What makes stories so exciting and popular? Joseph Campbell, a mythological researcher and American psychologist, found a common pattern of stages that are present in all hero stories and are the reasons for a story’s success. These stages of Campbell’s monomyth can be seen even in the oldest piece of literature in the world. Heroes often exist in a world that seems normal and uneventful to all others that inhabit it. Usually, the heroes possess some special ability or trait that distinguishes them from ordinary people. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk. His people live their everyday lives, their only concern being that their leader is tyrannical. Gilgamesh on the other hand, is simply restless, so he acts domineering
