The Hero's Adventure
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THEHERO'S ADVENTURE Fwtlwrmore,we hauenot evento risk theadcJenture alone, f- tln heroesof all time hnvegone before us. The labyrinth is tharoughlyknown. We have only to follow thethread of the lwro path,and, wllere we had thoughtto find an abomination, we slwllfirrd a god, And wherewe had thoughtto slay another, we shall slay owselvel Where we had thoughtto trauel outwmd,we will cometo thecenter of our own existence.And wlvre we had thoughtrc be alone,we will be withall the twrW. -JosrrH CRNapsrLL MoYERS:\DUhy are there so many storiesof the hero in mythologyl cAMPBELL,Because that's what'sworth writing about. Evenin popular rcls, the main character is a hero or heroine rho h"r found or iorr" beyondthe normal rangeof achievementand experience.A hero who hasgiven his or her life to somethingbigger than oneself. YERS:soin all of thesecultures, whatever the localcostumethe hero be wearing,what is the deed? MPBELL:well, there are rwo typesof deed.one is the physicaldeed, ich the hero performsa courageousact in battle or saves'alife. The kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero leams to experiencethe prmal range of human spiritual life and rhen comes 6ack with a FACING PAGE: usualhero adventurebegins with someone from whom something Martin L. King, Jr., r taken, or who feels there's something lacking in the .ro*"'i 1963. availableor permittedto the membersof his soCiety.This person off on a seriesof adventuresbeyond the ordinary, Alwo is sonvonewlwhas either to giwn hisarlwkfe what hasbeen lost or n to discoversome life-giving elixir. It's usually somethingbigger tlwn a goingand a retuming. orcself. THE POWEROF MYTH MOYERS,It's a journey-you have to move out of the known, conven- tional safetyof your life to underrakethis. CAMPBELL,You have to be transformedfrom a maiden to a mother. That's a big change,involving many dangers. 126 MoYERS'And when you come back from your journey,with the child, you'vebrought somethingfor the wclrld. CAMPBELL,Not only that, you'vegot a life job aheadof you.Otto Rank makesthe point that rhere is a world of peoplewho think that their heroic act in being born qualifiesthem for the respectand support of their whole community. MoYERS,But there'sstill a journeyto be takenafter that. CAMPBELL,There's a largejourney to be taken,of manytrials. MoYERS,!7hat's the significanceof the trials, and tests,and ordealsof the hero? CAMPBELL,If you want to pur ir in termsof intentions,the trialsare designedto seeto it that the intending hero should be really a hero. Is he really a match for this taskl Can he overcomethe dangers?Does he have the courage,the knowledge,the capacity,to enablehim to serve? MoYERS,ln this cultureof easyreligion, cheaply achieved, it seemsto me we'veforgotten that all three of the great religionsteach that the trials of the hero journey are a significant part of life, that there's no reward without renunciation, without paying the price. The Koran says,"Do you think that you shall enter the Gardenof Blisswithout such trials ascame to those who passedbefore you?" And Jesussaid in the gospelof Matthew, "Great is the gateand narrow is the way which leadethto life, and few there be who find it. " And the heroesof the Jewishtradition undergogreat tests beforethey arrive at their redemption. CAMPBELL,If you realizewhat the real problem is-losing yourself, giving yourselfto somehigher end, or ro another-you realizethat this iaelf is the ultimate trial. When we quit thinking primarily about ourselvesand our own self-preservation,we undergo a truly heroic transformationof consciousness. And what all the myths haveto deal with is ftansformationsof conscious. nessof one kind or another. Youhave been thinking one way, you now to rhink a different way. MOYERS,How is consciousnesstransformed? CAMPBELL,Either by the trialsthemselves or by illuminatingrevel Tiials and revelationsare what it's all abour. MoYERS,lsn'tthere a momentof redemptionin all of thesestories? woman is savedfrom the dragon, the city is sparedfrom obliteration, hero is snatchedfrom dangerin the nick of time. CAMPBELL'!7ell, yes.There would be no hero deedunless there an achievement.\7e can havethe hero who fails, but he'susuallv as a kind of clown, someonepretending to more than he can achieve. MoYERS,How is a hero differentfrom a leader? cA MP B E L L, That is a problem Tolstoydealt with in War and Peace.Here THE HERO'S you have Napoleon ravaging Europe and now about to invade Russia, and ADVENTURE Tolstoyraises this question:Is the leaderreally a leader,or is he simply the one out in front on a wave?In psychologicalterms, the leader might be analyzedas the one who perceived what could be achievedand did it. r27 MoYERS:It has been said that a leader is someonewho discemed the inevitableand got in front of it. Napoleonwas a leader,but he wasn'ta hero in the sensethat what he accomplishedwas grand for humanity's sake. It wasfor France, the glory of France. CAMPBELL'Then he is a Frenchhero, is he not? This is the problemfor . Is the hero of a given state or peoplewhar we need today, when the planet should be our field of concem? Napoleon is the nineteenth- counterpart of Hitler in the twentieth. Napoleon's ravaging of washorrific MoYERS:So you could be a local god and fail the test on a largercosmic I CAMPBELL,Yes. Or you could be a local god, but for the peoplewhom rt local god conquered, you could be the enemy. Whether you call a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of vour may be. OYERS:So we have to be careful not to call a deed heroic when. in a , mythologicalsense, it simply doesn'twork that way. MPBELL:\Uell, I don't know. The deed could be absolutelya heroic persongiving his life for his own people, for example. YERS:Ah, yes.The German soldierwho dies- MPBELL:-is as much a hero as the American who was senr over to kill him. ERS:So doesheroism have a moral objective? MPBELL:The moral objective is that of savinga people, or savinga or supporting an idea. The hero sacrificeshimself for something- the morality of it. Now, from another position, of course,you might the idea for which he sacrificedhimself was somerhing that should been respected.That's a judgment from the other side, but it destroythe intrinsic heroism of the deed performed. r That's a different angle on heroes from what I got as a young I read the story of Prometheusgoing after fire and bringing it ting humanity and sufferingfor it. PBELL:Yes, Prometheusbrings fire to mankind and consequently The fire theft, by the way, is a universal mythic theme. Often, animal or bird that stealsthe fire and then passesit along to a of birds or animalswho run with it. Sometimesthe animals are the flamesas they passthe fire along, and this is said to account colorings. The fire theft is a very popular, worldwide story. , The people in each culture are trying to explain where fire Hiercglyphica. ., PROME,THEVS, JohannesValeriano, Lyons' 1586. AltltS lT INCgNI!Y' VII ASrlt!r lNvt.li r('n!s. The fire-tlwft is a unicrersal my thic tlvme. P rometlvus Lato in Protagorafub perftrnrSocreris, huruC bringsfire to mankinl and nrodinarre! dc Artium urigrncfabulam:Erar,rn- consequentlyciqtilization. quit, aliquandotctnpus, quo dil quidcmcrrnt, monalium autcm gcncra non craxrt,Poftguam Echrs t€pus fetis conltitut6 vcnit, vt crcarcnt6r,for- rnr ip6 di; irrtraterri cx tcrra & ignc pcrmirtis,&cx iis ignc-acrcrra pcrmifcitur.Qufi vctb in luc6iam illa pro- ;uii c(Gnt, itl6rum ornandoium fecultatum{; fi n girlis, vr dcccrct,diftribu€dar( curi Promcrhco& Epirnctheo miderfit. At Epimcthcusfibi diftribu6dimunus dcpofcit, Promcthco,dum cgodift ribuo,dicit, Afpicc & confidcre. :{uc illo pcrfuafo,diftributioncm frcit. Hic vcrbaliis ro. H::H'":*:tn::fr'lH:,"iililll',",l:: :u$::nH €1 }$<a bctrltarcm,ltatcm ad frlutcmlilurcm cxcogitabar.Qg:'cnimcxcogtreoac.qg-cntm cx iifis!plls paruafcccrar,tcccrrt, iis voletilcmvohtilcm frrgamhtqam aut ! ancamhabitationem tribucbat. Qgzvcrd mrgnitudincauxcrar,ca hacipfr'fcruabir,& reli modo cxrquansdiftnbucbet : cr induftria,vtiaucrcr,ne quod,gcnus inicrirct.Poftquam^r utue corruptionis cftlgia. ipfis fuppcdiratlct,facilitetcm anni tE!ora & variasccli tci:peft: b dio fcrcndicxcogitebat:induens illa dcnfispilis'& folidispellibris,quz & hycmcm& e'ftum ,rcpoll'cnr:& gur tinguliscubilir pctcntibusproprium ac naruralc ftratum iiidcmclGnt: Ec s eliavngulis , eliapilis & coriisfolidis at eiunguibusrnuniuit. Nccnon alimcntaaliis ditabat,hisherbem cx tcrre,illis arborumfru&us:aliis ratliccs, quibufclam vcrd aliorum riitrmm laniatum in llimenrumrlimenrum dabrt, Et his quidcmpaucam fobolcm tribucbat ,. his vcrd,ou s dilaniarenrur,multi,quogenus ipfum confcruarcrur.ProintlcEpimctheus,vr qui nonv d fapicnsclfct,non aninraducrtit, G facultatcsin bruta animanriacxpcndifc. Rcftaoet i inornarumhominum gcnus,& quidcum ipfo agcrct,ambigebat.Q5idubiranrc,vcnir P diftrit utioncln,& videt rcliquaguidcm animrlia acdratd omnir habcre,ho :m vcrdrrudum'nonion crlceatum & incrmcm,iemquc fatalis dies aderar, quacti:m homincmhomincn rra in luccnrpro.lrrc oportebat.ConGlij irrquc inopiaprrhcnlusPromcthcus, & quamnam ini falutcmrcpctirct nefcicns, Vulceni & Mincrut anifi.ciofamfapicntiam vni cum ignc f ,Ficricnim nullo rnodopotcnt,vt illaabQucignc ab vllo potfidcrcrur,aurvllovtilisc"ffc m homini l:rrgirur.Sapicntianr itaquc circa pamndunr vi6tum hoc modo homoacccpir: d vcrlandi rn rep.non habcbar.Illa cnim epud loucm erar.Promctheo eutcm louiiarccm non liccbat,quotriamIouis nrunitioncs horrcnrlr erant.ar in communcrnMjncruz & i tlomum,inqur Nrtes excrccbantur, furtirn ingrc/lirs erlt,& frrrro fublataignca vulcani artc lianincrue , eashomini contribuit.Et cx hocconrigir hornini vi&us faculras.Promcthcus r ft eamqur fcrtur furti pcnenrLpinrcthci cau(la dc.lit. Poftquam aurcm homo diuinr forris cpsfa&uscft,primimilui,lcnr;iroprerDcicognirioncnrci igrrccontra&am,folusintcrot imenriatleoseflicputauit,ri;qirtls&fl:rtursdic:ruit.f)cindcvoccrrt&nominrbrcuipcra halritatroncs, vcftcs, calccos, ftratr, & alimcntx cx tcrr:r inucnit, Hoc autcm 'rriculxuit, lru&i initio honrineslbarlim habit:rrrc.nullashrbcnrcs ciuitates.Cirmq;fcris imbccillio CAM PBELL The story isn't reallytrying to explainit, it hasto do with the valueof fire.