 | The Heroine with 1,001 Faces is a feminist counterpoint to the warrior-hero myth of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell says “stories about heroes tap into a deep well of human creativity driven by the need to face down our fears about mortality.” But these heroes often defy social order. Says the author: "Myths have been said to enact repressed wishes and have a profoundly antisocial dimension; hence the deep paradox of enshrining as cultural heroes men who are the living embodiment of social pathologies." In contrast, the author says: “Heroines on quest and the goals they set include knowledge, justice, and social connection.” |
Heroines create a weblike ethic “of care, focused on connection, relationship, and conflicting responsibilities” underpins a heroine’s mythic journey.
A favorite quote:
"Never mind that the ambitious Greeks, with their aspirations for building an empire, looted Troy, all the while claiming they were going to war to assuage their honor. "
Proving that political propaganda has existed at least since the eighth century BCE.
"Never mind that the ambitious Greeks, with their aspirations for building an empire, looted Troy, all the while claiming they were going to war to assuage their honor. "
Proving that political propaganda has existed at least since the eighth century BCE.
 | Textile creation was often women’s work in Western societies, and it was in these spaces, the author suggests, that women crafted stories: "We weave plots, spin stories, fabricate tales, or tell yarns—a reminder of how the work of our hands produced social spaces that promoted the exchange of stories, first perhaps in the form of chitchat, gossip, and news, then in the shape of narratives and other dense golden nuggets of entertaining wisdom passed down from one generation to the next." |
Women storytellers were sidelined as gossips, but the author notes that the original meaning of the word was “god-related” and was later a term to designate a godparent. The author says:
"What is gossip’s greatest sin? One possibility is that gossip knits women together to create networks of social interactions beyond patriarchal control and oversight."
"What is gossip’s greatest sin? One possibility is that gossip knits women together to create networks of social interactions beyond patriarchal control and oversight."
 | I was excited to learn that most of the ancient cave artists “who painted the aurochs, horses, deer, and wooly mammals on the walls of caves in France, Argentina, Africa, and Borneo” were women. Women have been telling stories for tens of thousands of years . . . |
The author highlights fairy tales featuring heroines defying domestic violence, many of which have been forgotten:
"The loss of these stories is of real consequence, for Bluebeard’s wife, Catskin, the Maiden without Hands, Thousandfurs, and a host of other heroines with names that we would not recognize today, model heroic behavior, demonstrating how victims of dreadful family circumstances can find ways not just to survive but to prevail, even after enduring the unimaginable."
"The loss of these stories is of real consequence, for Bluebeard’s wife, Catskin, the Maiden without Hands, Thousandfurs, and a host of other heroines with names that we would not recognize today, model heroic behavior, demonstrating how victims of dreadful family circumstances can find ways not just to survive but to prevail, even after enduring the unimaginable."
She celebrates other successful heroines, among them:
- Blanche White, a witty Black housekeeper who hides in plain sight solving mysteries.
- Katniss Everdeen, who outwits the other Tributes, the Gamemakers, and the Capitol.
- Miss Marple, a “feisty, self-sufficient, free-spirited” super sleuth.
- Moana follows her heart, leading to “healing, beauty, and ecological balance.”
- Pippi Longstocking, who repeatedly outfoxes adults to maintain her autonomy.
- Scheherazade used storytelling to “speak truth to power” and transform her world.
- Wonder Woman, who combines strength and power with tenderness and generosity.
 | She also addresses the traditional double standard of sexuality in Western culture: "Philandering men are legion in myth as in fiction, but they are rarely described as figures of ill repute—instead they are legendary libertines, mischievous rogues, conniving cads, insolent scoundrels, and endearing rascals. They are seldom denounced as cravenly seductive and duplicitous—these attributes are reserved for mythical and biblical women like Pandora and Eve. That curiosity stems from care and concern is a fact rarely acknowledged in the moral calculus of our foundational stories about women." In fact, the author says these inquisitive women display compassion and a deep investment to restore fairness to the world. |
Although full of interesting insights, like many feminist critiques, this book suffers from its exclusive focus on stories originating within Western patriarchy. We are not treated to tales from indigenous communities, which tend to be cyclical and nonlinear, with flexible timelines and a holistic focus. Similarly, the retellings of Greek myths she quotes are firmly embedded in “established” narratives, rather than researching alternative storylines.
The author notes:
"The Odyssey emerged from a Greek oral storytelling culture and was composed in the form we know it today in the eight century BCE. Once written down, orally transmitted epics lost the improvisational energy that drove their tellings and retellings."
And yet the written versions of the story are treated as canon.
It is possible to trace back a mythology predating this canon. In Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths, Charlene Spretnak reconstructs Greek myths from before they became the written stories passed down through Western culture. Other scholarly sources explore, for example, pre-Hellenic earth goddesses.
Clearly, it is possible to find variations of Greek mythology outside of patriarchal propaganda—which makes it all the more disappointing when authors limit their imaginations to the written version without deeper exploration.
Despite that weakness, I enjoyed The Heroine with 1,001 Faces and recommend it to anyone searching for a more nuanced vision of the heroic journey.
The author notes:
"The Odyssey emerged from a Greek oral storytelling culture and was composed in the form we know it today in the eight century BCE. Once written down, orally transmitted epics lost the improvisational energy that drove their tellings and retellings."
And yet the written versions of the story are treated as canon.
It is possible to trace back a mythology predating this canon. In Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths, Charlene Spretnak reconstructs Greek myths from before they became the written stories passed down through Western culture. Other scholarly sources explore, for example, pre-Hellenic earth goddesses.
Clearly, it is possible to find variations of Greek mythology outside of patriarchal propaganda—which makes it all the more disappointing when authors limit their imaginations to the written version without deeper exploration.
Despite that weakness, I enjoyed The Heroine with 1,001 Faces and recommend it to anyone searching for a more nuanced vision of the heroic journey.
Read other books exploring Greek and Western myth:
Shit Cassandra Saw, Pandora’s Jar, Ithaca, Kissing the Witch, Stories are Weapons
Shit Cassandra Saw, Pandora’s Jar, Ithaca, Kissing the Witch, Stories are Weapons
