The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Mythos Books)

Joseph Campbell; Princeton University Press 1972

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This is the 4th book that I have finished in my Two-Thirds Book Challenge. I started it 6 October 2011 and finished it 15 January 2012. I had not intended to take so long but it is somewhat complex and, in all honesty, the rampant Freudianism/psychoanalysis is simply too much at times.

I have almost 6 pages of notes but I think I will ignore them for this review.

The central thesis is, I believe, reasonably sound. Although, certainly, it is not the only way to spin a description of cross-cultural mythology. It is in some of the (psychoanalytic) interpretation that the spinning out of control happens.

This past fall semester I took a course in classic literature and mythology, and as of today I finished a quick 3-week romp through 30 of the Grimm’s fairy tales. This book explains, or at least describes, much of what is present and happening in these stories.

One of the things I appreciated and respected is that Campbell clearly includes the stories of the Christian Bible–Old and New Testaments–in his analysis of myth.

One of the things I am unsatisfied with—I fear to be expected in Western culture and, in particular, with psychoanalysis—is the gendered explanation.

I do think the book is worth reading; some parts are certainly much better than others. In most places my notes are fairly detailed but in a few I wrote “This [such and such] is crap!” or “mumbo jumbo.”

I am going to provide a detailed list of the contents as perhaps that will provide the best overview of what the book contains/discusses:

Prologue: The Monomyth

• 1. Myth and Dream
• 2. Tragedy and Comedy
• 3. The Hero and the God
• 4. The World Navel

Part I: The Adventure of the Hero

• Chapter I: Departure
• 1. The Call to Adventure
• 2. Refusal of the Call
• 3. Supernatural Aid
• 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
• 5. The Belly of the Whale/li>
• Chapter II: Initiation
• 1. The Road of Trials
• 2. The Meeting with the Goddess
• 3. Woman as the Temptress
• 4. Atonement with the Father
• 5. Apotheosis
• 6. The Ultimate Boom
• Chapter III: Return
• 1. Refusal of the Return
• 2. The Magic Flight
• 3. Rescue from Without
• 4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
• 5. Master of the Two Worlds
• 6. Freedom to Live
• Chapter IV: The Keys

Part II: The Cosmogonic Cycle

• Chapter I: Emanations
• 1. From Psychology to Metaphysics
• 2. The Universal Round
• 3. Out of the Void–Space
• 4. Within Space–Life
• 5. The Breaking of the One onto the Manifold
• 6. Folk Stories of Creation
• Chapter II: The Virgin Birth
• 1. Mother Universe
• 2. Matrix of Destiny
• 3. Womb of Redemption
• 4. Folk Stories of Virgin Motherhood
• Chapter III: Transformations of the Hero
• 1. The Primordial Hero and the Human
• 2. Childhood of the Human Warrior
• 3. The Hero as Warrior
• 4. The Hero as Lover
• 5. The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant
• 6. The Hero as World Redeemer
• 7. The Hero as Saint
• 8. Departure of the Hero
• Chapter IV: Dissolutions
• 1. End of the Microcosm
• 2. End of the Macrocosm

Epilogue: Myth and Society

• 1. The Shapeshifter
• 2. The Function of the Myth, Cult, and Meditation
• 3. The Hero Today

As a follow-up book to this one, I began another of my 2/3rds Challenge books, Mircea Eliade’s The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History. It, too, is in the Bollingen Series. So far I am enjoying it. It is also a quite deep book and I am taking many notes. Thus, it may also take a while to get through.

The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History (Princeton Classic Editions)

Mircea Eliade, M. Eliade; Princeton University Press 2005

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