Since its release in 1949, The Hero With a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbells' revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In these pages, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

Prologue:The monomyth -- pt. 1. The adventure of the hero -- Departure -- Initiation -- Return -- The keys -- pt. 2. The cosmogonic cycle -- Emanations -- The virgin birth -- Transformations of the hero -- Dissolutions -- Myth and society.