Hero
149 books featuring this archetype
The Hero undertakes ordeal to repair or renew order. Through risk and transformation, this figure mediates between the human community and larger forces.
The Iliad
Homer
750-700 BCE
Greek
The Odyssey
Homer
700-600 BCE
Greek
Epic of Gilgamesh
Sin-leqi-unninni
1200-1000 BCE
Mesopotamian, Akkadian
Mahabharata
Vyasa
200 BCE-400 CE
Indian, Hindu
Ramayana
Valmiki
300-100 BCE
Indian, Hindu
Prose Edda
Snorri Sturluson
1220 CE
Germanic, Norse
Enuma Elish
Anonymous
1100-1000 BCE
Mesopotamian, Babylonian
Metamorphoses
Ovid
1 BCE-8 CE
Roman
One Thousand and One Nights
Anonymous
1300-1800 CE
Arabic
The Aeneid
Virgil
29-19 BCE
Roman
Beowulf
Anonymous
1000-1025 CE
Germanic, Anglo-Saxon
Oedipus Rex
Sophocles
429-425 BCE
Greek
Le Morte Darthur
Thomas Malory
1469-1485 CE
Germanic, English
Journey to the West
Wu Cheng'en
1592 CE
East Asian, Chinese
Apollodorus' Library
Pseudo-Apollodorus
1-200 CE
Greek
Shahnameh
Ferdowsi
977-1010 CE
Persian
Avesta
Various
300-700 CE
Persian, Zoroastrian
The Song of Roland
Anonymous
1100-1150 CE
Germanic, Old French
The Mabinogion
Anonymous
1100-1410 CE
Celtic, Welsh
Nibelungenlied
Anonymous
1200-1210 CE
Germanic
Völsunga saga
Anonymous
1250-1270 CE
Germanic, Norse
Jātaka Tales
Anonymous
100 BCE-500 CE
Indian, Buddhist
Epic of Sundiata
Anonymous
1900-2000 CE
African, Mandinka
Táin Bó Cúailnge
Anonymous
1100-1200 CE
Celtic, Irish