Over and over again one hears a tale describing a hero's miraculous but humble birth, his early proof of superhuman strength, his rapid rise to prominence or power, his triumphant struggle with the forces of evil, his fallibility to the sin of pride (hybris), and his fall through betrayal or a "heroic" sacrifice that ends in his death.
I shall later explain in more detail why I believe that this pattern has psychological meaning both for the individual, who is endeavoring to discover and assert his personality, and for a whole society, which has an equal need to establish its collective identity. But another important characteristic of the hero myth provides a clue. In many of these stories the early weakness of the hero is balanced by the appearance of strong "tutelary" figures—or guardians—who enable him to perform the superhuman tasks that he cannot accomplish unaided. Among the Greek heroes, Theseus had Poseidon, god of the sea, as his deity; Perseus had Athena; Achilles had Cheiron, the wise centaur, as his tutor.
These godlike figures are in fact symbolic representatives of the whole psyche, the larger and more comprehensive identity that supplies the strength that the personal ego lacks. Their special role suggests that the essential function of the heroic myth is the development of the individual's ego-consciousness—his awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses—in a manner that will equip him for the arduous tasks with which life confronts him. Once the individual has passed his initial test and can enter the mature phase of life, the hero myth loses its relevance. The hero's symbolic death becomes, as it were, the achievement of that maturity.
I have so far been referring to the complete hero myth, in which the whole cycle from birth to death is elaborately described. But it is essential to recognize that at each of the stages in this cycle there are special forms of the hero story that apply to the particular point reached by the individual in the development of his ego-consciousness, and to the specific problem confronting him at a given moment. That is to say, the image of the hero evolves in a manner that reflects each stage of the evolution of the human personality.