The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth: Crash Course World Mythology #25

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 week check out our crash course mythology tote tote bag and poster available now at dftba.com crash course pathology is filmed in tab and stacey emigholz studio in indianapolis indiana is produced with the help of all of these very nice people our animation team is thought cafe crash course exists thanks to the generous support our patrons at patreon patreon is a voluntary subscription service be brief and support the content love you a monthly donation to help keep crash course free for everyone forever crash course is made with Adobe Creative Cloud check the description for a link to a free trial thanks for watching and you knowit cope you're my personal supernatural aid

Channel: CrashCourse

Views: 556,560

Rating: 4.8747206 out of 5

Keywords: Crash Course, myth, mythology, mythography, Mike Rugnetta, Hank Green, John Green, Joseph Campbell, Hero's Journey, Monomyth, hero, heroes, thoth, han solo, achilles, superhero, role model, protagonist, masculine, heroine, aboriginal, pleiades, theory, theories, journey, adventure, safety, danger, gender, hercules, society, social order, wisdom, Freud, Jung, Mother, Father, atonement, psyche, patterns, magic, magical aid, Bhudda, destiny, supernatural, threshold, Men in Black, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings

Id: XevCvCLdKCU

Length: 13min 20sec (800 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2017