
2. Matrix of Destiny
3. Womb of Redemption
4. Folk Stories of Virgin Motherhood

Chapter III: Transformations of the Hero

1. The Primordial Hero and the Human
2. Childhood of the Human Hero
3. The Hero as Warrior
4. The Hero as Lover
5. The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant
6. The Hero as World Redeemer
7. The Hero as Saint
8. Departure of the Hero

Chapter IV: Dissolutions

1. End of the Microcosm
2. End of the Macrocosm

Epilogue: Myth and Society

1. The Shapeshifter
2. The Function of Myth, Cult, and Meditation
3. The Hero Today

Influences

General

The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced a number of artists, musicians, poets, and filmmakers, including Bob Dylan and George Lucas. Mickey Hart, Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had long noted Campbell's influence and agreed to participate in a seminar with him in 1986 entitled From Ritual to Rapture .

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