Quest - The Hero's Journey Trivia Game | Mixed Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. To be a true Quest, the Hero's journey always follows several discrete stages, collectively known as the "Monomyth". The term was first popularised by Joseph Campbell in his seminal work on the subject; what is the title of this 1949 book?

Answer: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

As evidenced by stories such as the "Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" series in modern times, and epic myths such as the story of "Gilgamesh" from ancient times, the Quest tale follows the same pattern each time. Campbell's writings detailed seventeen stages of a quest, but authors such as Phil Cousineau and David Adams have proposed eight stages - essentially the same, but with less differentiation of various smaller details.
The actual word 'monomyth' was taken by Campbell from James Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake".

2. Joseph Campbell's categorisation of the Hero's Journey quest myth has seventeen stages, divided into three main categories. Which of these is NOT one of those main categories?

Answer: Resistance (or Defiance)

The first stage is Departure or Separation, in which the Hero becomes aware of a great treasure or reward that could be his if he undertakes the quest successfully. The taking up of the quest may be voluntary or under coercion, but refusal to take up the quest always has disastrous consequences.
The Initiation stage of the quest is the trials and tribulations our Hero encounters on his journey. They often occur in threes; three witches, three paths, three options to choose from, and this stage ends with the achievement of the Hero's goal - he finds the treasure, slays the monster, saves the princess, and triumphs over the obstacles in his path.
The Return is self explanatory, once the object of the quest is achieved, the Hero must return with it to his mundane everyday world.

3. One stage of the monomythical Hero's journey involves him receiving assistance from a supernatural source, often an amulet, talisman or extraordinary weapon. In the Greek tale of Theseus and the Minotaur, who gave Theseus the ball of magic string to guide him safely through the Labyrinth?

Answer: Ariadne

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos, and the story goes that she fell in love with Theseus, and so helped him navigate the Labyrinth and kill the Minotaur. Theseus took her with him when he sailed away from Crete, and according to Homer, in his "Odyssey", Ariadne was later killed by the Goddess Artemis, on the wishes of Dionysus.

4. One of the seventeen stages of the monomythical Hero's journey (as described by Joseph Campbell) is the 'Apotheosis'. In terms of the Hero and traditional Quest myth, what is apotheosis?

Answer: The expansion of the Hero's consciousness after the defeat of the foe

The dictionary definition of the word apotheosis is "the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god".
In terms of the monomythical Quest, Campbell defined the apotheosis stage as "the expansion of consciousness after the hero has defeated his foe". It is seen as a peaceful interlude in the story; the Hero has achieved his goal, be it finding the object of his quest, or defeating an enemy, and can rest for a while before entering the next stage "The Return".
Joseph Campbell outlined the seventeen stages of the Quest in his 1949 book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces".

5. When Joseph Campbell set out his theory of the Hero's Journey and monomyth, he drew on the works of several early twentieth century scholars including Jung and Freud. One work he referenced heavily was "The Rites of Passage"; which respected ethnographer and folklorist wrote it?

Answer: Arnold van Gennep

Arnold van Gennep held the Chair of Ethnography at a Swiss university in the early years of the twentieth century, but was forced to leave for political reasons during World War I. His seminal work "The Rites of Passage" (1909) is divided into three main sections; it was these sections that were appropriated by Joseph Campbell and feature in his "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949) as the sections Departure, Separation, and Return.

6. A quest needs a focus, a prize to be quested for, the treasure. Authors sometimes use this prize as a focus to drive the plot forward without the actual object being important, or even without telling the reader what the object actually is. Alfred Hitchcock was among the first people to coin one particular term for such an object; what term?

Answer: MacGuffin

A MacGuffin is used purely to give the Hero a reason for being on his Quest, when the actual journey, personal growth, and interactions of the Hero with his environment and other characters are the focus of the story. The object of his Quest doesn't actually matter as much as how he gets to it, and what happens along the way.
The literary opposite of a MacGuffin is known as "Chekov's Gun". An object or person appears in the narrative, in a seemingly insignificant way, but later on turns out to be vital to the plot.
Then of course there is a red herring - an item or person who appears in the story but is only there to deflect the protagonist from the truth, or send them off in the wrong direction.

7. Perhaps one of the best loved Quest stories of modern times is the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. For his works set in Middle Earth, Tolkien invented a whole mythology of his own, and brought it to life. What term did he coin to describe this invented mythology, and use for the title of a poem he wrote in defence of this "creative myth making"?

Answer: Mythopoeia

Tolkien wrote "Mythopoeia" in 1931, as a riposte to his friend C.S. Lewis who was against the 'wholesale invention' of myths, as opposed to their natural formation over the years via generations of story tellers.
The first line is "To one who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though 'breathed through silver'".

8. The only known Hellenistic epic story to have survived to the present day is a classic Quest myth, which was written in the third century BC by Apollonius Rhodus. Which story is it? (I have used the more common English titles in my options.)

Answer: Jason and the Argonauts

The "Argonautika" used sources even older than itself which are now lost to us. It is written in four volumes, and can be read online at Project Gutenberg.
The story of Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the golden fleece has been retold many times over the years, and is known to have been told as far back as the eighth century BC, during the lifetime of Homer.

9. In later life, when questioned about the predominance of male Heroes in his major work on Quest mythology and monomyth, Joseph Campbell said "All of the great mythologies and much of the mythic story-telling of the world are from the male point of view. When I was writing [...] and wanted to bring female heroes in, I had to go to the ________" Where did he have to go?

Answer: Fairy tales

He completed his answer by saying "These were told by women to children, you know, and you get a different perspective. It was the men who got involved in spinning most of the great myths. The women were too busy; they had too damn much to do to sit around thinking about stories."
It was in the stories passed on to their infants by women that female Heroines came into their own; so many myths and legends had a beautiful princess in need of rescue, but it was the children's tales in which the princess, or milkmaid, could be the one doing the rescuing.

10. Which 1972 book, the Penguin Books publishing company's best selling novel of the twentieth century, uses quotations from Joseph Campbell's seminal 1949 work on the Hero's Journey and monomyth as the epigrams for each chapter?

Answer: Watership Down

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams won the Carnegie Medal in 1972, and has been made into an animated film, a television series, a role playing game, and a stage play. Watership Down is a real place, in Hampshire, England. It has sold more copies than any other book published by Penguin, although of course that could change in the future.

Source: Author Rowena8482

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LadyCaitriona before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Quest - The Hero's Journey Trivia Quiz

As long as there have been people, there has been mythology and storytelling. Throughout history, one theme has arisen over and over: the Hero and his Quest. Let's take a brief look at this fascinating literary theme...

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