The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Figure 32. Bodhisattva (temple banner, Tibet, nineteenth century a.d.). The bodhisattva known as Ushnīshasitātapatrā surrounded by buddhas and bodhisattvas, and having one hundred and seventeen heads, symbolizing her influence in the various spheres of being. The left hand holds the World Umbrella (axis mundi) and the right the Wheel of the Law (dharmacakra). Beneath the numerous blessed feet of the Bodhisattva stand the people of the world who have prayed for Enlightenment, while beneath the feet of the three “furious” powers at the bottom of the picture lie those still tortured by lust, resentment, and delusion. The sun and moon in the upper corners symbolize the miracle of the marriage, or identity, of eternity and time, nirvāṇa and the world (see above.) The lamas at the top center represent the orthodox line of Tibetan teachers of the doctrine symbolized in this religious banner-painting. Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.

Figure 33. Kwan Yin, the Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva (painted wood, China, eleventh–thirteenth century a.d.). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Figure 34. Androgynous Ancestor (carved wood, Mali, twentieth century a.d.). Wood carving from the region of Bandiagara, French Sudan [now known as Mali — Ed.]. Collection of Laura Harden, New York City. Photo by Walker Evans, courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

Figure 35. Bodhidharma (paint on silk, Japan, sixteenth century a.d.). Bodhidharma (died around a.d. 532), known as Daruma in Japanese, was the Indian founder of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, which he brought to China. He is said to have spent nine years seated in meditation in a cave, losing the use of his arms and legs. Zen became influential in Japan in the thirteenth century. From this period onward Japanese Zen monks began painting portraits of Daruma in brush and ink as an aid to reaching enlightenment (satori). © The British Museum.

Figure 36. Tea Ceremony: Abode of Vacancy (photograph by Joseph Campbell, Japan, a.d. 1958). [Geisha and attendants serving tea, Tokyo, Japan. Campbell attended this ceremony while participating in the International Congress for the History of Religions. — Ed.] © Joseph Campbell Foundation.

Figure 37. Liṅgam-yonī (carved stone, Vietnam, c. ninth century a.d.). Found at Cat Tien sanctuary, Lam Dong province, Vietnam.

Figure 38. Kālī Astride Śiva (gouache on paper, India, date uncertain). From a private collection.

Figure 39. Isis Giving Bread and Water to the Soul (Egypt, date uncertain). E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, London: Philip Lee Warner; New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911, vol. II, p. 134.

Figure 40.Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva with Their Consorts (painted miniature, India, early nineteenth century a.d.). The Hindu triad of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva with their consorts Sarasvatī, Lakṣmī, and Parvatī. Company School, southern India (Madras presidency, early nineteenth century a.d., but pre–1828). Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Great Britain. © Art Resource, NY.

Figure 41. The Conquest of the Monster: David and Goliath • The Harrowing of Hell • Samson and the Lion (engraving, Germany, a.d. 1471). A page from the fifteenth-century Biblia Pauperum, German edition, 1471, showing Old Testament prefigurements of the history of Jesus. Compare Figure 50. Edition of the Weimar Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen, 1906.

Figure 42. The Branch of Immortal Life (alabaster wall panel, Assyria, c. 885–860 b.c.). Wall panel from the Palace of Ashur-nasirapal II, King of Assyria, at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Figure 43. Bodhisattva(carved stone, Cambodia, twelfth century a.d.). Fragment from the ruins of Angkor. The Buddha figure crowning the head is a characteristic sign of the Bodhi-sattva (compare Figures 32 and 33; in the former the Buddha figure sits atop the pyramid of heads). Musée Guimet, Paris. Photo from Angkor, éditions “Tel,” Paris, 1935.

Figure 44. The Return of the Prodigal (oil on canvas, Holland, a.d. 1662). Rembrandt van Rijn (a.d. 1606–1669). The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. The Yorck Project:10.000Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002.

Figure 45a. Gorgon-Sister Pursuing Perseus, Who Is Fleeing with the Head of Medusa (red-figure amphora, Greece, fifth century b.c.). Perseus, armed with a scimitar bestowed on him by Hermes, approached the three Gorgons while they slept, cut off the head of Medusa, put it in his wallet, and fled on the wings of his magic sandals. In the literary versions, the hero departs undiscovered, thanks to a cap of invisibility; here, however, we see one of the two surviving Gorgon-Sisters in pursuit. From the collection of the Munich Antiquarium. Adolf Furtwängler, Friedrich Hauser, and Karl Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, Munich, F. Bruckmann, 1904–1932, Plate 134.