During the lecture on black history which was televised by ITV (watch here), one of the first things I speak of is the hero story.
In summary, shortly after humans first learnt that farming seeds can produce a plentiful supply of food, we see the start of the first great civilisations. The production of food allowed time for people to think. Early humans (see online lessons on early humans here) no longer had to spend 6 hours a day searching for food and 4 hours chewing it, so they started to build and philosophise on the meaning of life, the creation of the universe etc.
Humans, being hierarchical, complex, multifaceted with complex emotional characteristics, started to create the first myths which reflect our complex internal world. God became the symbol for the potential for all being, often synonymous with the mother (ie mother nature or the deification of the virgin Mary) and a hero often emerges from this raw potential and comes into maturity (Jesus, Buddha, Hercules even Simba from the Lion King etc) who then goes onto battle symbols of the inner turmoil that we humans experience. For example aggression, jealousy, darkness, trickery, evil etc. The hero then grows or transforms, triumphs and returns to tell the story of his/ her great accomplishment.
We’re going to be exploring the importance of heroes and why it is so important for us to claim heroes in our image.

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