The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The human hero often possesses a special set of gifts. Campbell considers the question of Jesus Christ’s divinity and how it influences readers’ application of his story. The goal of this and all myths, Campbell reminds the reader, is to see the divine in oneself.

Campbell states he will now approach the hero’s journey not psychologically, as in Part 1, but metaphysically, as well as describe the many forms a hero may take.

The hero must follow the cosmogonic cycle to attain his destiny. The hero might follow a kind of cosmogonic path through dreaming, like Huang Ti or a second birth, like Väinämöinen. Campbell writes, “The deeds of the hero in the second part of his personal cycle will be proportionate to the depth of his descent during the first” (321). Campbell cites the Tonga children of the clam, Väinämöinen, Huang Ti, and the Buddha as examples.

Campbell discusses historical figures that become the superhuman subjects of myth. He references the Mesopotamian King Sargon and the Hindu ruler Chandragupta, both abandoned as infants and raised in obscurity. Similarly, the legend of Pope Gregory the Great contains similar story elements as well as an Oedipal narrative. Tradition says that Emperor Charlemagne is not actually dead, rather sleeping in case France requires his services.

Also, the Jewish figure Abraham was hunted as a baby by King Nimrod, who feared Abraham would usurp him. Nimrod, knowing the approximate time of Abraham’s birth through astrology, ordered all pregnant women gathered into one place and their male children killed just after birth. Abraham’s mother Terah escapes the city and gives birth in a cave. She leaves him there for fear he will be killed. God supernaturally sustains the boy, who quickly walks and speaks on his own.

A folk tale of the Blackfeet tribe shows a baby coming from a buffalo’s blood clot, boiling in a pot on the stove. The baby asks its new parents to tie it to four poles in the home to initiate rapid growth into an adult.

The Pueblo tale of the Water Jar boy, which Campbell excerpts, is a folk tale following a social outcast. A young woman becomes pregnant when mud lands on her leg while she makes pottery. She gives birth to a small water jar that behaves like a child.

The obscure phase of the hero comes with dangerous figures as well as helpers who educate him. The hero in the story often possesses great fortitude, wisdom, or other gifts that suit him to these challenges. Many young heroes—Herakles, Maui, Abraham, Jesus, and the Buddha—demonstrate extraordinary abilities as children.

Campbell relates a story of the infant Krishna. A goblin, Putana, disguises herself as a wet nurse for Krishna, but Krishna’s nursing both redeems and kills her in one powerful moment. Similarly, when his foster mother discovers he has eaten clay, she bids the boy Krishna to open his mouth and views the universe inside. He also plays a trick on the kingly god Indra by convincing his community not to make sacrifices to Indra. He persuades them to pay homage to a nearby mountain instead, causing a furious Indra to send terrible storms throughout the land. Krishna protects his community using his divine power, and Indra finally bows to him.

When the young hero’s obscure period ends, there might be chaos or glory to mark his public unveiling. Campbell also identifies that this moment could be the product of crucifixion and resurrection. For instance, in the myth of the Water Jar boy, he falls and breaks during a rabbit hunt, and out comes a human boy from the jar.

The Irish myth of Cuchulainn also depicts the young man as gifted beyond his peers. As a four-year-old, overcome by “battle frenzy,” he defeats his uncle King Conchobar’s entire army of young men. Cuchulainn compels his uncle to let him lead these troops. This seminal event shows both the world and the hero himself that he has unique, unwieldy power.

Also on this day, a Druid prophet foretells that Cuchulainn will be famous but will not live long. Conchobar gives the boy weapons and a chariot, and Cuchulainn travels to a distant place. He returns home with heads fastened to his chariot, as well as the bodies of animals he kills along the way. His uncle and a prophetess see him coming, and to distract Cuchulainn they send many women out to display their naked bodies to the boy. Distracted and thrown off course, the boy is taken by Conchobar’s men and thrown into cold water to cool down his frenzied anger. Cuchulainn’s physical appearance, ordinarily resplendent with jewel-like qualities, changes in the heat of his anger, which makes one eye retract, his legs bend behind him, and fire flow from his mouth.

The hero is born in a place that represents the World Navel. The Yakut tribe of Siberia portrays their hero the White Youth as being born at the literal World Navel. In the quoted story, the newborn White Youth surveys the grandeur of the landscape, containing forests, animals, and mountains, and desires companionship. He prays to the tree of life that he would like to travel and find a wife. The tree stirs and produces a woman to nurse him and send him with blessing on his journey.

Campbell quotes from the Kalevala, portraying the song of Väinämöinen and its stirring effect on the landscape around him. The hero’s power changes the world around him, which is greatly opposed by his enemy Holdfast, “the monster of the status quo” (337) who keeps a tight grip on power. His pride in power is his undoing, for he has not been enlightened to the true, fluid source of power as the hero has.

Although the age of man enters into the cosmogonic cycle at this point, mystical beings still remain outside human civilizations of the world. Furthermore, human monsters enact destruction as well, another cause for the hero to intervene.

Campbell returns to the Blackfeet legend of the boy who sprang from a blood clot, Kut-o-yis. Kut-o-yis slays a group of bears except for a pregnant mother, as well as a group of snakes except for one pregnant member. He finds himself in the body of a large fish and sees a group of people, some alive and some dead. He dances and pierces the fish’s heart, then cuts a hole in the flesh to release the living people. He meets a murderous woman who tries to kill him, but he throws her into her own trap of hidden knives instead. Similarly, he tricks a woman who ensnares people and throws them into a river.

Likewise, according to de Voragine, Saint Martha of France blesses a murderous dragon, Tarasque, with holy water. Tarasque ceases its violence immediately and is submitted to a crowd for slaughter. This dragon-slaying narrative, Campbell adds, was used by historical leaders to rationalize their war-making. One is the Mesopotamian Sargon, whom ancient writings depict as a priest of their pantheon of gods and the destroyer of many cities.

Once the hero has vanquished Holdfast, his victory is embodied in a female lover: the completion of both his identity and his destiny. Campbell returns to the myth of Cuchulainn, who is sent on an impossible quest to win the hand of the daughter of Forgall the Wily. Cuchulainn must traverse a field of sticky and snaring grasses, but a magical figure gives him a wheel and an apple to guide the difficult way through the field. Cuchulainn pursues supernatural battle instructions from a woman named Scathatch and must reach her on her island across an enchanted bridge.

At Scathach’s dwelling, her daughter tells Cuchulainn how to compel her mother to offer him her guidance in battle. He is successful and wins the hand of Scathach’s daughter, as well as supernatural aid in battle. Cuchulainn returns to Ireland and, when Forgall the Wily still forbids the young warrior to marry his daughter, Cuchulainn marries her regardless. Campbell concludes, “The adventure itself had given him the capacity to annihilate all opposition” (344).

In hero-as-lover myths, the bride’s parent is the Holdfast figure. The universe sends supernatural help to the worthy hero. Cuchulainn’s wheel and apple, for example, are symbolic of the driving forces of destiny embedded in the character of the hero.