The hero’s journey, or monomyth, is a plot structure popularized by writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell. It describes a traditional plot structure that features a hero, usually endowed with some special power, and tracks this hero’s journey through trials to achieve a particular quest or objective. Along the way, the hero matures psychologically and spiritually. The monomyth is often applied to classic texts such as the Odyssey or Beowulf, but its structures have also influenced popular culture in stories like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Over time, the hero’s journey has been modified and adapted by other scholars; not all works follow the structure exactly, and it is used instead as a broader classification for texts that depict a hero’s journey through a secondary world—either literal or psychological—and their growth in the face of trials both physical and mental.

Traditionally, the hero’s journey contains 12 to 17 steps, which can be grouped into three broader categories: Departure, in which the hero is called to adventure and must leave behind his ordinary world to advance onward to his quest in the secondary world; Initiation, wherein the hero is tested, gains allies, meets enemies, and develops skills or powers; and Return, when the hero confronts the ultimate ordeal and achieves the object of their quest, emerging psychologically matured and with new, auspicious knowledge.