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What's an ancient story that's a good example for the plot structure of the monomyth, meaning most of the stations are there?

In my youth I read the popular classical Greek myths as well as a few German (Grimms fairytales, Nibelungenlied) and Norse sagas, and quite a few variations of the king Arthur stories. Either I forgot that some of them followed the monomyth plot structure, or none do, or I'm really bad at spotting plot structures. Supposedly the monomyth is everywhere, but the oldest example that comes to my mind is The Hobbit.

I've looked at wikipedia and these two TV Tropes pages, but the only examples mentioned where the bible (Jesus and Moses) and the life of Buddha. I'm interested in examples that are not (yawnsome) religious scripture.

So what is a good, pre-modern example of the monomyth in action? Which story follows the plot structure most closely?

Girsan Virlee
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mart
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3 Answers3

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It's interesting that over 3 years, no-one thought of Gilgamesh's search for immortality.

After his great friend Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh goes off on a quest to find Utnapishtim, survivor of the Great Flood and the only man to have been made immortal by the gods.

Gilgamesh is so focused on this quest that he forgoes sleep... Eventually he finds Utnapishtim, who tells him of the futlity of searching for immortality. There's another episode where he searches for a plant that will grant youth, only to have it stolen by a snake after he's finally gone to sleep.

So Gilgamesh returns home to Uruk, having learned to be satisfied with the life he has. (It's good to be the king, after all...)

Spencer
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The story of Cupid and Psyche, a story within a story in "The Golden Ass" by Lucius Apuleius has several characteristics of a Hero's Journey. Or, a Heroine's Journey, if you will.

Psyche goes to all sorts of adventures, including a quest to the underworld, and faces a multitude of obstacles to win back Cupid's love.

There's a brief section on Psyche and Monomyth in wikipedia here

Community
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Narcissus
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To my understanding of monomyth conception, Iliad and Odyssey pulled together is a good example. Also myth of Argonauts, and lots of other myths and stories. For any story or myth, you can abstract it as much as you can and see if it is a "go for quest - have adventures - return with new knowledge/abilities". If it fits in the scheme – it's a monomyth. I believe, the Red Hood tale could also be considered a monomyth example as well as King Arthur stories.

Alissa
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