ABSTRACT
The essential parts of the hero cycle center around the three main rites of passage: birth, initiation, and death. The culture hero's story begins with his miraculous or in some other way unusual birth; he may be the offspring of a god, a man who is not his mother's husband, a virgin mother, or a brother-sister or other incestuous pair. Lord Raglan’s "The Hero of Tradition" sets out twenty-two points of the hero cycle: His mother is a royal virgin, and His father is a king. The unusual circumstances of the culture hero's birth can take many forms. The culture hero's story frequently omits much mention of the rest of his childhood until he reaches adolescence. One widespread theme in the hero's adventures is the father quest. The hero cycle thus tells the life history of an extraordinary person who is marked for greatness at birth, accomplishes significant deeds, and yet dies a mysterious death.
