The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Where the goal of the hero’s effort is the discovery of the unknown father, the basic symbolism remains that of the tests and the self-revealing way. In the above example the test is reduced to the persistent questions and a frightening look. In the earlier tale of the clam wife, the sons were tried with the bamboo knife. We have seen, in our review of the adventure of the hero, to what degrees the severity of the father can go. For the congregation of Jonathan Edwards he became a veritable ogre.

The hero blessed by the father returns to represent the father among men. As teacher (Moses) or as emperor (Huang Ti), his word is law. Since he is now centered in the source, he makes visible the repose and harmony of the central place. He is a reflection of the World Axis from which the concentric circles spread — the World Mountain, the World Tree — he is the perfect microcosmic mirror of the macrocosm. To see him is to perceive the meaning of existence. From his presence boons go out; his word is the wind of life.

But a deterioration may take place in the character of the representative of the father. Such a crisis is described in the Zoroastrian Persian legend of the Emperor of the Golden Age, Jemshid.

All looked upon the throne, and heard and saw

Nothing but Jemshid, he alone was King,

Absorbing every thought; and in their praise

And adoration of that mortal man,

Forgot the worship of the great Creator.

Then proudly he to his nobles spoke,

Intoxicated with their loud applause,

“I am unequalled, for to me the earth

Owes all its science, never did exist

A sovereignty like mine, beneficent

And glorious, driving from the populous land

Disease and want. Domestic joy and rest

Proceed from me, all that is good and great

Waits my behest; the universal voice

Declares the splendor of my government,

Beyond whatever human heart conceived,

And me the only monarch of the world.”

— Soon as these words had parted from his lips

Words impious, and insulting to high heaven,

His earthly grandeur faded — then all tongues

Grew clamorous and bold. The day of Jemshid

Passed into gloom, his brightness all obscured.

What said the Moralist? “When thou wert a king

Thy subjects were obedient, but whoever

Proudly neglects the worship of his God

Brings desolation on his house and home.”

— And when he marked the insolence of his people,

He knew the wrath of heaven had been provoked,

And terror overcame him.^[21]

Persian mythology is rooted in the common Indo-European system that was carried out of the Aral-Caspian steppes into India and Iran, as well as into Europe. The principal divinities of the earliest sacred writings (Avesta) of the Persians correspond very closely to those of the earliest Indian texts (Vedas). But the two branches came under greatly differing influences in their new homes, the Vedic tradition submitting gradually to Dravidian Indian forces, the Persian to Sumero-Babylonian.

Early in the first millennium b.c., Persian belief was reorganized by the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster) according to a strict dualism of good and evil principles, light and dark, angels and devils. This crisis profoundly affected not only the Persian, but also the subject Hebrew beliefs, and thereby (centuries later) Christianity. It represents a radical departure from the more usual mythological interpretation of good and evil as effects proceeding from a unique source of being that transcends and reconciles all polarity.