ABSTRACT
The definitive study was the work of Otto Rank, a disciple of Freud's, who in 1909 published his Mythus von der Geburt des Helden, 'The Myth of the Birth of the Hero', which was soon followed by an analysis of the story of Lohengrin, 1911. Here the hero does not take on the gods; he sets off on one of those extraordinary undertakings which, like the fight with the monster, demonstrate his epiphanic nature. However, this predominance in no way denies the fact that dreams of heroism are widely shared throughout the world, as is clear as soon as people turn to the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh, the Finnish Kalevala and many other works. Love and desire thus stir up heroism rather than threatening it. But her heroism comes to an end when she marries Melanion. In the following century, heroism fared no better: in Candide, 1759, Voltaire was no kinder than Pascal and La Rochefoucauld had been.
