The Hero with a Thousand Faces
A study of the universal hero's journey in world myths.
In it, Campbell presents his theory of the monomyth, a fundamental structure he argues is shared by mythological narratives across world cultures.
- field
- Comparative mythology
- known_for
- Theory of the monomyth (the hero's journey)
- publisher
- Bollingen Foundation through Pantheon Press
- languages_translated_into
- Over twenty languages
Lore & Background
Joseph Campbell explores the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure, which he calls the monomyth. He details the hero's adventure, summarizing it as a venture from the ordinary world into a region of supernatural wonder, where a decisive victory is won and the hero returns with a boon for his fellow man. The stages include departure, initiation, and return, with steps such as the call to adventure, crossing a guarded threshold, a road of trials, an ordeal, and the application of the boon. Campbell studied religious, spiritual, mythological, and literary classics, including stories of Osiris, Prometheus, the Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus, and used Freudian concepts, Jungian archetypes, and Arnold van Gennep's rites of passage to develop his model. The work has been translated into over twenty languages and has sold well over a million copies worldwide.
Reader's Guide
The Hero with a Thousand Faces has had a significant impact on modern artists and writers. Filmmaker George Lucas acknowledged Campbell's theory and its influence on the Star Wars films. Stanley Kubrick introduced Arthur C. Christopher Vogler wrote a memo for Disney Studios on using the book as a guide for scriptwriters, influencing films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. The book also influenced Bob Dylan, Mark Burnett, Jim Morrison, and members of the Grateful Dead. In games, Jenova Chen cited the hero's journey as the primary inspiration for the PlayStation 3 game Journey. Novelist Richard Adams acknowledged a debt to Campbell's work. The book's theory continues to influence artists and intellectuals in contemporary arts and culture, suggesting a basic usefulness for Campbell's insights beyond mid-20th-century forms of analysis.
Did You Know?
- Campbell borrowed the term 'monomyth' from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
- George Lucas acknowledged Campbell's theory and its influence on the Star Wars films.
- The book has sold well over a million copies worldwide and been translated into over twenty languages.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is the monomyth or the hero's journey?
The monomyth is Campbell's label for the recurring narrative arc he finds in myths worldwide, in which a protagonist leaves the familiar world, faces trials and transformation, and ultimately returns changed. It is the structural backbone of the book and the concept most associated with Campbell's name.
What academic field does The Hero with a Thousand Faces belong to?
It sits squarely in comparative mythology, a discipline that looks for structural parallels across the mythological traditions of different cultures and eras. Rather than studying one tradition in isolation, Campbell draws side-by-side comparisons to reveal the shared skeleton beneath the surface differences.
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