What follows is a schematic list of the five stages in the standard narrative of the hero. Each stage is illustrated by reference to characters from ancient heroic narratives. For an extended analysis of the hero narrative, see J. Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Princeton 1968). For a synopsis of this pattern, click here.

BIRTH
Mixed Status
The hero has mixed status, as the product of either
(1) a single union between a divine parent and a human one (Gilgamesh, Achilles, Odysseus [?], Perseus, Jason, Aeneas; Cú Chulainn; Hun Hunahpu & Vucub Hunahpu; Hunahpu & Xbalanque), or
(2) successive unions between a human mother and both a divine and a human father (Theseus, Heracles). The latter case sometimes produces twins: one heroic, the other ordinary (Iphicles—Heracles).

CHILDHOOD
(a) Signs of Election
Early in his childhood, the hero demonstrates abilities that mark him as superior, either by
(1) prodigious acts of strength in response to a threat (Heracles, Theseus; Cú Chulainn; Hunahpu and Xbalanque), or
(2) the unique discovery of tokens that indicate the identity of the hero’s father (Theseus). The latter generally happens at puberty, and often involves some kind of preliminary test of intelligence or strength.

(b) Separation
At an early age, the hero falls under threat, often from a member of his own family—e.g. a wicked step-parent, mother, father, or uncle—and must be removed from his household (Gilgamesh, Perseus, Jason, Heracles) to insure his safety.

(c) Education
During childhood and early puberty, the hero (Achilles, Jason, Theseus, Heracles; Cú Chulainn) is educated and trained by a mysterious figure who is often represented as an animal or half-animal (Cheiron), thereby bridging the gap between the human and natural worlds. The ability to bridge the two worlds— for example, to understand the language of animals—will later be of advantage to the hero in his undertakings (cf. Hunahpu & Xbalanque).

DEPARTURE
(a) Call to Adventure
At the threshold of manhood, the hero responds to a call to adventure, motivated by
(1) a desire for glory (Gilgamesh, Achilles),
(2) the urgency of a mission
    (a) to defend the community (Heracles, Achilles, Theseus; Cú Chulainn) or
    (b) to recover something crucial to its well-being (Heracles, Jason; Hunahpu & Xbalanque);
or
(3) as a set of trials he is required to perform as penance (Heracles) or in fulfilment of some vow (Perseus, Jason).
In cases 2 and 3, the hero is often sent by a wicked step-parent, father, or uncle on a journey from which he is not expected to return.

(b) The Sidekick
The hero is often accompanied in his adventures by a sidekick (Gilgamesh— Enkidu, Heracles—Iphicles, Achilles—Patroclus, Theseus— Perithoös, Odysseus—Elpenor[?]) with whom he bonds either through blood (Heracles—Iphicles; Hun Hunahpu— Vucub Hunahpu, Hunahpu—Xbalanque) or friendship (Gilgamesh—Enkidu). The hero and his sidekick are sometimes represented as doubles or twins (Gilgamesh—Enkidu, Heracles—Iphicles, Castor—Pollux; Hun Hunahpu—Vucub Hunahpu, Hunahpu—Xbalanque). In every case, it is an implicitly unequal partnership, as the sidekick always proves to be the weaker, less experienced, and more vulnerable of the pair.

(c) Journey
The call to adventure removes the hero from his ordinary surroundings and leads him on a journey beyond the borders drawn by his community, often to the ends of the earth. In every case, the journey entails a visit (direct or mediated) to the underworld.

(d) Exploits
The hero has a variety of encounters with threatening figures, often represented as monsters embodying primal forces of nature (Huwawa, Bull of Heaven, Nemean Lion, Hydra, Gorgon...) or as beings who violate social rules (Periphetes, Procrustes, Amazons, Antaeus...). In his battles, the hero is often the beneficiary of divine assistance, in the form of direct intervention by gods (Achilles, Heracles, Odysseus) or else indirectly, through magical implements that the hero is given or loaned (Achilles, Heracles, Odysseus, Jason, Perseus). The number and nature of exploits varies widely, from a single encounter to multiple ones; the cycles of athloi (labors), praxeis (deeds), and parerga (side-deeds) in the Heracles legend exemplify the degree to which the simple encounter is subject to repetition. Often at least one encounter is with a serpentine monster with chthonic or aquatic links, whose defeat therefore has cosmogonic significance; cf. myths of the slaying of Tiamat or Typhoeus.

(e) Encounters
While abroad, the hero often meets a younger woman, often the daughter of the ruler of the foreign land to which he has travelled (Heracles/Iole, Jason/Medea, Perseus/Andromeda, Theseus/Ariadne, Odysseus/Nausicaa). He may win her in a contest (Heracles/Iole, Heracles/Deianira) or else rescue her from immanent danger (Perseus/Andromeda); she herself (Medea, Nausicaa) may subsequently help the hero in his labors. He may return with her as his bride (Heracles/Iole, Heracles/Deianira, Jason/Medea, Perseus/Andromeda, Theseus/ Ariadne). The hero's return with his bride usually precipitates the death of the father-figure by whom he had been sent on his quest (Heracles, Perseus, Theseus, Jason); at a later point, the hero often deserts (Heracles, Theseus, Jason) and/or is destroyed by (Heracles, Jason) his foreign wife.

RETURN
(a) Failure
In the course of his adventures, the hero encounters a limit that cannot be crossed; this is generally the limit of death. The encounter frequently takes the form of the death of the sidekick (Enkidu, Patroclus, Perithoös, Elpenor, Hun Hunaphu, Xbalanque), whose demise gives the hero a glimpse of his own mortality. The hero’s reponse to the sidekick’s death involves intense grief and denial; sometimes the hero (Gilgamesh, Achilles) simply refuses to bury the corpse. (When the corpse remains unburied, it is usually the gods who directly intervene to persuade the hero to give it proper funeral rites [Gilgamesh, Achilles], or else simply to steal the corpse themselves [alternate Gilgamesh account]; sometimes it is the ghost of the deceased [Patroclus, Elpenor].) In some cases (Gilgamesh), his death sends the hero on an ultimate journey whose aim is to rescue the sidekick from the land of the dead or else gain the secret of immortality; this involves further trials that always end in failure.

(b) Reconciliation
The hero returns to his community in defeat but richer, and with greater understanding of the bond of mortality he shares with all other human beings. He often returns to die among them (Gilgamesh, Heracles, Achilles, Odysseus [?]), in which case his narrative concludes with his funeral. It is sometimes the case (Gilgamesh, Achilles) that his entire career has had the moral purpose of educating him in precisely this understanding, with the result that he is the Bad King prior to Departure and the Good King upon Return. What the hero has gained—treasure, knowledge, an extension of the limits of the known world—becomes the common possession of his community.

MEMORIALIZATION
The hero's death provides a center around which narratives (epos) and commemorative behaviors develop.

(1) Often it is his physical tomb or hêroön (Achilles/Patroclus) that becomes the site of funeral games and other celebratory acts that are quickly institutionalized, and then repeated yearly. (In Greece, these tombs are often located near actual Bronze Age (i.e. Mycenaean) grave-sites or ruins.)

(2) Often the places visited by the hero along his heroic journey (Heracles) acquire the status of cult-sites (e.g. shrines) that attract ritual activities designed to recall his exploits, especially those with significant local impact. Sometimes those individual cult-sites are spatially linked together in larger, regional rituals that can take the form of a deliberate imitation of the hero's original journey.

(3) Relics of the hero—implements used by him (Heracles' bow), marks made by him in the natural world, things built, or even body parts themselves (bones of Theseus)—can have a similar status and function, namely as links across time from the present generation of worshippers to the hero himself. In some cases, these relics enjoy special and even magical/sacred status (bones of Theseus).

(4) Sometimes (a) the hero himself (Gilgamesh, Odysseus) or (b) one of his witnesses (Homer for Achilles and Odysseus) composes a narrative account of the hero's exploits,which is thereby preserved for later generations in the form of inscribed tablets (Gilgamesh) or oral epic poetry (Iliad, Odyssey, Táin Bó Cuailnge, Popol Vuh).