Achilles and the Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell, as a comparative mythology scholar, is best known for his work codifying the Hero's Journey story structure. He proposed the idea of a 'monomyth', or a common template that follows a hero going on an adventure and returning, changed that is present in all stories. 

Campbell split the monomyth template into 17 steps. Not all of the steps are always present, and the steps may not always be in the same order, but they are typically divided into three larger sections, or acts: the Departure (or Separation), the Initiation and the Return (1). These steps symbolize the hero's descent into the unknown adventure as well as their eventual return to the world they know.

One of the epics that greatly influenced the idea of the monomyth was the Iliad. The Iliad is a piece of ancient Greek epic poetry. The journey of Achilles, as told in the Iliad, follows the Hero's Journey steps set out by Campbell.

 Both the Iliad and the Odyssey most likely originated as part of a longstanding oral tradition, and were codified around the 7th century BCE. They are part of a longer series of stories known collectively as the Epic Cycle. The individual stories (taking the form of books within longer poems) would have been told by storytellers, and it is unlikely that the entire Iliad/Odyssey would have been told at once. Unfortunately, many of the smaller epics in the Cycle have been lost, leaving gaps in the overarching story (3). Many of the stories survived in the form of plays such as Ajax and the Oresteia, but we only have fragments of others. The Odyssey and the Iliad are unique in that they are much longer than other sections of the Cycle, and are comparatively very character-driven.

The Iliad opens nine years into the Trojan War and follows the wrath of Achilles, a Greek hero. His Hero's Journey begins even before the Iliad, when Helen of Troy is kidnapped by Paris, a prince of Troy. In the quest to get her back, Helen's husband (King Menelaus) enlists the help of many Greek Kings and warriors, including Achilles.

Not much is known about Achilles' early life, but he is usually the son of King Peleus and Thetis, a nereid. In the Achilleid (written much later, in the 1st century CE) , it is established that Achilles is invulnerable except for his heel, although it is unclear if this is the case in later epics like the Iliad. In the same epic, when the call for aid comes from King Menelaus, Achilles initially tries to avoid going to war by dressing as a woman and hiding. This is analogous to the "refusal of the call" step in the Hero's Journey. Although specifics vary, several stories have Odysseus convincing Achilles to join the war because it was prophesized that Troy would win without him. Odysseus takes the place of the mentor character for this stage.

At the opening of the Iliad, the alliance of Greek kings already had Troy under siege for nine years. The two cities were at an impasse, with different gods supporting each side. The story of the Iliad begins when King Agamemnon (brother to King Menelaus) takes a captive from Achilles, which angers him immensely. 

Achilles then withdraws from the fighting, single-handedly turning the the battle in favor of the Trojans. This is similar to the “woman as temptress” step in the Hero's Journey because Achilles is distracted from solving the main conflict: the Trojan War. Achilles continues sulking in his tent until his friend Patroclus dons Achilles' armor and drives out the Trojan forces. Before he can make a full-scale assault on the city, however, Patroclus is killed by Hector, a prince of Troy. When learning of his death, Achilles is filled with rage at Hector. He goes on a murderous rampage, cutting down swathes of Trojans. He then challenges Hector to a duel, to which Hector reluctantly agrees. Hector asks that his body be treated with respect, but Achilles refuses. When Achilles defeats Hector, he drags his body around from behind his chariot.

This is Achilles' low point; the Abyss of his Hero's journey. He has to accept the loss of his closest friend. When Patroclus appears in his dreams and tells him to hold his funeral, Achilles accepts it and holds a series of funeral games in his honor. Achilles finally overcomes his wrath when King Priam (Hector's father) arrives at his tent and begs him to return Hector's body so that he can have a proper funeral as well. Moved by the king's pleas, Achilles agrees to a truce for the time it would take to hold Hector's funeral.

Unfortunately, Achilles doesn't survive to finish the last section of the Hero's Journey: he dies before the end of the Trojan War and is never able to return to his home. However, later works show Achilles in the Underworld, apparently happy. His bones had been mixed with Patroclus' and he had been given a magnificent funeral by the remaining Greek forces.

The Iliad and other stories like it were what inspired Joseph Campbell to codify his idea of a 'monomyth'. The monomyth of the Hero's Journey has become an important tool for analyzing mythology and finding common story threads in wildly different sources. 

 

Sources:

1. Campbell, J. (2008). The hero with a thousand faces (Vol. 17). New World Library.

2. Knauer, G. N. (2016). Vergil and Homer. In Band 31/2. Teilband Sprache und Literatur (Literatur der augusteischen Zeit: Einzelne Autoren, Fortsetzung, Vergil, Horaz, Ovid) (pp. 870-918). De Gruyter.

3. Holmberg, I. (1998). The Creation of the Ancient Greek Epic Cycle.

4. Shankman, S. (Ed.). (2009). The Iliad of Homer: Translated by Alexander Pope (Vol. 1). Wipf and Stock Publishers.