Star Wars and The Hero Pattern
The Hero Packet
Table of Contents
Some Definitions of "Hero"
Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern
The Hero Pattern applied to Women
in Myth, History, and Literature
The Hero Quest
Stages in the Heroic Quest
Variations on the Theme of the
Heroic Quest
Other Hero Patterns
Young boy portrayed as Hercules choking the snakes
Marble cm 64 inv. MC0247
Second half of 2nd century AD Albani Collection
Hero Patterns
Johann Georg von Hahn
Johann Georg von Hahn (18111869). Arische Aussetzungs-undRuckkehr-Formel (Aryan Expulsion
and Return Formula) 1876
studied fourteen biographies
Johann Georg von Hahn’s
Hero Pattern
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(based on biographies of 14 heroes--mostly Western--including Oedipus)
1. The hero is of illegitimate birth
2. His mother is the princess of the country
3. His father is a god or a foreigner
4. There are signs warning of his ascendance
5. For this reason he is abandoned
6. He is suckled by animals
7. He is brought up by a childless shepherd couple
8. He is a high-spirited youth
9. He seeks service in a foreign country
10. He returns victorious and goes back to the foreign land
11. He slays his original persecutors, accedes to rule the country, and sets his
mother free
12. He founds cities
13. The manner of his death is extraordinary
14. He is reviled because of incest and he dies young
15. He dies by an act of revenge at the hands of an insulted servant
16. He murders his younger brother
Otto Rank
Otto Rank (1884-1939). The Myth of
the Birth of the Hero 1909
student of Sigmund Freud
studied fifteen biographies
Otto Rank’s Hero Pattern
The most important elements in the
Myth of the Birth of the Hero are:
• the hero's descent from noble,
powerful parents
• his exposure in a river, in a box
• his being raised by lowly prents
• his return to his first parents
• punishment of the first parents
• acknowledgement of the hero by
the father
• the hero's being honored.
"The standard saga"
Rank uses the term "saga" to mean the
story of the hero.
Hero-Myth Format:
•Hero is child of distinguished parents.
•Parents have previous difficulties.
•Prophecy threatens father.
•Baby is put into water in box.
•Baby is saved by animals or peasants.
•Baby is nursed by lowly woman.
•Hero finds parents.
•Hero takes revenge on father.
•Father acknowledges hero.
•Hero is honored.
Jan de Vries
Jan de Vries (1890-1964). Heroic Song and
Heroic Legend 1963
a Dutch scholar of Germanic linguistics and
Germanic mythology
Jan De Vries Hero Pattern
(based on comparison of traditional folk tales, mostly European)
• 1. The hero is begotten
• 2. He is born
• 3. His youth is threatened
• 4. He is brought up
• 5. He often acquires invulnerability
• 6. He fights with the dragon or other monster
• 7. He wins a maiden, usually after overcoming great dangers
• 8. He makes an expedition to the underworld
• 9. He returns to the land from which he was once banished and
conquers his enemies
• 10. He dies
Lord Raglan’s Hero Pattern
The Hero. A Study in the
Tradition, Myth and Dreams
1936
Major General Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, Lord
Raglan (1885-1964), commander of the combined
expedition to the Crimea. Portrait by Roger Fenton, ca.
1855Library of Congress
Heracles and the Hero Pattern
His mother, Alcmene, is (1) a royal virgin,
and his father is (2) King Amphitryon,
who is (3) her first cousin.
He is reputed to be (5) the son of Zeus,
who (4) visited Alcmene in the guise of
Amphitryon.
At his birth (6) Hera tries to kill him.
Heracles = Glory of Hera
Heracles = Hercules
Heracles and the Hero Pattern
On reaching adulthood he (11) performs feats
and fine victories,
after which he (10) proceeds to Calydon,
where he (12) marries the king's daughter,
and (13) becomes ruler.
He remains there (14) quietly for some years,
after which an accidental manslaughter
compels him (17) to flee from the country.
He disappears (18) from a funeral pyre (19)
on the top of Mt. Oeta.
His sons (20) do not succeed him.
His body (21) is not found,
and (22) he is worshipped in temples.
17 points
Zeus and the Hero Pattern
Cronus, the Father of Zeus. [Known as Saturn to the Romans.]
Cronus, knowing that one of his children would grow greater than he,
swallowed all of them at birth. His queen, the Goddess Rhea, tricked
him, by handing him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow.
The infant Zeus she secreted. Zeus grew to manhood and, as
prophesied, made war on his father and overthrew him, casting him
down into the depths of Tartarus.
Twin Births
• Heracles and Iphicles
• Romulus and Remus
• Luke and Leia Skywalker
Romulus and Remus
Lodovico Carracci, c.1590
Fresco
Bologna
Pe
Peter Paul Reubens
1515-1516
Pinacoteca Capitolina
Rome
How Many Points Does Luke
Skywalker Fit?
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Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
His father is a king, and
Often a near relative of his mother, but
The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him,
but he is spirited away, and
Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
We are told nothing of his childhood, but
On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
And becomes king.
For a time he reigns uneventfully and
Prescribes laws,
but later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
Is driven from the throne and city, after which
He meets with a mysterious death,
Often at the top of a hill,
His children, if any do not succeed him.
His body is not buried, but nevertheless
He has one or more holy sepulchres.
Heroic Birth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKFAk7yWqi4
Anakin and the Hero Pattern
How Many Points Does Anakin Fit?
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Hero's mother is a royal virgin;
His father is a king, and
Often a near relative of his mother, but
The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him,
but he is spirited away, and
Reared by foster -parents in a far country.
We are told nothing of his childhood, but
On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
And becomes king.
For a time he reigns uneventfully and
Prescribes laws,
but later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
Is driven from the throne and city, after which
He meets with a mysterious death,
Often at the top of a hill,
His children, if any do not succeed him.
His body is not buried, but nevertheless
He has one or more holy sepulchres.