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; 

  1. Agamemnon http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=147
  2. Alexander the Great http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=257
  3. Ludwig van Beethoven http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=368
  4. Ida Bauer (aka Freud's "Dora") http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=259
  5. Walter Benjamin http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=490
  6. Otto von Bismarck http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=156
  7. Sitting Bull http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=209
  8. Constantine the Great http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=178
  9. Johnny Cash http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=496
  10. Cervantes (Don Quixote) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=369
  11. Jesus Christ http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=525
  12. Dante http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=221
  13. Rene Descartes http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=426
  14. Princess Diana http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=155
  15. Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=517
  16. Elvis Presley http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=413
  17. Frederico Fellini http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=180
  18. Sigmund Freud http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=509
  19. Hermann Hesse http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=215
  20. James Joyce (Ulysses) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=504
  21. Carl Gustav Jung http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=139
  22. Franz Kafka http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=298
  23. Johannes Kepler http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=370
  24. William Lyon MacKenzie King http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=118
  25. Martin Luther King http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=190
  26. Gottfried Leibniz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odic%C3%A9e
  27. Madonna http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=275
  28. Thomas Mann (Magic Mountain) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=387
  29. Gwendolyn MacEwen http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=411
  30. Marilyn Monroe http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=449
  31. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=258
  32. George Orwell (Animal Farm) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=395
  33. Ovid (Metamorphosis) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=520
  34. George S. Patton http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=264
  35. Wolfgang Pauli http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=238
  36. Plutarch http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=521
  37. The Pope http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=373
  38. Haroun al-Rashid http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=404
  39. Mary Shelley http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=502
  40. Wally Shirra http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=329
  41. Socrates http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=200
  42. Robert Lewis Stephenson (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=162
  43. Swedenborg http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=500
  44. Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=374
  45. Thutmose IV http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=481
  46. Leonardo da Vinci http://www.dreamresearch.ca/interpretations.php?interID=273
  47. 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; 

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.