http://tam-lin.org/abby/raglan.html Lord Raglan, in THE HERO (1936) has classified the parallel life-patterns of the mythical hero of tradition into twenty-two archetypal incidents, as noted below. The higher a particular hero scores, the closer he is to the UR-archetype of the sacred hero-king of prehistoric religious ritual; a historical hero is likely to share rather few of the mythical characteristics. Note: this used to be a form, but as it never worked I've simply combined the results page with this one. LORD RAGLANS SCALE The hero's mother is a royal virgin His father is a king and often a near relative of the mother, but the circumstances of his conception are unusual, and he is also reputed to be the son of a god at birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or maternal grandfather, to kill him, but He is spirited away, and Reared by foster-parents in a far country We are told nothing of his childhood, but On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom. After a victory over the king and or giant, dragon, or wild beast He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and becomes king For a time he reigns uneventfully and Prescribes laws but later loses favor with the gods and or his people and Is driven from from the throne and the city after which He meets with a mysterious death often at the top of a hill. his children, if any, do not succeed him. his body is not buried, but nevertheless he has one or more holy sepulchres. Undoubtedly historical personages always score lower than six, although Alexander the Great might be said to exceed that figure with a possible score of seven, depending on how one interprets some aspects of his life history. Here is how some other people you might have heard of scored. How Some Heros Scored Oedipus scores 21 Theseus scores 20 Moses scores 20 Dionysus scores 19 Jesus scores 19 Romulus scores 18 Perseus scores 18 Hercules scores 17 Llew Llaw Gyffes scores 17 Bellerophon scores 16 Jason scores 15 Mwindo scores 14 Robin Hood scores 13 Pelops scores 13 Apollo scores 11 Sigurd scores 11. If you have an argument with any of the scores on this list, don't complain to me. It was those darned eastern European judges. How to Interpret the score of The Hero (or at least my opinion on the subject) If the Hero scored less than six: This means that the Hero may a historical figure since historical figures do not conform closly to the UR-Archetype. This is not definite proof that the person existed, since most cartoon characters score fairly low. For those who are known to have existed, there are two ways that this score may still increase over time. If the Hero is still alive, the Hero may gain as many as five more points before death, as the archetypical story focuses largely on the birth and death of the figure. For the previously mentioned reasons this is, however, fairly unlikely. If the story of the Hero is passed along largely by oral tradition, the story may be altered over time to conform more closely to the archetype. Stories about historical figures are often altered in this way, while those that are written down are largely 'frozen' in whatever form they are recorded. If the Hero scored more than six: This means that the Hero most likely does not closely represent a historical figure, as it is unusual for a historical personage to score above six. This does not mean that the Hero is entirely fictious, but does indicate that many aspects of the life of the Hero have either been lost or replaced by those of the archetype. If Hero is not already listed on the previous page, please feel free to mail me about them. I'm always looking for additional information Why do the stories of heros get altered to conform to the archetype? There is a human desire to make the hero into a larger than life figure, and to shroud the various aspects of their life in meaning. Since chances are, in a society that passes stories along by oral tradition, there is a value placed on the creativity of a story teller, otherwise mundane aspects of life are likely to be embellished, especially if the true details of that aspect of a life have been lost. Beyond that, I do not know but I welcome any and all speculation in this area. ... Jesus' life model is a very old and oft-repeated one...
