The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth: Crash Course World Mythology #25 Video Lecture | World Mythology: Crash Course - Personal Learning

hi I'm Mike Rugnetta this is crash
course mythology and today we're gonna
talk about the people at the center of
many mythological stories heroes there
are so many to choose from
heroes appear in the stories of just
about every culture and in just about
every age everyone has heroes tow you're
my hero
who's yours oh that's a good choice
heroes are so ubiquitous it can be hard
to say what even makes them a hero do
they fight villains are they a role
model or as a hero just a synonym for
protagonist to answer will examine
Joseph Campbell's influential theory the
monomyth of the hero's journey but first
one bit of housekeeping throughout this
episode I'm gonna be saying hero with a
vaguely masculine sense and this isn't
because there aren't stories about
heroines but because in English that's
the implication that word tends to have
and furthermore Campbell himself had a
rather dude centric view of the world
you'll see what I mean but don't worry
eventually we're gonna get to a story
about seven awesome sisters who have
something to say about all of this
alright housekeeping complete on what
the hero show
[Music]
you may remember Joseph Campbell from
our theories of myth episode Campbell
identified a series of events that
appear in multiple stories from numerous
cultures
he developed a sort of roadmap for
spotting these recurring main beats and
named the whole structure the hero's
journey sometimes called the monomyth
the journey aspect is really crucial
though for Campbell that's exactly what
a hero does they journey away from
safety and toward adventure before
coming home again it's hard to describe
just how influential Campbell's theory
has become but in spite or perhaps
because of that Campbell is also pretty
divisive he had some troubling ideas
about culture and a very narrow view of
gender including the roles of women
still his theory persists as a useful
starting point for talking about the
significance of mythological heroes in
particular Campbell believes that heroes
tell us something about ourselves
contemporary mythology scholars Ava
theory and Margaret Divini described his
view like this we are all heroes
struggling to accomplish our adventure
as human beings we engage in a series of
struggles to develop as individuals and
to find our place in society beyond that
we long for wisdom we want to understand
the universe and the significance of our
role in it in addition to many myths
Campbell drew on a number of recent for
him psychological theories especially
those of Sigmund Freud otto Runk and
Carl Jung Campbell borrowed from each
and developed a model that emphasizes
the importance of the mother figure
which was vital to Jung while also
stressing the father-son relationship in
a sense his framework allows us to read
individual heroes as symbolic of the
psychological journey that we all go
through Campbell even claims that myths
aren't really written by their authors
instead their manifestations of
universal cosmic forces that shape the
human subconsciousness how young again
because hero myths originate in the
psyche Campbell believes that they're
universal to all humans and follow
similar if not identical patterns this
idea that all hero myths
share a common pattern or structure is
what inspires the name monomyth
myth aka the hero's journey has three
parts and 17 sub parts so strap in as I
take you through how this structure
works and sometimes doesn't and just to
be clear Campbell isn't saying that
every story has all 17 sub parts just
that most heroic stories have some of
the parts all right off to the races
part 1 a hero separates himself from the
world or retreats to the realm of the
unconscious there are five possible
elements to this departure quests can
start for a lot of different reasons for
siddhartha gautama who eventually
becomes the buddha the hero's journey
begins because he's bored but far more
often the journey begins when the hero
receives the call of Destiny frequently
the hero refuses the call but once the
hero finally decides to listen they
often get help preparing for their quest
from a protective figure or a
supernatural guy when they're finally
ready the hero sets out and reaches the
gates of an unknown zone where they must
confront the threshold guardian after
crossing heroes almost always end up
clobbered sometimes near-death like
Hercules rescues Hasani from a sea
monster by diving into its throat and
cutting his way out of the monsters
belly yeah sometimes that belly of the
whale part is pretty literal part 2
contains the trials and victories of
initiation since having responded to the
call the hero starts changing into the
person they're destined to become part 2
of the hero's journey has six possible
elements this part of the hero's journey
is the exciting part it consists of
several tasks the hero must overcome to
demonstrate their worthiness sometimes
it's a laundry list like Hercules is
twelve trials and sometimes it's one
extended challenge like maybe you got to
take a magic ring to a volcano no big
deal right no big deal just a just a
ring just a volcano for Campbell the
most important thing is the trial or
trials represent psychological danger
along the road of trials our hero might
come across a lady sometimes this is a
powerful lady a goddess even who gives
the hero a chance to show his maturity
through soulful communion if you're
picking up what I'm putting down other
times our hero resists the intimate
arms of such a lady which then casts her
as an adversary so that's another trial
the hero must overcome these days we may
take the meeting with the goddess and
the woman as temptress with less
stereotypically heteronormative grains
of mythological salt and because
Campbell worked with Freudian psychology
no journey would be complete without a
confrontation with your father or father
figure
often a priest or sacred individual who
tests the hero and approves of their
newfound psychological maturity the
father might also take the form of a
monster who as any good Freudian will
tell you is clearly a symbol for your
father personally I don't know if I
would get the message
my dad's a pretty non monstrous guy he's
retired he makes bird houses they are
monstrous birdhouses though by
confronting their father figure the hero
achieves enlightenment this is called
apotheosis which sometimes results in
the human hero becoming a literal God
which is what apotheosis literally means
tons of Heroes are also half God already
anyway finally having achieved
enlightened status the hero takes
possession of an object which symbolizes
their apotheosis they must return to
whence they came with part 3 is the
return and reintegration to society with
six final elements this part of the
hero's journey is pretty different from
contemporary story tone today defeating
the monster or recovering the Grail or
getting the girl are usually the end of
the story but for mythological heroes
returning home and finding acceptance
after their great enlightenment is just
as challenging sometimes the enlightened
hero is less than eager to get back to
business as usual even an eager hero
might be forced to flee perhaps with the
help of magical creatures or a nifty
flying carpet the hero might be rescued
from their epic journey by a friend or a
colleague there may be a symbolic
crossing back into the everyday world as
is common in stories where the hero
journeys to the underworld sometimes we
learn that the hero's newfound power
allows them to traverse between the
everyday world and the land of adventure
in any case the hero will end up back
where they started with the mythological
equivalent of living happily ever after
the hero is at peace free to live out
their life hopefully campbell's heroic
scenes
already reminded you of hero stories
that you're familiar with Odysseus
Beowulf Luke Skywalker men in black this
is perhaps the point of learning
Campbell's theory it isn't a road map to
every hero ever but a useful tool for
recognizing and comparing stories to
illustrate this we're gonna head to
Australia where an unlikely story can
help us see heroism in action but also
demonstrate some alternatives to
Campbell's formula in this story the
hero isn't a lone half-god dude but a
group of seven teenage Aboriginal girls
according to the tale as the seven girls
reach adolescence they realize they must
shed their childhood by gaining control
over three things hunger pain and fear
they go to their elders and explain that
they're ready to do whatever it takes
the elders agree to help but they warn
them the tests will be severe first to
conquer their hunger the girls spend
three years isolated from their brothers
and sisters each day they receive only
two small meals one at sunrise and
another at sunset and at the end of the
third year the elders take them on a
week-long journey into the wilderness
traveling through the heat of the day
but the girls don't falter no matter how
hungry or how hot and when the week is
over the elders tell them to keep
walking for three more days with no food
at all on the third day the elders
produce a roasted kangaroo and a flint
knife they tell the girls to cut off
whatever they need standing in the heat
under the gaze of the elders each girl
takes the knife and cuts exactly the
same meagerly sized portion as their
meals of the last three years after
resisting the temptation to eat an
entire kangaroo the elders are pleased
and hunger conquered but if you thought
three years one week in three days of
semi-starvation was bad you don't know
kiss from kangaroo me brace yourself
we're headed to the supple the next
trial is pain so the elders break out
each girl's front teeth
no reaction then the elders cut each of
the girl's breasts with a flint knife no
reaction they rub wood ashes into the
wounds the girls hold strong finally the
elders devise the most
test yeah piercing the girls noses and
forcing them to sleep on an anthill by
the following morning with all seven
girls still standing pain is conquered
the only trial left is fear the elders
tell the girls a series of horrible
stories they talk about fearsome spirits
and ghosts and then say that their
campsite that night as the girls try to
sleep the elders creep around making
scary noises but no matter how
monstrously the elders yell show no
signs of fear the elders declare the
girls have conquered fear and send word
to the adjoining tribes calling for
celebrations in their honor but just
when it looks like they'll get a chance
to relax one of the girls steps forward
and speaks to the other children of the
tribe we have passed through the testing
that our elders prescribed and we have
endured much pain now it is the desire
of the Great Spirit that you should go
through the same course of testing
happiness comes through thinking of
others and of forgetting the self it is
necessary to vanquish self will you not
go and do as we have done the Great
Spirit is so pleased at this that he
takes the girls into the heavens without
death where they become a symbol to
their people the Seven Sisters or
Pleiades thanks thought-bubble so
clearly this story doesn't map perfectly
unto Campbell's monomyth structure but
you can see the patterns the Seven
Sisters receive a call to leave their
home they cross a threshold and live in
the wilderness far from their peers they
go through a long road of trials where
they atone to the elders they receive
enlightenment return home to further
drama and are made literal celestial
bodies what's more we can use these
scenes to ask questions about human
psychology Campbell's framework prompts
us to ask what might these trials
symbolize how might we see our own
growth as individuals in this particular
tale of struggle what is it like
returning to a familiar environment
after a massive personal change over the
next few weeks we're gonna measure a few
of the most well known mythological
heroes against Campbell's framework it
won't always be tidy but with practice
you'll be able to identify these
structures in more and more play
not just contemporary media either you
might even see these patterns in your
own life after all
Campbell thought that we can all be
heroes even if it's just for one day
thanks for watching we'll see you next
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