The Hero with a Thousand Faces Part II, Chapter 3 Summary

Transformations of the Hero

The Primordial Hero and the Human

• We now see two stages of this: the creation of the world by the divine and the passage of history via humanity.
• The second half of that, the one we're all used to, is where the hero arises: claiming the divine power of the gods in the form of a mere mortal.
• That marks a slow movement away from myth and towards fact: the divine recedes, details move from myth to legend and then to history until finally we're left with the mundane details of recorded time.
• Example: Mwuetsi the Moon Man, and the story of various Chinese Emperors.

Childhood of the Human Hero

• Many myths show the entire life of the hero as extraordinary, not just his Journey to solve a specific ill.
• This suggests that the hero is either a normal man who attains wisdom, or a figure of destiny, chosen by the gods to serve as a hero.
• The first part of the book, "The Adventure of the Hero" details the first notion (a normal man who attains heroic stature on his own).
• The second notion – that of the hero as an extension of divine will – is now explored.
• As a figure of destiny, the hero must experience the three stages of the cosmogonic cycle consciously – understanding them all – then bring that wisdom back for the world to share.
• This extends to real-life figures who are the subject of legend: tales will be made about their deeds that have a fantastic quality to them (think of George Washington and the cherry tree).
• Campbell cites King Sargon of Agada, Pope Gregory and Charlemagne as examples of real-life people who get this treatment.
• The Biblical figure of Abraham is discussed at length, as is a native American figure named Kut-o-yis.
• The child-hero will live in obscurity for many years, which means he faces danger, or at least being held back from his potential for a while.
• He may gain benefits during this time, too, from a helpful companion or guide.
• You need to have something special to survive such an experience: the myths show this with stories of amazing strength, intelligence and insight at an early age.
• The big example of this is Hercules strangling the serpents sent to kill him in his crib, but Campbell goes on to cite the Hindu god Krishna too.
• The childhood cycle for the hero ends when the hero ends this period of obscurity and becomes known.
• Sometimes, his "coming out" will create a crisis that needs to be resolved.
• The world will be remade after the crisis in a new form, such as after the Crucifixion, or the Pueblo story of the water jar.

The Hero as Warrior

• The hero's birthplace, or the place where he grew up, is the navel of the world.
• Campbell talks about a hero myth from Siberia to prove his point.
• The hero eventually leaves this spot to fulfill his destiny.
• Victory comes not over a threat or a danger so much as the status quo: the monster he or she slays represents The Way Things Are.
• The monster holds onto his power and does not want to change.
• But he's also proud, since he thinks his power belongs to him instead of the universe.
• The hero knows the monster's weakness and destroys the monster easily.
• In the process, he frees the world to move with fluidity instead of being stuck.
• He then needs to clear the world of all lingering monsters, who usually reside in caves or the wilderness, away from civilization.
• Campbell returns to Kut-o-yis as an example of this tendency.
• He also cites Hercules, Theseus, and Jack the Giant Killer as other examples, as well as the French story of St. Martha.

The Hero as Lover

• With the monsters dead and rigidity destroyed, the hero can then take a wife.
• She is his mirror, his other half, and can often see his destiny.
• He must usually overcome a specific obstacle or set of obstacles to get her.
• Our example for this one is Cuchulainn, a hero from Ireland.

The Hero as Emperor and Tyrant

• The hero is an agent of the cycle, and works to continue, um, cycling it.
• In some cases, the hero exists to reestablish the world's connection to God: you usually see that in religious contexts.
• Campbell returns to the story of the Pueblo hero, Water Jar boy.
• If the hero is blessed by the father, he takes the father's place as a ruler.
• He reflects the balance and the axis of the world as a king.
• Sometimes, however, the hero falls back into a purely human state, which turns him from wise king to despotic tyrant.
• The Persian legend of Jemshid illustrates this point.
• He no longer carries the balanced wisdom of the normal and supernatural worlds.
• He is now a tyrant, and it's up to another hero to usurp him.

The Hero as World Redeemer

• If the hero rules in the place of a symbolic father, then two rites of initiation must take place.
• The first is the son serving as emissary to the father.
• The second leads to his understanding that he and the father are one.
• Heroes of this second type are the highest sort: the world redeemers, the ones whose authority becomes divine.
• The example for this is the Apache hero Jicarilla.
• The hero can still perform heroic deeds, but they're done with the understanding that they could be accomplished instantly by the power of the divine which he contains.
• The example involves Krishna and his cruel uncle in Hindu mythology.
• There is often a period of desolation here, caused by the hero's remaining human faults.
• The redeeming god-hero thus becomes the destroying god-hero, perpetuating the cycle and confirming that the god's power is to both create and destroy the world.
• In this sense, the hero-as-tyrant is still representative of the symbolic father, just as the hero-as-just-ruler-is. After all, evil is as much a part of the universe as good.
• Campbell stresses that these are just two different ways of telling the same story: the son assuming the place of his father.
• The hero will become the tyrant, unless he crucifies himself: dying only to be reborn.
• As the son takes the father's place, the many become one again… and the cycle continues.

The Hero as Saint

• The saint, as you may expect, is a hero devoid of any real flaws.
• The saint-hero eliminates any and all shreds of self-interest and embraces the wholeness of the universe.
• The example is, as you may have suspected, an actual saint: Thomas Aquinas.
• They essentially don't return form their journey, moving beyond the mortal realm and existing only in secondhand form like legends.

The Departure of the Hero

• Every hero's story has to end, either with death or a departure of some sort.
• Examples include Death coming to Abraham and another anonymous dream.
• In many cases, the hero doesn't actually die, but actually just sleeps and will arise again when he or she is needed.
• Campbell's examples? Charlemagne and the Aztec serpent Quetzalcoatl.
• Some heroes can postpone death and attempt to remain in the mortal realm, as the Irish hero Cuchulainn and the Pueblo's Water Boy do.