The Myth, the Hero, and the Epic

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The Myth, the Hero, and the Epic

• Mr. Hill
• Pre-AP English I

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Myth

• A traditional, typically ancient story dealing
  with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes
  that shapes the worldview of a people, as by
  explaining aspects of the natural world or
  delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of
  society the myth of Eros and Psyche a creation
  myth.
• "myth." The American Heritage Dictionary of the
  English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton
  Mifflin Company, 2004. 30 Jan. 2009.
  ltDictionary.com http//dictionary.reference.com/br
  owse/mythgt.

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Myth (other definitions)

• Such stories considered as a group the realm of
  myth.
• A popular belief or story that has become
  associated with a person, institution, or
  occurrence, especially one considered to
  illustrate a cultural ideal a star whose fame
  turned her into a myth the pioneer myth of
  suburbia.
• A fiction or half-truth, especially one that
  forms part of an ideology.
• A fictitious story, person, or thing "German
  artillery superiority on the Western Front was a
  myth" (Leon Wolff).
• New Latin m?thus, from Late Latin m?thos, from
  Greek muthos.
• "myth." The American Heritage Dictionary of the
  English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton
  Mifflin Company, 2004. 30 Jan. 2009.
  ltDictionary.com http//dictionary.reference.com/br
  owse/mythgt.

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Mythos

• the underlying system of beliefs, esp. those
  dealing with supernatural forces, characteristic
  of a particular cultural group.
• "mythos." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1).
  Random House, Inc. 30 Jan. 2009. ltDictionary.com
  http//dictionary.reference.com/browse/mythosgt.

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Mythology

• Two broad approaches to the study of Myth
• Comparative the comparison of similarities and
  differences between or among belief systems
• Particularist breaking down individual myth
  systems and analyzing them

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Functions of Myth

• Instills a sense of awe and/or mystery
• Explains the world
• Maintains a cultures social order/identity

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Categories of Myth

• Pure Myth
• Ancient form of science that uses religious
  stories to explain
• natural phenomena
• mans relationship to God or the gods
• Often answers the big why questions.

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Categories of Myth

• Heroic Myth
• Primitive form of history
• Most important functions are
• the establishment of a glorious past for a
  people and
• to set forth the near-perfect example of how
  they should live (teaches values)

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Archetype the Collective Unconscious

• Carl Jung (Swiss Psychologist)?
• Jung states that, behind each individuals
  unconscious (the blocked-off residue of the
  past) lies the collective unconscious of the
  human race (thoughts, feelings and inferences
  which are believed to be passed on from
  generation to generation and which influence the
  behavior of the individual.)?

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Archetype the Collective Unconscious

• This unconscious memory makes powerfully
  effective for us a group of primordial images
  shaped by the repeated experience of our
  ancestors and expressed in myths, religion,
  dreams, fantasies, and literature.

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Archetype

• In Jungian psychology, archetype is an inherited
  pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived
  from the past collective experience and present
  in the individual unconscious.
• A reader would use the term archetype for any
  image, pattern, or character type that occurs
  frequently in literature, myth, religion,
  folklore. It would evoke a strong response in us.
  

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The Half-human

     
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The Wicked Stepmother
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The Beast Who Yearns for the Love of an Innocent
Beauty
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The Beautiful Garden
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Initiation into Life
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The Loss of Innocence
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Other Archetypes

• Sidekick- helper
• The heros sidekick usually has his own
  abilities but somehow lacks the necessary traits
  of being a hero himself.

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Other Archetypes

• Mentor
• wise old man gives the hero wisdom and often
  has trained and helped the hero develop his
  abilities

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Other Archetypes

• Femme Fatale (French oh la la)
• Deadly Lady a temptress who seeks to destroy
  the Hero or keep him from completing this mission
  (often is truly attracted to the hero and vice
  versa.)

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Other Archetypes

• Good (or Earth) Mother
• Opposite the Femme Fatale she possesses all the
  positive aspects of life (protection, warmth,
  nurturing, sustenance.)

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• Father Figure
• Represents all that the hero is trying to attain
  or find in his search
• Possesses or is involved in a secret that can
  change the heros destiny

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Other Archetypes

• Trickster
• Many times a helper to the hero
• Although he/she may often cause problems or mess
  things up, he/she does not want to hurt the
  hero.

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• Nemesis
• The heros sworn enemy who oftentimes is the
  reason for many of the heros trials, adventures,
  and temptations.
• The nemesis is a perfect adversary for the hero,
  usually evenly matched in ability yet opposite in
  temperament or values.

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Other Archetypes

• Nemesis
• The hero can never seem to destroy his nemesis
  he merely banishes or imprisons him for a short
  time.

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Character Archetypes

• Hero Embodies the values of a society and gives
  an example for proper behavior

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The Hero
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Hero the Primitive Hero
Hero the Primitive Hero

• Usually a slayer of monsters or other ghastly
  menaces

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Hero the Primitive Hero

• Examples Beowulf, Conan, Ripley from Alien

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Hero the Warrior Hero

• Fights for personal glory and/or a dying or
  doomed culture or cause
• Has no fear of death
• Lives by a rigid code of conduct
• Seeks to create or revive a society

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Hero the Warrior Hero

• Examples
• Achilles
• Rambo
• King Arthur
• Hercules
• William Wallace

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Hero the Metaphysical Hero

• On a quest for enlightenment or an unusual, very
  spiritual journey. The conflict is against
  himself as he conquers selfish urges and
  undergoes great temptation.

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Metaphysical Hero

• Examples from fiction?

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Common Hero Patterns

• Born under unusual circumstances
• Son/daughter of a great king or deity
• Marked for greatness by prophecy or physical
  trait
• While young-exiled or placed in harms way in an
  attempt to be killed

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Common Hero Patterns

• Must prove his royal claim by test or trial
• Accomplishes great deeds for his people
• Mysterious or ambiguous death
• A suggestion or promise that the hero will
  someday return to reward or rescue

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Joseph Cambell and the Monomyth

• Joseph Campbell wrote extensively about world
  mythology in his book The Hero with a Thousand
  Faces. He applied Jungs idea of archetypes to
  study myths of various cultures. During his
  studies he came to a stunning conclusion that
  heroic myths from various cultures follow the
  same pattern.

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• Campbell used the term monomyth to describe
  this patternwith thousands of myths from all
  over the world, essentially they are telling the
  same story the hero's journey. An enthusiast of
  novelist James Joyce,2 Campbell borrowed the
  term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.3
• 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. -Joseph Campbell
  introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage I Departure/Separation

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage I Separation
• Call to Adventure

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The Call to Adventure

• The call to adventure is the point in a person's
  life when they are first given notice that
  everything is going to change, whether they know
  it or not.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage I Separation
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the Call

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Refusal of the Call

• Often when the call is given, the future hero
  refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of
  duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of
  inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that
  work to hold the person in his or her current
  circumstances.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage I Separation
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the Call
• Supernatural Aid

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Supernatural Aid

• Once the hero has committed to the quest,
  consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide
  and magical helper appears, or becomes known.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage I Separation
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the Call
• Supernatural Aid
• Crossing the Threshold

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The Crossing of the First Threshold

• This is the point where the person actually
  crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the
  known limits of his or her world and venturing
  into an unknown and dangerous realm where the
  rules and limits are not known.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage I Separation
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the Call
• Supernatural Aid
• Crossing the Threshold
• The Belly of the Whale

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The Belly of the Whale

• The belly of the whale represents the final
  separation from the hero's known world and self.
  It is sometimes described as the person's lowest
  point, but it is actually the point when the
  person is between or transitioning between worlds
  and selves. The separation has been made, or is
  being made, or being fully recognized between the
  old world and old self and the potential for a
  new world/self. The experiences that will shape
  the new world and self will begin shortly, or may
  be beginning with this experience which is often
  symbolized by something dark, unknown and
  frightening. By entering this stage, the person
  shows their willingness to undergo a
  metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation
• Road of Trials

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The Road of Trials

• The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks,
  or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin
  the transformation. Often the person fails one or
  more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation
• Road of Trials
• Meeting with the Goddess

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The Meeting with the Goddess

• The meeting with the goddess represents the point
  in the adventure when the person experiences a
  love that has the power and significance of the
  all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional
  love that a fortunate infant may experience with
  his or her mother. It is also known as the
  "hieros gamos", or sacred marriage, the union of
  opposites, and may take place entirely within the
  person. In other words, the person begins to see
  him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a
  very important step in the process and is often
  represented by the person finding the other
  person that he or she loves most completely.
  Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a
  meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and
  /or self unification does not have to be
  represented by a woman.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation
• Road of Trials
• Meeting with the Goddess
• Woman as Temptress

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Woman as the Temptress

• At one level, this step is about those
  temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or
  stray from his or her quest, which as with the
  Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily
  have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell,
  however, this step is about the revulsion that
  the usually male hero may feel about his own
  fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent
  attachment or projection of that revulsion to
  women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or
  material temptations of life, since the
  hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his
  spiritual journey.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation
• Road of Trials
• Meeting with the Goddess
• Woman as Temptress
• Atonement with the Father

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Atonement with the Father

• In this step the person must confront and be
  initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in
  his or her life. In many myths and stories this
  is the father, or a father figure who has life
  and death power. This is the center point of the
  journey. All the previous steps have been moving
  in to this place, all that follow will move out
  from it. Although this step is most frequently
  symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it
  does not have to be a male just someone or thing
  with incredible power. For the transformation to
  take place, the person as he or she has been must
  be "killed" so that the new self can come into
  being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the
  earthly journey for that character is either over
  or moves into a different realm.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation
• Road of Trials
• Meeting with the Goddess
• Woman as Temptress
• Atonement with the Father
• Apotheosis

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Apotheosis

• To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a
  physical death, or dies to the self to live in
  spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of
  opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love,
  compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state
  the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A
  more mundane way of looking at this step is that
  it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment
  before the hero begins the return.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage II Initiation
• Road of Trials
• Meeting with the Goddess
• Woman as Temptress
• Atonement with the Father
• Apotheosis
• The Ultimate Boon

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The Ultimate Boon

• The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal
  of the quest. It is what the person went on the
  journey to get. All the previous steps serve to
  prepare and purify the person for this step,
  since in many myths the boon is something
  transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a
  plant that supplies immortality, or the holy
  grail.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return
• Refusal of the Return

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Refusal of the Return

• So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia
  has been drunk, and we have conversed with the
  gods, why come back to normal life with all its
  cares and woes?

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return
• Refusal of the Return
• Magic Flight

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The Magic Flight

• Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if
  it is something that the gods have been jealously
  guarding. It can be just as adventurous and
  dangerous returning from the journey as it was to
  go on it.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return
• Refusal of the Return
• Magic Flight
• Rescue from Without (outside)

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Rescue from Without

• Just as the hero may need guides and assistants
  to set out on the quest, often times he or she
  must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring
  them back to everyday life, especially if the
  person has been wounded or weakened by the
  experience. Or perhaps the person doesn't realize
  that it is time to return, that they can return,
  or that others need their boon.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return
• Refusal of the Return
• Magic Flight
• Rescue from Without (outside)
• Crossing the Return Threshold

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The Crossing of the Return Threshold

• The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom
  gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom
  into a human life, and then maybe figure out how
  to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.
  This is usually extremely difficult.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return
• Refusal of the Return
• Magic Flight
• Rescue from Without (outside)
• Crossing the Return Threshold
• Master of the Two Worlds

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Master of the Two Worlds

• In myth, this step is usually represented by a
  transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a
  human hero, it may mean achieving a balance
  between the material and spiritual. The person
  has become comfortable and competent in both the
  inner and outer worlds.

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The Hero's Journey

• Stage III Return
• Refusal of the Return
• Magic Flight
• Rescue from Without (outside)
• Crossing the Return Threshold
• Master of the Two Worlds
• Freedom to Live

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Freedom to Live

• Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death,
  which in turn is the freedom to live. This is
  sometimes referred to as living in the moment,
  neither anticipating the future nor regretting
  the past.

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The Epic

• Long story told in elevated language (usually
  poetry), which relates the great deeds of a
  larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of
  a particular society.
• Most epics include elements of myth, legend, folk
  tale, and history.
• Tone is serious and language is grand