A Hero’s Journey
In Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero and the God” he explains what a hero is defined
as and the journey to becoming a hero. Campbell believes a hero must go through a
departure or the “separation”. Then the hero goes through a series of severe challenges or
“initiation”. Finally after the hero has sacrificed his or her life for something bigger than
oneself, comes the “return”. And with the return comes the gift of the goddess as a reward
or the “boon”. Many of Campbell’s characterizations of a hero are represented in Edith
Hamilton’s “The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice”. Orpheus does not succeed in one of
Campbell’s details in becoming a hero because he does not end up being victorious in
achieving his goal in bringing Eurydice back from the Underworld. Even though it is not
the complete definition of Campbell’s notion of the heroic, I believe that what Orpheus
did and went through to try and save Eurydice was very heroic and would call him a hero.
