Hero's Quest and the Cycles of Nature
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This examination of the heroic journey in world mythology casts the protagonist as a personification of nature-a ""botanical hero"" one might say-who begins the quest in a metaphorical seed-like state, then sprouting into a period of verdant strength. But the hero must face a mythic underworld where he or she contends with mortality and sacrifice-embracing death as a part of life. For centuries, humans have sought superiority over nature. Yet the botanical hero finds nothing is lost by recognizing that one is merely a part of nature. Instead, a cyclical promise of continuous life is realized, in which no element fully disappears, and the hero's message is not to dwell on death.
Rachel S. McCoppin is a professor of literature at the University of Minnesota-Crookston, USA. She has published in the areas of mythology, comparative literature, and multicultural pedagogy in scholarly books and journals.