I Need a Hero -or- The Hero with 1001 Faces in the Global Village
Ubi Sunt -or- Mythic Montage of Heroes in History
"Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?" The music lyrics of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" provides a nostalgic perspective of the perennial theme of "ubi sunt". Lyrically, where else could Tyler find her hero, than in her dreams? In the autobiography "I Claudius", the wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, tells the reader that her husband is not the man of a woman's dreams.
In "Heroes: From Hercules to Superman" Bruce Meyer informs the reader that the medieval dream vision poem "Romance of the Rose" takes the romantic hero (and the reader) on a journey. Romance of the Rose can be seen as a travel guide through the romantic art of the erotic unconscious, using the poetic framing devices of personification and allegory. The poem works to both entertain and educate. In romantic contrast, the International Institute for Dream Research (IIDR) interpretation "Vanity Fair" provides a societal story of self absorption, a story devoid of a mythological hero, a dream and a journey.
In "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" Joseph Campbell follows "a multitude of heroic figures", who heeded the call to mythic adventure. From a Hollywood dream factory screenwriter's perspective "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers", Christopher Vogler outlines the cinematic mythological allegory of the hero's journey. The Hollywood dream factory montage (watch Paramount film video) of the mythic journey of Hollywood's leading heroes (featuring films of Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson), who have been projected on the silver screen is lyrically framed by Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" (watch original music video).
The IIDR is outlining a historical oneiric montage (see list below) of cultural heroes who have been projected on our nightly dream screens. The list includes such historical figures (both men and women), as leaders, writers, artists, musicians, religious figures, psychologists, cultural icons, scientists, and physicists. The mythological montage of dream vision heroes (and villains) will be expanded as "Field Notes of a Dream Research: 1001 Nights in the Global Village" reaches the completion of its historical journey.
In alphabetical order;
- Agamemnon http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=147
- Alexander the Great http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=257
- Ludwig van Beethoven http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=368
- Ida Bauer (aka Freud's "Dora") http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=259
- Walter Benjamin http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=490
- Otto von Bismarck http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=156
- Sitting Bull http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=209
- Constantine the Great http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=178
- Johnny Cash http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=496
- Cervantes (Don Quixote) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=369
- Jesus Christ http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=525
- Dante http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=221
- Rene Descartes http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=426
- Princess Diana http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=155
- Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=517
- Elvis Presley http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=413
- Frederico Fellini http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=180
- Sigmund Freud http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=509
- Hermann Hesse http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=215
- James Joyce (Ulysses) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=504
- Carl Gustav Jung http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=139
- Franz Kafka http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=298
- Johannes Kepler http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=370
- William Lyon MacKenzie King http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=118
- Martin Luther King http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=190
- Gottfried Leibniz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odic%C3%A9e
- Madonna http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=275
- Thomas Mann (Magic Mountain) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=387
- Gwendolyn MacEwen http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=411
- Marilyn Monroe http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=449
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=258
- George Orwell (Animal Farm) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=395
- Ovid (Metamorphosis) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=520
- George S. Patton http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=264
- Wolfgang Pauli http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=238
- Plutarch http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=521
- The Pope http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=373
- Haroun al-Rashid http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=404
- Mary Shelley http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=502
- Wally Shirra http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=329
- Socrates http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=200
- Robert Lewis Stephenson (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=162
- Swedenborg http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=500
- Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=374
- Thutmose IV http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=481
- Leonardo da Vinci http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=273
- Saint Wiborada http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=430
On a final note, some of this years Hollywood dream factory productions will feature various American mythic heroes, including the anticipated return of Superman in "Man of Steel" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vs0vKSbewg (watch trailer) and "The Lone Ranger" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger_(2013_film) (starring Johnny Depp as Tonto) on the silver screen.
Further Reading;
- Hollywood Superheros http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=371