--- product_id: 98074866 title: "The Hero With A Thousand Faces" price: "VT20584" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/98074866-the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # The Hero With A Thousand Faces **Price:** VT20584 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Hero With A Thousand Faces - **How much does it cost?** VT20584 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/98074866-the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Since its release in 1949, Joseph Campbell's classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In its pages, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure that runs through all of the world's mythic traditions, evident in the stories of such heroes as Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Jason of the Argonauts. As relevant today as when it was first published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces continues to find new audiences among students and professors in fields ranging from anthropology and the history of religion to literature and film studies. The book has also profoundly influenced creative artists, including authors, songwriters, game designers, and filmmakers - George Lucas cites it as the inspiration for Star Wars - and continues to inspire all those interested in the inherent human need to tell stories. "As a book, it is wonderful to read; as illumination into the human condition, it is a revelation." - George Lucas "Every generation will find in Hero wisdom for the ages." - Bill Moyers Review: 1,000 Faces, Joseph Campbell and the Journey of a Hero - The collection of stories deconstructed by Campbell weave together what he calls the mono-myth. The mono-myth is the constituents of elements used to construct the fundamental framework for creation stories, literature in general, and theology. For those who are attempting to navigate through a life filled with tragedy and obstacles learning these symbolic representations may give you the inspiration to continue enduring as you undertake the hero’s journey. This book is cited numerous times in respected literature pertaining to sociology, behavioral psychology, and evolutional psychology. For that reason (among many others) it was a MUST read for me. If you are equally enthusiastic about those subject then this book will certainly keep you captivated throughout. I would definitely place this book as a significant piece of work for understanding the primordial mind (emotional mind. The Elephant to the Rider). •SUMMARY• The book takes us through a journey of stories that have been constructed from behavioral patterned observed by a self-conscience organism, humans. We later assigned significance to those patterns, constructing patterns to them. Those patterns then transcended beyond the representations of specific events and evolve into psychological representations for life at a high-level. Like a tarot card or astrology reading that could be broadly applied to nearly everyone, the symbolic representation in these stories are fluid and relevant differently subject to a particular culture. In the prologue, he suggests that our intrinsic desire to connect with our ancestral spirit (which is the lessons encoding into our mind throughout the mind's evolution) is elemental to the nourishment of the success of survival. •PART 1• The call to action engenders the hero to begin his journey beyond his real of comfort and the constraints of society. The hero is introduced to multiple trials and tribulations along the journey. Once the hero is triumphant he passes the threshold and moves onto a new world of knowledge. Upon the end of his voluntary voyage into the unknown, he must invoke his life changing-boon. “The Keys” commentates how the secular perspective towards mythology catalyzes in the removal of its primary utility which is to episodically represent symbolism. The symbolism is the suggested narrative that we act out to tend towards Peterson’s heaven — for example. •PART 2• Campell cites Jung often, especially his main idea of the collective unconscious construction of archetypes and symbols. These symbols can characterize many things but the common elements consist of fear, hope, good, evil, and other fundamental elements for survival observed and encapsulated by the narrative. Emphasis on both the creator’s sexes aspects is depicted by stories and mythology. The sequence of life from the virgin birth to death; mainly, mortality is a quintessential component needed for the exploratory character to become the hero. During the hero’s journey s/he has the ability to become one of the various options: the warrior, the lover, the emperor/tyrant, the world redeemer, or the saint. There are two types of deaths that mythologies describe, the first is personal (microcosm), and the second is universal(macrocosm). The birth, life, thriving and death/parish. Review: An in-depth exploration of what makes a hero through the lens of myth - If, like me, you’ve heard the term “hero’s journey” but didn’t really know what it was all about, this, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is the definitive book by comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. Although it’s by no means an easy read, it is well worth the investment of time and study if you want to learn the expanded definition of a hero according to a general consensus of world cultures. First, it’s important to recognize that the hero’s journey belongs to the greater fabric of mythology. In the book’s prologue, Campbell states without reservation that myth is the basic expression of all human culture: “It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.” With these words, Campbell gives the reader fair warning that this book is not a mere collection of fairy tales, nor is it an attempt to contain mythology as a separate discipline. Myth, according to the author, touches every part of the human experience. It is not meant to be contained. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, therefore, is Campbell’s exploration of just one aspect of myth, the hero’s journey. In this “composite adventure,” as he calls it, the author relates “the tales of a number of the world’s symbolic carriers of the destiny of Everyman.” Even focusing on just one aspect of myth is a heavy undertaking, and Campbell acknowledges that he is only describing “a few striking examples from a number of widely scattered, representative traditions” to illustrate the common elements of the hero’s journey appearing in many cultures around the world. Part I, “The Adventure of the Hero,” delineates the hero’s journey in three basic phases: Departure, Initiation, and Return. Part 2, “The Cosmogonic Cycle,” explores myths about the world’s creation and destruction, a macrocosm of the hero’s journey. Considering the extraordinary scope of material at hand, Campbell offers readers a well-curated overview of various traditional depictions of the quintessential hero. Some of the heroes described in the book are well-known cultural and religious icons, including Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Perseus, and Osiris. Many others, such as the Pueblo Water Jar Boy (one of the oddest and most humorous stories in my opinion), may be unfamiliar to readers. This book is not only informative for mythology students and enthusiasts, but also very helpful for fiction writers. If you can understand what cultures all over the world have lauded as a hero for thousands of years, you can infuse your protagonist with some or all of these qualities and create an engaging story that touches on the deepest longings and fears of the human experience. Note: If you've never read Joseph Campbell before, I recommend starting with The Power of Myth, based on a 1988 PBS miniseries in which Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell discuss applications of mythology to contemporary life. Because the text of the book is drawn from these Moyers' interviews with Campbell, reading it is like listening in on a conversation between friends, and it's a great way to ease into Campbell's work. ## Features - Color Name: White - Brand: YOGI IMPRESSION ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #300,750 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 7,100 Reviews | ## Images ![The Hero With A Thousand Faces - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91HfiGIzVvL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1,000 Faces, Joseph Campbell and the Journey of a Hero *by L***N on January 16, 2026* The collection of stories deconstructed by Campbell weave together what he calls the mono-myth. The mono-myth is the constituents of elements used to construct the fundamental framework for creation stories, literature in general, and theology. For those who are attempting to navigate through a life filled with tragedy and obstacles learning these symbolic representations may give you the inspiration to continue enduring as you undertake the hero’s journey. This book is cited numerous times in respected literature pertaining to sociology, behavioral psychology, and evolutional psychology. For that reason (among many others) it was a MUST read for me. If you are equally enthusiastic about those subject then this book will certainly keep you captivated throughout. I would definitely place this book as a significant piece of work for understanding the primordial mind (emotional mind. The Elephant to the Rider). •SUMMARY• The book takes us through a journey of stories that have been constructed from behavioral patterned observed by a self-conscience organism, humans. We later assigned significance to those patterns, constructing patterns to them. Those patterns then transcended beyond the representations of specific events and evolve into psychological representations for life at a high-level. Like a tarot card or astrology reading that could be broadly applied to nearly everyone, the symbolic representation in these stories are fluid and relevant differently subject to a particular culture. In the prologue, he suggests that our intrinsic desire to connect with our ancestral spirit (which is the lessons encoding into our mind throughout the mind's evolution) is elemental to the nourishment of the success of survival. •PART 1• The call to action engenders the hero to begin his journey beyond his real of comfort and the constraints of society. The hero is introduced to multiple trials and tribulations along the journey. Once the hero is triumphant he passes the threshold and moves onto a new world of knowledge. Upon the end of his voluntary voyage into the unknown, he must invoke his life changing-boon. “The Keys” commentates how the secular perspective towards mythology catalyzes in the removal of its primary utility which is to episodically represent symbolism. The symbolism is the suggested narrative that we act out to tend towards Peterson’s heaven — for example. •PART 2• Campell cites Jung often, especially his main idea of the collective unconscious construction of archetypes and symbols. These symbols can characterize many things but the common elements consist of fear, hope, good, evil, and other fundamental elements for survival observed and encapsulated by the narrative. Emphasis on both the creator’s sexes aspects is depicted by stories and mythology. The sequence of life from the virgin birth to death; mainly, mortality is a quintessential component needed for the exploratory character to become the hero. During the hero’s journey s/he has the ability to become one of the various options: the warrior, the lover, the emperor/tyrant, the world redeemer, or the saint. There are two types of deaths that mythologies describe, the first is personal (microcosm), and the second is universal(macrocosm). The birth, life, thriving and death/parish. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An in-depth exploration of what makes a hero through the lens of myth *by A***R on June 8, 2015* If, like me, you’ve heard the term “hero’s journey” but didn’t really know what it was all about, this, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is the definitive book by comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. Although it’s by no means an easy read, it is well worth the investment of time and study if you want to learn the expanded definition of a hero according to a general consensus of world cultures. First, it’s important to recognize that the hero’s journey belongs to the greater fabric of mythology. In the book’s prologue, Campbell states without reservation that myth is the basic expression of all human culture: “It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.” With these words, Campbell gives the reader fair warning that this book is not a mere collection of fairy tales, nor is it an attempt to contain mythology as a separate discipline. Myth, according to the author, touches every part of the human experience. It is not meant to be contained. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, therefore, is Campbell’s exploration of just one aspect of myth, the hero’s journey. In this “composite adventure,” as he calls it, the author relates “the tales of a number of the world’s symbolic carriers of the destiny of Everyman.” Even focusing on just one aspect of myth is a heavy undertaking, and Campbell acknowledges that he is only describing “a few striking examples from a number of widely scattered, representative traditions” to illustrate the common elements of the hero’s journey appearing in many cultures around the world. Part I, “The Adventure of the Hero,” delineates the hero’s journey in three basic phases: Departure, Initiation, and Return. Part 2, “The Cosmogonic Cycle,” explores myths about the world’s creation and destruction, a macrocosm of the hero’s journey. Considering the extraordinary scope of material at hand, Campbell offers readers a well-curated overview of various traditional depictions of the quintessential hero. Some of the heroes described in the book are well-known cultural and religious icons, including Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Perseus, and Osiris. Many others, such as the Pueblo Water Jar Boy (one of the oddest and most humorous stories in my opinion), may be unfamiliar to readers. This book is not only informative for mythology students and enthusiasts, but also very helpful for fiction writers. If you can understand what cultures all over the world have lauded as a hero for thousands of years, you can infuse your protagonist with some or all of these qualities and create an engaging story that touches on the deepest longings and fears of the human experience. Note: If you've never read Joseph Campbell before, I recommend starting with The Power of Myth, based on a 1988 PBS miniseries in which Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell discuss applications of mythology to contemporary life. Because the text of the book is drawn from these Moyers' interviews with Campbell, reading it is like listening in on a conversation between friends, and it's a great way to ease into Campbell's work. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Karate Kid and The Hero with a Thousand Faces *by J***S on April 19, 2018* All the way back in 1949, Joseph Campbell wrote a book titled The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The book contains hundreds of examples of stories from a wide range of mythology, including those from Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, Native American, and Greek (and countless other) canons. Campbell identifies similarities in style as well as structure between the great adventure stories/mythologies throughout human history. Famously, he determines specific characteristics about the hero and his or her journey, hence the term (coined by Campbell) familiar to readers and writers alike, The Hero’s Journey. In effect, there is a very specific set of rules governing what makes a great story. And just in case I wasn’t certain of the extent of Campbell’s research, the book contains over forty pages of endnotes and other references. The man put in the research time. Reading The Hero With a Thousand Faces came at the perfect time for me. I’d heard of it and seen it recommended to me on Amazon for quite some time, but I never took the time to actually read it. Actually, I “Wikipedia’d” it a few times, but that was the extent of that. But in finally reading the book, Campbell has helped me understand much better some of the ideas that I’ve been working out in my weekly “Books of the Bible” review posts. If you’ve read any of my recent Bible book reviews, you’ll immediately recognize that Campbell has already clearly written what I’m still trying to figure out for myself. For example: “For the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche…” Powerful stuff. Here are the rules governing the first great stage of the adventure story (some of it is paraphrased in my own words): The Call to Adventure Initial Refusal to Heed the Call Supernatural Aid/Mentor/“Old Man” (Old man is a direct quote from Campbell.) Crossing the First Threshold Belly of the Whale (The Point When the Hero’s Death/Ultimate Failure seems Certain) Truly, Exodus would have been the perfect story to compare with Campbell’s ruleset, but I just wrote a review of Exodus last week, so I wanted to do something different. The Karate Kid might just might be the most perfect modern example of them all (and one of my favorite movies). So I thought it might be interesting to see just how closely the writers of this movie follow Campbell’s rules. Young New Jersey native Daniel is called to the great land of adventure (California) by his mother. He hates it there (his initial macro-reluctance to heed the call) and would like nothing more than to move back home. The only saving grace (besides a pretty girl) is a mentor (Mr. Myagi) that he meets when he arrives. After getting into some trouble with the local bullies, Daniel’s mentor signs him up for a karate tournament. Daniel is mortified and has no faith in his ability to survive a karate tournament like that (Micro-reluctance to Heed the Call), “I cannot believe… what you got me into back there!” But Daniel does as his mentor says and enters the tournament anyway (Crossing the First Threshold), where he manages to make it to the semifinals, further than he ever dreamed, before even hitting a snag. When he gets there, young bully Bobby cheats in a most despicable manner, kicking Daniel directly in the knee, damaging Daniel’s body seemingly beyond repair (into the Belly of the Whale, i.e., Daniel’s ultimate defeat seems certain). But just as soon as all hope is lost, Daniel’s mentor heals his leg through supernatural methods and Daniel comes back to win the tournament, his dignity, and the girl. Indeed, it’s a Hero’s Journey almost worthy of Moses. Note: There are other rules and further stages to the story that I haven’t included in this short review, but it seems to me that these are certainly the essential components to the modern story. Maybe some other time, I can write about the further stages and which stories they apply to (Lord of the Rings comes to mind). My final say on this book is as follows: If you’re a student of religion, mythology or philosophy, or if you are a writer (whether of music, poetry, or fiction), read this book. It contains a lot of good information. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/98074866-the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/98074866-the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-05-22*