Crossing the First Threshold

With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the "threshold guardian" at the entrance of the zone of magnified power. Such custodians bound the world in the four directions -- also up and down -- standing at the limits of the hero's present sphere, or life horizon. Beyond them is darkness, the unknown, and danger. (Campbell, Pg. 77)

This aspect of the hero-path is generally easy to uncover, but its importance in the cycle can vary from legend to legend. In simpler tales this obstacle may be the primary conflict, while in complex narratives (like we find in Xena: Warrior Princess) its role tends to be diminished.

The most obvious threshold guardian in the series can be found in the episode Sins of the Past. As Gabrielle follows Xena on the road to Amphipolis, she crosses a bridge that can be seen as the boundary between the familiar, limited world of Gabrielle, and the wild, dangerous lands outside that horizon. The blind Cyclops that waylays travelers on that road is the guardian. When Gabrielle makes her way past this obstacle, she makes the first step on the hero's journey.

As Campbell elaborates, "[I]t is only by advancing beyond these bounds, provoking the destructive other aspect of the same power, that the individual passes, either alive or in death, into a new zone of experience." (Campbell, Pg .82) Up until the moment Gabrielle talks her way past the Cyclops, she can turn back home, forsake the call, and be nothing more than a village girl with big dreams.

But the Cyclops doesn't just fulfill the role of threshold guardian for Gabrielle. Xena must also pass by this creature herself in order to continue her journey. Indeed, the manner in which each woman handles this initial obstacle shows the differences between their styles. Where Gabrielle talked her way past the Cyclops, Xena defeated it with her weapons.

There is another, more subtle threshold guardian in Gabrielle's life, however. Xena herself serves as a barrier between Gabrielle and the adventurous life she dreams of. The Warrior Princess tells Gabrielle to go home, trying to deter the impressionable young woman from the dangerous life ahead. It is only through perseverance that Gabrielle convinces Xena to let her stay, and her journey begins in earnest.

Looking back on the stages we've examined so far, we can see how the cycle described by Campbell does not necessarily go step by step. When the call to adventure was made, Gabrielle answered it with little hesitation. She then encountered the threshold guardian and overcame its challenge with little difficulty. Xena eventually accepted the bard, taking her on as a pupil of sorts (see Supernatural Aid). After several adventures, Gabrielle suffered a crisis and turned aside from the hero's path for a time (see Refusal of the Call).

This is an important thing to remember for any student of mythology. The tangled skein that forms the basis for legend can be difficult to unravel at times, but with the proper insight all the pieces fall into place.

We have established that there are both an obvious and a subtle threshold guardian in Gabrielle's life. Last week we determined that there is an interesting mirrored parallel between the journeys of Xena and Gabrielle. This shouldn't be too surprising, as both women are on the hero's path. Still, there are many cases where each acts as a reflection of the other. If there is a subtle guardian in Gabrielle's life, is there one in Xena's as well?

It is more difficult to determine the truth of this, because there are many details of Xena's early life that we simply don't know. Her call to adventure came much earlier, and it is only through flashbacks that we learn some of the details surrounding the genesis of this hero. Indeed, looking back on her early life, it is difficult to find anything that seems to fit Campbell's mold.

In part two of this series (Refusal of the Call) we concluded that Xena's life prior to her encounter with Draco's men outside of Potidaea could be seen as a refusal, and thus from a chronological standpoint, she would not yet have encountered the threshold guardian. Let's look once again at Sins of the Past -- the start of the whole saga -- and see what we can uncover there.

The plot of the episode deals with Xena's return to Amphipolis. She isn't welcomed there when she arrives. Draco points out that he wasn't welcome at home either. The obvious conflict here is the fight with Draco, but thinking about it, it would appear that the underlying conflict is Xena's need to redeem herself in the eyes of her fellow villagers.

As the first real task she performs as a hero (as opposed to the rescue of the Potidaeans, where she was acting as much in self-defense as anything else) the residents of Amphipolis itself act as the threshold guardian.

Campbell explains, "The adventure is always and everywhere a passage beyond the veil of the known into the unknown." (Campbell, 82) Xena is crossing from the familiar world of battle and campfires to the simple village life she has been away from for so long. Unless she is accepted back into that world, she cannot perform the tasks necessary for her hero's journey.

Once again, this highlights the mirrored aspects of Xena and Gabrielle. Gabrielle crosses from civilization to the wild, while Xena makes the same crossing in the other direction. With the first obstacle out of the way, the hero's journey can begin in earnest.

There are, however, other examples of this fourth aspect in the series. Perhaps one of the most famous is the man who in some ways started it all, Julius Caesar. We'll take a look at this threshold, and how it affected Xena in next week's installment, The Belly of the Whale.

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