Rank-Raglan mythotype

The four heroes from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West

The Rank-Raglan mythotype (sometimes called the hero archetypes) are narrative patterns proposed by Otto Rank and later on Lord Raglan that lists different cross-cultural traits often found in the accounts of heroes, including mythical heroes.[1][2]

The concept of the "Mythic Hero" as an archetype was first developed by Lord Raglan in his 1936 book, The Hero, A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama. It is a set of 22 common traits that he said were shared by many heroes in various cultures, myths and religions throughout history and around the world. Raglan argued that the higher the score, the more likely the figure's biography is mythical.[3] Raglan did not categorically deny the historicity of the Heroes he looked at, rather it was their common biographies he considered as nonhistorical.[2]

The "Hero's Journey" (or monomyth) is a common story structure explored by anthropologists and mythologists. The concept of a standard narrative archetype of a monomythical "hero's quest" that was reputed to be pervasive across all cultures is controversial. Expounded by Rank as a psychoanalytic approach to myth[4] and later popularised by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it illustrates several uniting themes of hero stories that hold similar ideas of what a hero represents, despite vastly different cultures and beliefs. The monomyth or Hero's Journey consists of three separate stages including the Departure, Initiation, and Return. Within these stages there are several archetypes that the hero or heroine may follow including the call to adventure (which they may initially refuse), supernatural aid, proceeding down a road of trials, achieving a realization about themselves (or an apotheosis), and attaining the freedom to live through their quest or journey. Campbell offered examples of stories with similar themes such as Krishna, Buddha, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus.[5] One of the themes he explores is the androgynous hero, who combines male and female traits, like Bodhisattva: "The first wonder to be noted here is the androgynous character of the Bodhisattva: masculine Avalokiteshvara, feminine Kwan Yin."[5] In his 1968 book, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology, Campbell writes "It is clear that, whether accurate or not as to biographical detail, the moving legend of the Crucified and Risen Christ was fit to bring a new warmth, immediacy, and humanity, to the old motifs of the beloved Tammuz, Adonis, and Osiris cycles."[6]

History

Otto Rank, in 1909, developed a Hero pattern on that was very much based on Oedipus's legend, followed Freudian thought in that the pattern lingered on the Hero's relations with the parents and was limited to the first half of the life of the Hero:[2]

  1. Child of distinguished parents
  2. Father is a king
  3. Difficulty in conception
  4. Prophecy warning against birth
  5. Hero surrendered to the water in a box
  6. Saved by animals or lowly people
  7. Suckled by female animal or humble woman
  8. Hero grows up
  9. Hero finds distinguished parents
  10. Hero takes revenge on the father
  11. Acknowledged by people
  12. Achieves rank and honors

Lord Raglan, in 1936, developed a 22-point myth-ritualist Hero archetype to account for common patterns across Indo-European cultures for Hero traditions, following myth-ritualists like James Frazer and S.H. Hooke:[2]

  1. Mother is a royal virgin
  2. Father is a king
  3. Father often a near relative to mother
  4. Unusual conception
  5. Hero reputed to be son of god
  6. Attempt to kill hero as an infant, often by father or maternal grandfather
  7. Hero spirited away as a child
  8. Reared by foster parents in a far country
  9. No details of childhood
  10. Returns or goes to future kingdom
  11. Is victor over king, giant, dragon or wild beast
  12. Marries a princess (often daughter of predecessor)
  13. Becomes king
  14. For a time he reigns uneventfully
  15. He prescribes laws
  16. Later loses favor with gods or his subjects
  17. Driven from throne and city
  18. Meets with mysterious death
  19. Often at the top of a hill
  20. His children, if any, do not succeed him
  21. His body is not buried
  22. Has one or more holy sepulchers or tombs

When Raglan's 22 point outline is used, a Hero's tradition is considered more mythical the more of these traits they hold (a point is added per trait). Raglan himself scored the following Heroes: Oedipus (21 or 22 points), Theseus (20 points), Romulus (18 points), Heracles (17 points), Perseus (18 points), Jason (15 points), Bellerophon (16 points), Pelops (13 points), Dionysos (19 points), Apollo (11 points), Zeus (15 points), Joseph (12 points), Moses (20 points), Elijah (9 points), Watu Gunung (18 points), Nyikang (14 points), Sigurd (11 points), Llew Llawgyffes (17 points), King Arthur (19 points), Robin Hood (13 points), Alexander the Great (7 points).[2]

Interpretation and Criticism

Folklorist Alan Dundes has noted that Raglan did not categorically deny the historicity of the Heroes he looked at, rather it was their common biographies he considered as nonhistorical. Furthermore, Dundes noted that Raglan himself had admitted that his choice of 22 incidents, as opposed to any other number of incidents, was arbitrarily chosen.[2]

Folklorist Francis Utley demonstrated serious flaws in using Raglan's list for determining mythical or historical nature of any person or account by applying them on definite historical people such as Abraham Lincoln. He observed that Abraham Lincoln fit all of Lord Raglan's 22 points and that using Raglan's ideas would lead one to conclude that Lincoln was a mythical figure.[7] Another recent historical figure that fit the Hero pattern quite well was John F. Kennedy. Furthermore, William Wallace from the medieval period did as well.[8]

Classicist Thomas J. Sienkewicz did other rankings of numerous Heroes and among those that scored quite high, thus being more mythical, were actual historical persons like Tsar Nicholas II (14), Mithridates VI of Pontus (22), Muhammad (17), Jesus (18), and Buddha (15). Fictional characters such as Harry Potter (8) scored lower, thus being more historical.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Lord Raglan. The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama by Lord Raglan, Dover Publications, 1936
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Segal, Robert; Dundes, Alan; Raglan, Lord; Rank, Otto (1990). In Quest of the Hero. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691020620.
  3. ↑ Lord Raglan. The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama by Lord Raglan, Dover Publications, 1936
  4. ↑ Green, Thomas A. (1997). Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music, and Art. ABC-CLIO. p. 165. ISBN 978-0-87436-986-1.
  5. 1 2 Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces Princeton University Press, 2004 [1949], 140, ISBN 0-691-11924-4
  6. ↑ Joseph Campbell. 'T'he Masks of God: Occidental Mythology Penguin, reprinted, ISBN 0-14-004306-3
  7. ↑ Francis Lee Utley, “Lincoln Wasn't There, or Lord Raglan's Hero,” CEA Chap Book (Washington, DC: College English Association, 1965;, supplement to The CEA Critic 22, June 1965)
  8. ↑ Eddy, Paul Rhodes; Boyd, Gregory A. (2007). The Jesus Legend : A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. pp. 54–55. ISBN 0801031141.
  9. ↑ Sienkewicz, Thomas. "Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern". Department of Classics.

External links

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