The Hero with a Thousand Faces

In the mystical world, the victorious hero gains a reward after his ultimate trial. This might be a magical object, the attainment of divinity, or spiritual enlightenment. The hero’s final task is to take this boon back to his home and share his gift with the world. Campbell also refers to the boon as an “elixir” (245).

Particularly in Part 2, Campbell assigns the “folk stories” label to certain storytelling traditions. Folk tales describe oral traditions in mythmaking—which Campbell also calls “popular tales” (312)—as opposed to a more formal mythology passed down in written form. Exploring folk stories, Campbell uses examples from tribal cultures like the Blackfeet of Montana and Tongans of the Pacific Islands.

In the Prologue, Campbell discusses the Roman myth of the Minotaur. According to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Minotaur, a murderous half-man and half-bull, was imprisoned inside a labyrinth. The archetypal hero of world myth will enter a dangerous mystical world like Theseus enters the labyrinth, which Campbell uses to symbolize the human unconscious. As Theseus finds his way through the labyrinth with a simple spool of thread, so, Campbell states, “we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path” (25).