In 1949, Joseph Campbell published what many consider to be his magnum opus, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. I just finished the book the other day, after reading it off-and-on for two years. Through the course of the book, he analyzes and codifies aspects of the ‘myth of the hero’ from perspectives of cultures around the world. However, in the epilogue he makes clear the larger purpose of the investigation, which is to place in context the similarities among our myths and outline the dilemma of the modern man. What struck me most about his words in the epilogue was their relevance to the current day, even fifty years after their publication. I’d like to quote him a few times below.