I was asked (by Oxy I think?) to continue a thread with regards to the steps that it takes to become a Hero.

There are new books out now concerning 'the hero'.

After watching 14 or 15 hours of Joseph Campbell's lectures including Mythos I & Mythos II, I have come to my own conclusions as to the life course that a human being must take in order to be considered a true hero.

Wiki is just as good a place as any to find a definition of the term hero:

Coined in English 1387, the word hero comes from the Greek "ἥρως" (heros), "hero, warrior",[2] literally "protector" or "defender"[3] the postulated original forms of these words being *ἥρϝως, hērwōs, and *ἭρFα, Hērwā, respectively. It is also thought to be a cognate of the Latin verb servo (original meaning: to preserve whole) and of the Avestan verb haurvaiti (to keep vigil over), although the original Proto-Indoeuropean root is unclear.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the Indo-European root is *ser meaning "to protect". According to Eric Partridge in Origins, the Greek word Hērōs "is akin to" the Latin seruāre, meaning to safeguard. Partridge concludes, "The basic sense of both Hera and hero would therefore be 'protector'.

The 'steps' that must be taken by a hero would include:

MIRACULOUS BIRTH

A. God Related Births

Jesus Christ was the product of a strange and miraculous birth; the most famous birth in Western Civilization. His mother never engaged in coitus—unless you believe that crap from Luther (who was the single worst enemy of Kal-El) that Jesus had brothers. All I know is that if you go to Mexico today you will find many folks with the name of Jesus who have several siblings if not more!

Achilles was the product of a strange and miraculous birth; his father being a king and his mother being the nymph (or goddess or angel) Thetis.

Heracles was the product of a strange and miraculous birth; his father being Zeus (King of the Gods) and his mother being Alcmene a 'mortal of sorts' with her own genealogical link to the Gods.

Perseus was the product of a strange and miraculous birth; his father being Zeus (Zeus always had good pussy as they say in the Classical Literature) and his mums being Danae (who had a least noble origins) and she would have been the perfect pick!

Theseus had a strange Arthurian-type origin in that his papa was supposedly someone named Aegeus (King of Athens) but actually Zeus' bro Poseidon (God of the Sea) pretended to be Aegeus at the perfect time of 'joining'. Kind of like when Uncle Fred pretended to be my dad Richard!

Alexander the Great had a mom who was called “Olympias”, I mean enough said! And mums even claimed a lightning bolt struck her privates on the night she was impregnated! Philip of Macedonia claimed all his concubines were struck by his lightning, but that is another subject. At any rate, Alex's forefathers were in the Pantheon somewhere including Heracles.

Julius Caesar was born of two families that traced their origin to the initial families of the 7 Hills of Rome. Somewhere along the line surely someone traced his origins to Olympus. I mean his familes claimed origin with Venus which might explain his wanderings into transvestism and even anti-Santorum rhetoric and behavior.

Superman's dad was Kal-El of course; El being one of the four Hebrew Words for God (Actually these four words represent four different gods, but that is the subject for a really boring essay).

Ronald Reagan, who once had relations with the higher Apes, traced his origins to one of the keepers of Ale on the original Pilgrim Voyage. Supposedly as follows:

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in an apartment on the second floor of a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois on February 6, 1911, to Jack Reagan and Nelle Wilson Reagan. Although this seems regular for Americans, he did have a sibling named 'moon'.

Obama who seems to have an Irish name actually was born from the loins (as they say) of a stranger from far far away in a strange land where Black folks and Muslims congregated and long long ago whilst his mums came from somewhere in Kansas or Nebraska—wherever that lady with the lion and the tinman and the strawman came from!

B. Manner of Birth

Dionysus (Bacchus or John Belushi) who was a God anyway was born from the thigh of Zeus!

Athena (someone who really does not really count cause she was female) somehow was born on the foam in the sea. Zeus had been watching some porn over water evidently!

Alexander was born whilst Philip was at war somewhere; kind of like the 1950's when American men really were not interested in being 'there' pacing or not!

Julius Caesar was born by a Caesarian Section! I mean they had to take an unclean knife and just cut the womb open so Julius could arise fully erect and potty trained. Hence the term.

Jesus seemed to have a more prudent entry into this Veil of Tears but he ended up in a manger—some sort of feeding trough for pigs and cattle and sheep. I mean chickens would not be turned away! Except by the pigs and the cattle and the sheep of course.

Kal-El was born on a planet far far away on a planet that had nothing to do with us (except for the fact that some Brando character noted that the planet Earth had promise)

Ronald Reagan was born in some one-horse town named Tampico, Illinois and evidently in a second floor apartment located there, and he had a third rate wet-nurse inform the local press of his birth.

The real story has something to do with Ronny's mums and a stranger:

Barack Obama was supposedly born in some Hawaiian hospital. There are no supportable documents available as far as this birth.

D. Date of Birth.

Dionysus was born sometime between c. 1500—1100 BC. I mean they can not even get the century he was born, let alone the actual year or date!

Jesus was born in 4BC except that New Testament Books suggest that Jesus was at least 50 years of age at the time of the donkey riding incident and except that most religions do not believe that anyone knows anything until they are fifty anyway and...(oh who cares!) anyway his birth was supposed to be ZERO. And of course, the real problem with this is that there was no year zero and never has been. There has never been produced a decent birth certificate for the birth of The Christ!

Alexander the Great was supposedly born in July 20^th or 21^st in 356 BC but no one is sure and there has never been a birth certificate produced that gives us even a chance of knowing whether those two dates are exact or even provide the certainty of that year to confirm the actual date. I mean, how in the hell could his folks know that they were in the 'Before Christ' times?

Zeus (from whom Jesus ultimately takes his name) was born a long time ago and if you even think about asking him to certify it....well just think about thunderbolts and Prometheus!

Barack Obama was supposedly born August 4, 1961 but that is a date that was invented by aliens—aliens who have no love for this country at all!

More to come in Chapter 2 if I can come up with something!