The Hero with a Thousand Faces

everything that he was studying, from contemporary artists (“the modern mythmakers”[2]), to modern scientists, to ancient texts, to the legends of Arthur and his knights all seemed to be speaking in the same language — the language of myth

“Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths.”[1]

His second solemn task and deed therefore (as Toynbee declares and as all the mythologies of mankind indicate) is to return then to us, transfigured, and teach the lesson he has learned of life renewed.

His role is precisely that of the Wise Old Man of the myths and fairy-tales whose words assist the hero through the trials and terrors of the weird adventure.

It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back

It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back.

Campbell was exposed not only to the great, groundbreaking novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann and the radical art of Pablo Picasso, Antoine Bourdelle, and Paul Klee, all of whom integrated mythic motifs into their very modern work, but also to the revolutionary psychological teachings of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. These last two brought young Joseph Campbell to the epiphany that, as he would later put it, “Myths are public dreams; dreams are private myths.”[1]

All things are in process, rising and returning. Plants come to blossom, but only to return to the root. Returning to the root is like seeking tranquility. Seeking tranquility is like moving toward destiny. To move toward destiny is like eternity. To know eternity is enlightenment, and not to recognize eternity brings disorder and evil.

Knowing eternity makes one comprehensive; comprehension makes one broadminded; breadth of vision brings nobility; nobility is like heaven.

The heavenly is like Tao. Tao is the Eternal. The decay of the body is not to be feared