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In Quest of the Hero makes available for a new generation of readers two key works on hero myths: Otto Rank's Myth of the Birth of the Hero and the central section of Lord Raglan's The Hero. Amplifying these is Alan Dundes's fascinating contemporary inquiry, "The Hero Pattern and the Life of Jesus." Examined here are the patterns found in the lore surrounding historical or legendary figures like Gilgamesh, Moses, David, Oedipus, Odysseus, Perseus, Heracles, Aeneas, Romulus, Siegfried, Lohengrin, Arthur, and Buddha. Rank's monograph remains the classic application of Freudian theory to hero myths. In The Hero the noted English ethnologist Raglan singles out the myth-ritualist pattern in James Frazer's many-sided Golden Bough and applies that pattern to hero myths. Dundes, the eminent folklorist at the University of California at Berkeley, applies the theories of Rank, Raglan, and others to the case of Jesus. In his introduction to this selection from Rank, Raglan, and Dundes, Robert Segal, author of the major study of Joseph Campbell, charts the history of theorizing about hero myths and compares the approaches of Rank, Raglan, Dundes, and Campbell.

Heroes --- Mythology. --- Jesus Christ --- Mythological interpretations. --- Aarne–Thompson classification systems. --- Afrasiab. --- Alan Dundes. --- Alcmene. --- Amulius. --- Archetype. --- Areoi. --- Astyages. --- Attis. --- Biography. --- Books of Kings. --- Carl Jung. --- Castor and Pollux. --- Castration. --- Combatant. --- Consciousness. --- Consummation. --- Counter-Reformation. --- Creation myth. --- Cuckold. --- Culture hero. --- Dhritarashtra. --- Dirce. --- Etymology. --- Euhemerism. --- Eunuch. --- Eurystheus. --- Fairy tale. --- Flood myth. --- Gottfried von Strassburg. --- Grandparent. --- Great King. --- Greek mythology. --- Gwydion. --- Herder. --- Hero Tales. --- Herodotus. --- Historical Jesus. --- Historical figure. --- Historicity of Jesus. --- Historicity. --- Important People. --- Incest. --- John Badby. --- Justin Martyr. --- Laius. --- Legend. --- Legendary creature. --- Longus. --- Mendicant. --- Menelaus. --- Morganatic marriage. --- Mr. --- Myth and ritual. --- Myth. --- Mythological Cycle. --- Narrative. --- Neurosis. --- Nimrod. --- Numitor. --- Oedipus complex. --- Oedipus. --- Ogier the Dane. --- Otto Rank. --- Our Hero. --- Parricide. --- Pelias. --- Persecution. --- Poetry. --- Priam. --- Proetus. --- Pseudohistory. --- Quibble (plot device). --- Religion. --- Rite. --- Romanticism. --- Romulus and Remus. --- Self-interest. --- Telephus. --- Teuthras. --- The Hero with a Thousand Faces. --- The Interpretation of Dreams. --- The Other Hand. --- The Persecutor. --- The Persians. --- The Power of Myth. --- The Various. --- Theocritus. --- Theory. --- Thomas Kuhn. --- Triptolemus. --- Trojan War. --- Unless. --- Uther Pendragon. --- V. --- Vladimir Propp. --- Warfare. --- Zahhak. --- Zoroaster.