Classics Corner: The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell; The Definitive Work on Mythology and Hero Tales

Classics Corner: The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell; The Definitive Work on Mythology and Hero Tales

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Chances are when you hear the word “myth” eventually you will come to the name Joseph Campbell. The literature professor of comparative literature and religion of Sarah Lawrence University was considered the ultimate scholar of mythology and wrote what many considered the definitive work on the subject, The Hero With A Thousand Faces.


The Hero With A Thousand Faces is probably the closest Key to All Mythologies found in the 20th century. Campbell took several stories from different religions, pantheons, and traditions and discovered what they had in common. All of these myths seemed to be several stories but in reality they all told one story, that of the world and the people in it most notably the hero. In this brilliant landmark book Campbell compared the variations of the hero tale in its many forms and found the tropes, motifs, and archetypes that they shared.

Campbell brilliantly used the various tropes as chapter heads and finding the links that the various myths share. For example the chapter “The Call to Adventure” recalls the many ways that heroes began their journey usually receiving some sort of a lead or request from another party. Campbell begins by describing the fairy tale, “The Frog Prince” in which a princess is asked by a frog to allow him to sit at her table and sleep in her bed. He also includes King Arthur's encounter with the Questing Beast and the story of the prince Gautama Sakayume, the future Buddha who encounters for the first time old age, illness, and death and seeks enlightenment. He also wrote about dreams some people had of encountering people who guided them to solutions to their problems. In tracing the various beginnings of myths and dreams, Campbell reveals how these heroes identified problems in their societies and strive to overcome them.

Various other tropes are identified such as “Supernatural Aid, “The Road of Trials”, and “The Meeting With Goddess” and so on. Campbell cites figures from myths and religions as varied as Judeo-Christian, Buddhism, Celtic, Norse, and Native American lore to show that these stories and by extension the people who tell, write, and listen to them are really the same people who value courage, wisdom, diligence, and kindness in their heroes and hope that they can provide answers for their problems.

As the Reader goes through the book they may find comparisons between these myths and modern literature, film, video games, and TV. They may think of works like Game of Thrones, Legend of Zelda,and Harry Potter as modern hero tales. After all Harry Potter, John Snow, Link and others receive the Call to Adventure (Join the Watch, go to Hogwarts, save Princess Zelda), receive aid from others (Sam Tarley, Hermione Granger and Ron Wesley, and Navi) and encounter various trials to achieve their goals. (Getting killed and brokering peace with the Wildlings, facing Lord Voldemort and his minions, traveling through time and battling Ganendorf), to be remembered as great heroes (King of the North, an Auror, and Hero of Hyrule).

These patterns are intentional whether the creators are aware of them or not. Some creators such as George Lucas (whose Skywalker Ranch was the location of The Power of Myth, Campbell's series of interviews with PBS commentator, Bill Moyers) cited Campbell's book as an inspiration for their works. Others particularly fantasy authors like George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the current bumper crop of epic fantasy authors (such as the ones that I have been reviewing lately) use variations of the Hero story.

That's not to say they are all copying each other. Instead these stories are so ingrained in our psyche that we see it everywhere.

While Campbell himself believed that people lived more internally and did not seek higher causes and commitments to heroism, people can also recognize the hero tale in reality. We can also see them in real people too particularly figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Mahatma Gandhi, George Washington, and others that aspire to change the world around them. Of course real people are not the perfect heroes of legend and they don't always succeed or at least not in their lifetime. However, they do respond to the call, face many trials, share their talents and abilities, and take on larger than life personas that people follow and may admire. Many such as Diane Wilson, former shrimp boat captain and environmental activist cite Campbell's book as leading to their own Calls to Adventure, Roads of Trials etc. to their own paths of heroism.

Joseph Campbell's book reminds us that hero tales are inside all of us and manifests itself through stories, popular culture, and dreams. Maybe we can take it into our lives and become those heroes ourselves.