The Hero

Campbell views a hero’s journey in 3 parts: the separation or departure, the trials and victories, and the return. He then further breaks down these components into a total of 17 more specific elements.  Winkler managed to abridge these elements into a simple 11-13 elements which I will be utilizing for the purposes of this blog.

The separation or departure involves a “retreat from the world” into a place where our hero will find the resolution to his conflicts and his fears. The elements of this journey are the call to adventure, the need for assistance and the departure.  The call to adventure usually involves a mysterious message or invite.  Our hero will often times need advice or mentorship from someone wiser and possibly older.  The departure involves them leaving their ordinary world and reentering a special world, the realm in which the adventure will take place.  This is where the main story/the plot takes place.  The trials and victories can be broken down into five elements.  The trials, the approach, a crisis, treasure, and the result.  The trials will involve hard work and will lead to the approach where the hero must face his nerves and often his worst fears.  The crisis is the darkest hour, but our hero will receive a treasure of special recognition or power and the bad guys will either bow down to him or chase him from their realm.  Either way, he is successful and must now return to the ordinary world.  Upon his return he will notice that he has outgrown his old world and as such his status quo will be upgraded.

Theseus is able to lift the stone to retrieve the sandals and sword and so his adventure begins. Upon retrieving these tokens he must travel to Athens to take up his rightful crown.  During his journey his faces many opponents: Periphetes, Sinis, Phaia, Skiron, Kerkyon, and Procrustes.  His trials are not over yet.  He volunteers for his next journey, a trip to Crete to defeat the bull in the labyrinth and end the sacrifices to Minos.  He falls in love with Ariadne and she in turn becomes his “mentor” by obtaining information from Daedalus on how to defeat the bull.  He finds the Minotaur and is able to batter him senseless.  When he was leaving, he told his father he would use a white sail on his return to show he was alive. For whatever reason, he forgot to put up the white sail. His father threw himself from a cliff in despair, thinking his son was dead. Theseus took the role of King of Athens, but convinces them to create a government to rule themselves.

“The Labors of Herakles” details 12 different adventures that Herakles must go on in order to rid him of his guilt for killing his family.

1st: Kill the invincible lion of Nemea

2nd: Kill the 9-headed hydra in Lerna

3rd: Bring back the stag with golden horns, sacred to Artemis

4th: Capture the great boar on Mount Erymanthus

5th: Clean the Augean stables in a single day

6th: Drive away the Stymphalian birds

7th: Bring the bull Poseidon had given Minos

8th: Claim the man-eating mares of Diomedes

9th: Bring the girdle of the Queen of the Amazons

10th: Bring back the cattle of Geryon

11th: Bring back the Golden Apples of Hesperides

12th: Bring Cerberus up from the underworld

He receives help from many throughout the completion of these tasks. His reward is his “freedom” from his guilt.  After completion of his tasks the realization of his current state begins to sink in.  He is free from his labors but has no family to return to and therefore he sets out on a new journey.