The Hero's Journey

No matter the author or the setting the story takes place, every tale that revolves around a hero and his adventures is intrinsically the same. While the hero may be of a different make than other heroes and his exploits may be unlike anything ever written before, this hero will still follow the three main phases of any hero’s journey: departure, initiation, and return. These three phases along with the many other stages the hero encounters constitute what is known as the monomyth. Joseph Campbell coined the term “monomyth,” also known as “The Hero’s Journey,” in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” in which he describes the seventeen stages of the hero’s journey in much detail . However, even though most heroes follow this archetypical

Like Gilgamesh and most other heroes, Odysseus did follow the monomyth in the Odyssey, as he reluctantly departed from his “home” with Calypso, faced many trials on his way home, including monsters and natural disasters, and returned home to his wife a changed man from when he originally left many years ago. Unlike Gilgamesh, Odysseus did not have a Godly parent or parents, and while a few Gods aided him on his journey, he had just as many Gods hinder his voyage. He was not born strong like Gilgamesh, or other Greek heroes like Heracles, but he did have something Gilgamesh did not attain until much later in his life, and that is the will of a hero. While traditional Greek heroes were only required to be honorable and skilled generals and tacticians in battle, Odysseus fulfilled all of those requirements and more. Odysseus was quite strong for a mortal being, noble, courageous, charismatic, and confident, but the trait that defines him is his extremely keen mind. While many Greek heroes were known for their trickery in accomplishing their tasks, Heracles and Perseus, as sons of Zeus, were also born with the raw power to not really need to use their heads. However, Odysseus made use of his brain much more than his fists, and he proved to be the wiliest of them all, as his cunning and ingenuity showed in the conception of the Trojan Horse plan and his

Moses had a noble upbringing, despite not being of noble birth, as the pharaoh’s daughter found him abandoned and decided to raise him as her own son. Moses grows up in the comfort and luxury of Egyptian royalty, however he is forced to run away from his home after he murdered an Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew slave. He became a shepherd in Midian and lived a relatively simple life, however the Biblical God had other plans, appearing to Moses as a burning bush and telling him that he was chosen to lead the slaves out of Egypt. Moses eventually relents to God’s call to action, and thus begins his heroic journey. God gifts him a magical staff, and Moses departs for Egypt in order to demand for the release of the Israelites from their servitude. Moses is eventually able to lead the Jews out of Egypt, and with the aid of God and his gifts, Moses is able to lead the Jews out of the Pharaoh’s grasp and, after forty years, into the Promised Land. Moses was different from other heroes in that he did not assert himself as the hero of anything. He submitted himself before God, and it was God who provided the strength for Moses to perform his miracles. Moses was like a prototype to later Biblical heroes, David for example, who drew power from obedience to God and not from