Myth Theorized - Robert A. Segal
Must Mythic Heroes Be Male?
Myth Theorized - Robert A. Segal
Robert A. Segal [+]
University of Aberdeen
Description
In chapter twelve I ask whether heroes of myth must be male. I go through each of the main theories of hero myths. Certainly the theories that deem heroes kings--for example, Frazer’s--are obliged to make heroes male. Frazer’s four chief gods of vegetation are male, though he does note the generic Mother Goddess of vegetation. But so, seemingly, does Campbell, whose heroes can come from any class. Whether he is in fact committed to male heroes, especially when his first example is of the Princess and the Frog, is debatable. On the one hand he gives many examples of female heroes, beginning with his first example in his Hero with a Thousand Faces. On the other hand heroism in the second of his three stages in Hero seems to require a male hero, and this despite the female cases he names! In his early, Freudian Myth of the Birth of the Hero Rank’s hero, who can be an aristocrat and not necessarily a king, is always male. But once Rank breaks with Freud, the subject ceases to be the relationship between son and father and becomes that between either son or daughter and the mother. Heroes can therefore be of either gender. Raglan, who equates the hero with the king, clearly limits himself to male heroes. Some scholars have tried to explain Campbell’s heroes to include females. Others have done the same with even Raglan’s heroes.