Picture of Hercules (mythic hero score=17) from Thomas
Keightley's 1852
Mythology.
What makes a mythic hero? Otto Rank established a list of 6 criteria that was elaborated a couple of decades later by Lord Raglan, in
The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Dreams. Raglan posited 22 steps or incidents that regularly occur in the stories of mythic heroes from various cultures. Few -- if any -- heroes fulfill them all. The first step makes the mother a virgin; the next makes the father a king, possibly related to the mother (step 3), leading to an unusual conception (step 4). The hero goes off to escape assassination and then returns to claim what is his. This should sound familiar, since it is a pattern found in various hero myths, including the story of
Romulus (score=19/22).
In Professor Thomas J. Sienkewicz's page, Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern, Harry Potter's score was only 8, but that's out of 11, because he hadn't grown up to finish the second half of the list when the web page was created.
Thanks to Adrienne Mayor, author of a book on the almost perfect-scoring Poison King (aka Mithradates), for pointing out this page.
Also see Female Candidates for the Hero Pattern. How would you rank the unranked ancient women, Antigone and Helen of Troy?
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