Homer and the Epic Tradition: Archetypes of the Hero's Journey

Two Epics, Two Types of Hero

The "Iliad" and the "Odyssey"—if they existed in a form close to the present one around the 8th century BCE—are two of the greatest texts of Western literature. They are not merely stories about war and travel: they established archetypes that are repeated in literature, cinema, and organizational narratives to this day.

Achilles ("Iliad") is the warrior-hero, driven by the desire for glory (kleos). His choice: a long obscure life or a short but renowned death. He chose the latter. His tragedy is his anger, for which he sacrifices a friend (Patroclus dies because Achilles leaves the battlefield out of wounded pride). Achilles is an example of a character tragically inflexible.

Odysseus ("Odyssey") is another type: a hero of cunning, adaptability, and narrative. For ten years he returns home after the Trojan War. He encounters the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, Circe—and each time saves himself by wit, not by force. Odysseus is the first "hero of knowledge" in Western literature: he wins by telling stories and solving problems.

Campbell's Heroic Journey

Joseph Campbell ("The Hero with a Thousand Faces", 1949) discovered that hero stories in all cultures follow a single structure—the "monomyth": (1) the ordinary world; (2) the call to adventure; (3) refusal of the call; (4) meeting with the mentor; (5) crossing the threshold; (6) trials, allies, enemies; (7) the supreme ordeal; (8) reward; (9) the road back; (10) resurrection; (11) return with the elixir.

From "Gilgamesh" to "Star Wars" (Lucas directly used Campbell in creating the screenplay), from the "Odyssey" to "Harry Potter"—the structure is reproduced. Why? Campbell believed: the monomyth is a mirror of the psychological transformations that each person undergoes. The trial, crisis, inner death, and rebirth—this is not just about heroes, but about any experience of maturing or overcoming.

Dante's "Inferno": A Journey into the Depths

Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" (1308–1320) is the pinnacle of medieval literature. "Inferno" begins with the famous stanza: "Midway on our life's journey, I found myself within a dark wood." Dante at 35—midlife by medieval standards—loses the way. Virgil (reason, pagan wisdom) leads him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice (theological love)—through Paradise.

Dante created the first systematic psychological map of vice: Hell is arranged in order of escalating gravity of guilt—from lust and gluttony (mild sins) through violence to treachery (the worst sin). At the very center is Lucifer, devouring traitors: Brutus, Cassius, and Judas. Treachery, for Dante, is worse than murder, because it destroys the very principle of trust on which social life is built.

Dante's "Comedy" is also a political pamphlet: Dante places his Florentine political enemies and popes—whom he considered corrupt—in Hell. Literature as judgment over contemporaries.

Shakespeare: Man in a Situation of Ultimate Choice

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) is the most frequently quoted author in all languages. His 37 plays explore one question with endless variations: how does a person act when circumstances demand a choice that exceeds his capacity?

Hamlet is paralyzed between action and reflection. Macbeth is destroyed by ambition and complicity. Lear loses everything through pride and self-delusion. Othello—through credulity exploited by Iago. Portia ("The Merchant of Venice") and Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing") are sharp, autonomous female characters in a world of male rules.

Shakespeare does not moralize. He depicts complexity without solutions. That is precisely why each new generation finds its own meaning: Soviet directors read Hamlet as a revolutionary; postcolonial critics interpret "The Tempest" as an allegory of colonialism (Caliban as the enslaved native); feminists reinvent the female characters.

Question for reflection: Odysseus prevailed by cunning; Achilles—by strength and passion. Which type of "heroism" is closer to your professional strategy? Are there traits of the other that you lack?