He concluded that “whether presented in the vast, almost oceanic images of the Orient, in the vigorous narratives of the Greeks, or in the majestic legends of the Bible the adventure of the hero normally follows the pattern of the nuclear unit…a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life enhancing return” (1973:35). The hero leaves the ordinary world, engaging in life threatening activities to attain the desired end and returns, or is brought back, enriched to the ordinary reality. The hero’s adventure starts with a call, “the awaking o

“In today’s pluralistic world…it often is impossible to gain consensus on what rules we should be following” (Pearson 1998:276). The opinion quoted might suggest that ultimately there is no universal heroic code, although, some values, virtues might overlap.

However, the emphasis of modern heroism seem to be on one’s discovering himself, the ‘fiber of one’s stuff’ as Jim and Marlow on the pages of Joseph Conrad’s novels, integrating conscious with the unconscious. Hemingway’s heroes attempt to discover the heroic code and themselves altogether as Fredric Henry and Santiago do, to fill in the ‘voidness’ of human beings, and what counts then is ‘the performance en route’.

It is in the early Greek literature that we find the earliest heroic epic. One of the examples is Iliad, which is extremely important from the European literary standpoint because it constitutes the beginning stages of the development of European literature (Hanczakowski 2001:23).

It is important to trace the roots of heroic epic. Almost everyone, at some point of their lives, became acquainted with the Greek or Roman mythologies, which are often interwoven into the works of Western literature. And, “it is from Classical (Greek and Roman) mythology that the Western literal tradition evolved (Biral 2002). And, it is there that we find the earliest traces of heroic epic as well as the concept of a ‘hero’, which “came to mean a superhuman or semi-divine being whose special powers were put forth to save or help all mankind or a favored part of it” (Bloomfield in Jokinen 1996).

Jokinen provides us with a concise synopsis of what constitutes the backbone of heroic code based on the idea of the epic and chivalric heroic codes, the ideas, which constitute the backbone for many writers for whom the concept of heroic conduct is crucial. “The epic and chivalric hero share some ‘common ground’…the first…is the honorable heroic code…the second…is the rite de passage, or what Moorman calls “the journey-initiation-quest”…thirdly…the presence of wyrd, fate or Providence, the failure of the heroes to some degree, and the way the epic and chivalric hero accept both their failure and ‘their lots’” (1996). The heroic tradition appears to be merging the concept of physical combat and the spiritual one, at the same time stressing the need to struggle in the bounds of one’s self and for one’s sake.

However, these ideals change, “heroism is always a difficult kind of masculinity: times change, and what culture demands of their heroes changes with the times” (UM 1995). And, the concept of heroism develops as does the society and with it the ideals as well. Beowulf fought for his King and his people, however, that changes and “in the later medieval romances, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero is no longer fighting for his people, but for his ideals” (Jokinen 1996).

Some topics in this essay:
Taylor Heroes, Bloomfield Jokinen, Moorman Jokinen, Mazur Bela, Furthermore Greek, Hero Thousand, Underhill Campbell, Henry Santiago, Battle Maldon, Iliad Odyssey, um 2002, heroic tradition, jokinen 1996, heroic code, heroic epic, heroic conduct, personal limitations, moral code, physical strength, chivalric hero, physical strength raw, nature” um 2002, strength raw courage, ‘the performance en, hero heroic conduct,