Guiding Questions for The Power of Myth
(Referencing Beowulf and other classics you should have read and seen)
Introduction
1. According to the story of Igjugarjuk, wisdom “can be reached only through suffering.” How is this true
for John Proctor in The Crucible?
2. What statement is made about technology vs. intuition? Apply this to Beowulf as he prepares to face
Grendel.
3. What’s the difference between a celebrity and a hero? When does Beowulf shift from one to the other?
4. Where does mythology come from? Consider the movie Avatar.
5. Explain this statement: “[I]mages of god are… ‘the masks of eternity’.”
6. According to Campbell’s explanation, is Beowulf’s journey successful? (Consider “the ultimate aim of the
quest.”)
I: Myth and the Modern World
7. What is the purpose of an initiation ceremony or an initiation rite? Identify an initiation rite in both A
Separate Peace and Lord of the Flies.
8. According to Campbell, what should students learn in school?
9. What do myths provide?
10. What are the basic stages of a “mystical journey”? Do you see these in Beowulf? If so, identify them.
11. Should man serve society? What does Campbell mean when he asks, “Is the machine going to crush
humanity or serve humanity?”
12. Explain Campbell’s metaphor between religion and computer software.
13. How does Campbell define “god”?
14. What are the two types of mythology? What are the four functions of mythology?
II: The Journey Inward
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What are the two levels of dreams?
What does Campbell mean when he says, “myth is society’s dream”?
How does Campbell define “the hero’s deed”? Identify a hero deed in Beowulf.
According to Campbell, where does “the god power” come from?
Why is the serpent a perfect symbol of life?
How does the Judeo-Christian view of women differ from that of other cultures?
What does it mean to recognize duality?
How is birth a reenactment of all creation myths?
Where are archetypes expressed? Google Carl Jung. Who was he? Google Sigmund Freud. How have
these men contributed to our understanding of archetypes?
24. Why does Campbell suggest we should read religions and mythologies as poetry and not prose? Why
should we focus on connotation instead of denotation?
25. What is the purpose of a folk tale? How is a folk tale different from a myth? Which is Beowulf?
26. Why does Campbell keep coming back to the “image of life living on life”?
III: The First Storytellers
27. What does Campbell consider “the basic theme of all mythology”?
28. Why must boys go through an initiation rite to become men? Do girls likewise go through one? What is
it?
IV: Sacrifice and Bliss
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Identify one example of land-claiming in The Great Gatsby.
Who or what act as modern day shamans? How do shamans differ from priests?
Identify an example of “the self-sacrificing savior” from recent news.
What is your bliss? What is Beowulf’s? What about Daisy (The Great Gatsby)? Lenny (Of Mice and
Men)?
V: The Hero’s Adventure
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Identify both a physical and spiritual deed that John Proctor performs in The Crucible.
What are Beowulf’s great trials and revelations?
For what does Beowulf sacrifice himself? What about Gatsby and Proctor?
Two helpers of a hero can be the wise old man and the stranger with a gift. Can you identify either of
these in Beowulf or Macbeth? What about in the movie The Matrix?
37. For Beowulf, what is the mythic “belly of the whale”?
38. According to Campbell, heaven, god, and illumination come from within the individual. What examples
from Beowulf and The Road support (or don’t support) this?
VI: The Gift of the Goddess
39. What stories or movies do you know in which the hero goes on a father-quest? For example, consider
Harry Potter.
40. What is the significance of a virgin birth? What does is symbolize?
41. How has western mythology treated the goddess and, by extension, all women? Where does this
tradition come from?
42. Consider Frankenstein’s creation. Does it fit the description of Yahweh-creation (male) or Goddesscreation (female)?
V: Tales of Love and Marriage
43. What is the difference between eros and agape?
44. How is amore different from the above? How do these three apply to John Proctor?
45. What is courtly love? What governs it? Even though it was composed several hundred years before the
Troubadours, is there any hint of courtly love in Beowulf?
46. What does the Grail represent?
VIII: Masks of Eternity
47. What is the “nondual transcendent”? Where is it found?
48. How can mythology (but not religion) be “rendered with humor”?
49. According to Campbell, how do you live up to that potentiality of life?