The Myth of the Birth of the Hero (A Psychological Interpretation of Mythology). - 1914

New York: The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company, 1914. First edition in English, Octavo. iii, [1, blank], 100 pp. Publisher brown printed wrappers. Some erosion to spine (loss of "The" of title), front corners with light chips. Front cover with small oval stamp and remains of paper label (no other markings). A very good copy of an important work by Rank.Mythology has come into its own as a field of serious study since the days of Frazier's Golden Bough. When one reads the title of this book one usually thinks of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell but one of the first to study this myth and its meanings was personality psychologist Otto Rank."One of his earliest works was The Myth of the Birth of the Hero, in which he examines such birth myths as those of the Babylonian kings Gilgamesh and Sargon, the Hindu hero Karna, The Persian king Cyrus, The Greek heroes Oedipus, Hercules, Paris, and Perseus, the Roman founders Romulus and Remus, the Celtic hero Tristan, the Germanic heroes Siegfried and Lohengrin, and even Moses, Buddha, and Jesus. He finds the same pattern over and over again: There is a king and queen or god and goddess or other highly placed couple; something makes the hero's conception difficult or impossible; there is a dream or oracle prophesizing his birth, often including a warning of danger to the father; the infant hero is usually left to die in a box, basket, or small boat, floating on the water; he is rescued and nurtured by either animals or people of very low birth; he grows up, discovers his true parents, takes revenge on his father, and finally receives the honors due him.Rank finds the myths relatively simple to understand: As children, we worship our parents. But as we get older, they begin to get in our way, and we discover they were not all they seemed. The myth reflects a wish in all of us for a return to the comforting days when we thought our parents were perfect and gave us the attention we felt we deserved. The box or basket symbolizes the womb, and the waters our birth. The "people of low birth" symbolize our weak and unappreciative parents. The king and queen symbolize what they should be like. And the revenge is our anger at how they have mistreated us" (Dr. C. G. Boeree).