The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell's 1949 study of the hero's journey shared by world myths.
At a glance
Key ideas
The hero's adventure, Departure, Initiation, Return, The monomyth …
See all 4Influence
George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick
See all 2Connections
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Campbell argues that myths around the world share a basic structure, the monomyth or hero's adventure.
- A hero leaves the ordinary world, crosses into a realm of wonder, wins a decisive victory and returns with gifts for others.
- The journey falls into three stages: Departure, Initiation and Return.
- He draws on Freud, Jung and Arnold van Gennep's rites of passage.
Why it matters
- It became a template for modern storytelling, most famously for George Lucas's Star Wars.
Key facts
- Author
- Joseph Campbell1
- Published
- 1949, Bollingen Foundation through Pantheon, as the seventeenth Bollingen Series title1
- Revised
- By Campbell in 1968; third edition from New World Library, July 20081
- Reach
- Translated into over twenty languages; well over a million copies sold1
- Recognition
- Named by Time in 2011 among the 100 most influential books in English since 19231
Key ideas
-
The hero's adventure1
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder."
-
Departure, Initiation, Return1
Adapted from van Gennep's three stages of rites of passage.
-
The monomyth1
A term Campbell borrowed from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
-
Many traditions1
He compares the stories of Osiris, Prometheus, the Buddha, Moses, Mohammed and Jesus.
Influence
Connections
Written by
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
Is something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us
The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.