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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hero_with_a_thousand_faces_campbell.jpg]]
2Many things are OlderThanTheyThink, and Website/ThisVeryWiki is no exception. In the days of yore where the mere idea of the Internet was a pipe dream, and the secrets of the first computers were either lost to history or covered up by nervous post war governments, one Joseph Campbell published his seminal work in 1949: ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'', a comparison of classical mythology that focused on the archetypal hero and his [[TheHerosJourney journey]]. In essence, it's his attempt to render these stories down to their common tropes, then demonstrate how these tropes originate from archetypes encoded within the human brain.
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4The work became a lot more well-known after Creator/GeorgeLucas cited the work as a '''major''' source of inspiration when writing the first six ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies (which also served as a pretty big ColbertBump for the work as a whole). Since then, it has become a major source of MediaNotes/SchoolStudyMedia for anyone involved in creative writing careers, and its themes are commonly discussed in many literature courses.
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7!!''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' discusses the following tropes:
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9* BackFromTheDead: The hero usually dies and returns, either literally or figuratively.
10* BigBad: Every journey needs one to drive the plot.
11* DeityOfHumanOrigin: Buddha, Jesus, and others become this after apotheosis.
12* EternalHero: This is what the phrase "hero with a thousand faces" describes, the idea being that all mythological heroes are facets or reflections of one heroic archetype.
13* EternalRecurrence: In many cosmologies the world is in cyclical decline and improvement.
14* IChooseToStay: The heroes are tempted to but usually don’t and instead bring the boon back to their people.
15* MessianicArchetype: The classical heroes are often one or at least aid one.
16* StandardHeroReward: The boon the heroes find is often represented by a woman.
17* TheUnderworld: The heroes might wind up here, either while spending time dead or entering it themselves without dying.
18* TheVamp: "The Temptress"
19* VisionQuest: Again, the heroes might find themselves on one.
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21!!''The Hero with a Thousand Faces'' has chapters or sections discussing the following tropes by name at length:
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23* CallToAdventure
24* {{Herald}}
25* RefusalOfTheCall
26* SupernaturalAid
27* SymbolicHeroRebirth
28* ThresholdGuardians

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