The monomyth as archetypical storyline
Possibly the most influential general analysis of the structure of myths was made by
Joseph Campbell [1949]. Campbell’s thesis is that all the myths, legends and fairy
tales of the different world cultures are variations on the same basic storyline, which
he called the monomyth, and later often referred to as “the hero’s journey”. He
summarized it as follows:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of
supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive
victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the
power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” [Campbell, 1949]
The Hero
This story typically has one central protagonist, the hero. While the function of the
hero is essentially the same in all myths, the actual properties vary. The hero can be
young or old, male or female, rich and powerful or poor and destitute, human or (like
in fables) animal, historically real (like Buddha or Charlemagne) or a literary creation
(like Hercules or Beowulf). That is why Campbell called his book “The Hero with a
Thousand Faces”. What these different incarnations of the archetypical hero have in
common is that they stand out from the ordinary people: they are independent and not
afraid to venture into the unknown. This natural self-assurance is due in part to certain
gifts that they exhibited from an early age, such as intelligence, wisdom, physical
strength, gentleness, courage, or beauty.
In our ontology of adventure, we may see the hero as a prototypical agent,
whose abilities for autonomous action have been somewhat aggrandized in order to
serve as a role model or example. The qualities that characterize the hero are the kind
of qualities that support evolutionary fitness in general. The hero is merely a
particularly fit exemplar of the population. That is part of what makes a myth
educational: by showing how certain qualities contribute to long-term benefit, it
admonishes people to promote these qualities in themselves and others.
The hero’s lack of fear for the unknown in particular is indicative of a strategy
of exploration—while the ordinary people’s strategy tends to be one of regulation and
exploitation. By taking risks as an explorer, the hero may compensate for the more
conservative, fearful strategy of the majority, and thus help the group as a whole to
advance. This is enough to make the hero into an object of admiration. Moreover, this
fascination for the explorer may in part be inspired by unconscious remembrances of
our past as hunter-gatherers, who indeed followed a much more explorative strategy
than the ensuing farmers and industrial workers.
- 15 -