The Hero With A Thousand Faces: Prologue

In his prologue, Joseph Campbell set's up various classic stories from many different cultures. He tells of King Minos of Crete, Theseus, and the Minotaur. He goes into the stories of Moses, Jesus, and Buddha. Campbell tells that all these classic stories of heroes are all practically the same. they got through the same trials and events, albeit with different faces and situations.

It is remarkable that such similarly structured stories exists in all cultures of Earth and these stories continue to manifest themselves into the 20th century when Campbell wrote his book and into modern times. These stories continue to be relevant and find new audiences through modern mediums such a film, television, and comics. The hero that Campbell writes about is more and more prevalent in the modern consciousness these days with the public looking for real heroes to look up to in a time when there is no faith in the powerful. Screenwriters and TV creators even cite Campbell's work as inspiration for their works. From George Lucas and Star Wars to modern television and Eric Kripke's series Supernatural, writers have read Campbell and model the journey of their characters specifically on the journey he outlined. In a time when actual heroes are hard to come by, the fictional hero is more and more important.

Campbell goes on to set up what the rest of the book is to be about, how each part and chapter will chronicle another part of the hero's journey. It is interesting how he even brings in classic philosophers and psychologists into his discussion of the hero, and points out that even Freud and Nietzsche saw the impact of the hero on the human consciousness.