THE STUDY OF MYTHS IN HISTORY 

The 18th century was the century of the Enlightenment. In this time, entire disciplines and areas of study developed, and rewrote history for the successive centuries: archeology, philology, ethnography, anthropology, and the study of myths, folklore, religions, as well as psychology and literary critical theory. Two of the most important playwrights of the 1700s, Carlo Gozzi and Friedrich Schiller, exchanged ideas through letters for a long time, realizing that only 36 possible dramatic situations exist. Almost a century later, Adolf Bastian formulated the concept of “psychichic unity of mankind”, the idea that all humans share a basic mental framework which would explain the presence of similar myths in zones and ages far from each other. This became the basis of 20th century structuralism and influenced Carl Jung’s ideas about the collective unconscious. In 1890, James Frazer published The Golden Bough which, through an anthropological perspective, remarks on the numerous and noticeable similarities that exist among various myths and religions. A little bit after the publication of Frazer’s book, the great revolution of psychology and psychoanalysis takes place, which will lay the cornerstones for connecting mythology to human beings’ internal landscape. In those years, Sigmund Freud formulates his theories about hysteria, dreams, and myths, elaborating the fundamental distinction between conscious and unconscious. Freud relegates myths to the same psychological realm as dreams, considering them manifestations of the unconscious, whereas Carl Gustav Jung will develop a different perspective. In 1919, with his theory of archetypes, Jung will bring a positive vision on the imaginarium of myths and religions to the level of collective psychology, which works on an equal structure for all human beings. Joseph Campbell, a scholar of comparative mythology and religions, kept a long correspondence with Jung and spent a memorable afternoon with him at his retreat in Bollingen on Lake Zurich. Campbell later used Jung’s  theoretical foundations, as well as other strains of thought, to re-examine the entire history of humankind through the lenses of myth. Campbell thought that mythological motifs are always the same, even if they develop autonomously within the various different civilizations, enter in conflict with those of other civilizations, amalgamate themselves, and later differentiate themselves again. Campbell derived the term “monomyth” from the 1938 novel by James Joyce Finneagas’ Wake, to describe a narrative structure that myths and legends featuring heroes from all over the world follow. The structure was conceptualized by Campbell as having three basic parts: a first condition in which the hero is introduced; an adventure in which the hero goes into a region they do not know, encounters extraordinary forces, and gains a certain reward; and finally a second condition reached by the hero at the end of their journey, a condition in which they have more maturity, power, or riches, and often can improve their world. 
Campbell not only studied stories from Classical (Greek and Roman) mythology, but also the cycles of chivalric romances written in the European Middle Ages. He additionally focused on the Anglo-Saxons legends about the quest for the Holy Grail, which from a Celtic cauldron becomes a Christian cup and symbolizes the quintessential Quest itself as a concept. Yet, Campbell was also attracted to the religious, philosophical, and mythological traditions of India, analyzing deities and concepts from Hinduism’s various branches. Indeed, the philosophies of Hinduism deeply influenced his thinking about both psychology and mythology. Moreover, he discussed the two great epics of Hinduism, Ramayana and Mahabharata, along with the mythological and legendary corpus around the Buddha, in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. This is the book where he formulates his thoughts about the monomyth, finding it in stories throughout the world, from African and Arabian folktales to Chinese and Japanese myths, as well as Biblical narratives and Aztec tales. Aside from his work on the monomyth, Campbell developed the theory of  “the Faust”, which he described as a modern narrative archetype based on the dualism of universal forces (light and dark, God and the Devil, etc,). Campbell, in The Power of Myth, distinguishes between two types of mythologies: a religious one, which gives a sense to Existence and the natural world, and a sociological one, which is tied to the society it belongs to and often contrasts with the first. Concerning the monomyth, Campbell identified 17 steps in what he also called the hero’s journey or adventure which we can summarize in the following way: 
 

1. Abandonment of the first condition on part of the hero 

2. The real journey, in which the hero searches for motivations, abilities, and knowledge adequate to conducting a different life. 

3. Achievement of a second condition, characterized by greater inner riches and maturity. 

 
Then, in 1992, the American screenwriter Christopher Vogler redefined the first condition as the “Ordinary World”, the second as the “Journey through the Special World”, and the third as “Arrival to the Final Condition and Return to the Ordinary World.” 
In Internet you can find different diagrams of the hero’s journey, but the twelve steps originally envisioned by Vogler’s model are: 
 

1. Ordinary World

2. Call to Adventure

3. Refusal of the Call

4. Meeting the Mentor

5. Crossing the First Threshold

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies

7. Approach to the Inmost Cave

8. The Ordeal

9. Reward

10. The Road Back

11. Resurrection 

12. Return with the Elixir 

in 2004, the English journalist and author Christopher Booker, in his book The Seven Basic Plots, analyzed the various ways in which the hero’s journey can be realized in different types of stories. He theorized that there are seven ways in which the hero’s journey can originate storylines: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth.