Hero’s Journey

I am not sure if Mr. Campbell has enlightened me or crushed my childhood heroes. Never the less Campbell is correct when he lays out his 12 steps for a heroes journey. They are ordinary world, call to adventure, refusal, meeting with the mentor, crossing the threshold, tests (allies/enemies), approach, crisis, reward, the road back, resolution, and upgraded status. After all of these tasks are complete, rinse and repeat and make a movie that will bring in endless money. You can list any new or old character from film and be able to put any one of them neatly in this list. Most of the modern movies are a pain by numbers or connect the dots version of these.

Theseus was tired of the bloodshed every 9 years so he decided that he would stop the Minotaur himself. His father begged him to stop to no avail. His father did ask to raise white sails on his arrival so he could see that victory was found. Theseus fights the creature with nothing but string and a sword. With one strike to the neck the task was done. He does not raise the white sails as he forgets to raise them. His father sees nothing but the black sail and jumps off the cliff to his doom. Begrudgingly, he is now the new king, however, this is from his own doing.

Herakles was born to Zeus and a mortal woman Alcmene. Hera was obviously not okay with this and always wanted Herakles dead which is tough for you to do to Herakles. Under Hera’s spell he ends up killing his wife and kids. Herakles wants to wash away his blood guilt, but he obviously cannot undo what he did. He is told that after 12 tests (or labors) he can cleanse his blood guilt. He is to conquer a lion, hydra, bring a hind, capture a boar, clean stables in a day, drive away birds, bull, man eating horses, acquire Amazon belt, bring monsters cattle, bring golden apples, and finally conquer the dreaded three headed beast. His sins have been cleaned, however, he is unsure on what to do next. His family is gone by his hands, he turns his vengeful eye on Iphitos. He must be a slave for 3 years and his resurrection will be complete as he is now upgraded in even more status, if that was possible.