The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Record summary

Joseph Campbell’s 1949 The Hero with a Thousand Faces became highly influential during the requested period and grouped myths through a monomythic pattern involving departure, ordeal and return. Although not a dedicated flood study, its comparative framework influenced interpretations of catastrophe, survival and renewal narratives. It matters as a history of modern myth comparison and popular synthesis. Campbell’s selective use of sources, psychological universalism and compression of distinct cultural traditions have been extensively debated, so the book should be treated as interpretation rather than proof of shared prehistoric events.