What is the hero’s prize?

The literal and symbolic object of the hero’s quest

This article is part of a series:

How to be the hero of your own life

In life, we are all adventurers on a quest to fulfill our dreams. If you are like me, you see yourself as a hero, or at least the starring character of your own story. Your life has a grand purpose, yet the path is strewn with obstacles. If only you could reach your goals, everything would be okay. We see this scenario play out in most stories. The hero sets forth on an impossible quest. They must overcome all odds to win the prize and save the day. The hero’s prize, whether that be a million dollars, the Holy Grail, or the Fountain of Youth, is merely a symbol with a much greater meaning.

To understand the hero’s prize, it helps to start with one of the most famous examples in mythology: the Golden Fleece. Our myths, and even modern-day stories, serve as explanations of how the world works and how to obtain success.

The short story of the Golden Fleece

The Golden Fleece was a magical, woolen garment that featured prominently in Greek mythology and has inspired many works of art, literature, and film over the centuries.

The Golden Fleece comes from the hide of the Golden Ram, the same ram in the constellation Aries. According to the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, the fleece was guarded by a dragon in the kingdom of Colchis, which was located in what is now modern-day Georgia. The hero, Jason, set out on a quest to retrieve the fleece to prove himself worthy to wear the crown as king of Iolcus, a city in ancient Greece. He enlisted the Argonauts to help, and they had to overcome many challenges and dangers, including navigating through treacherous waters and facing formidable monsters. Ultimately, they were able to retrieve the fleece and bring it back to Iolcus to claim the throne. Joseph Campbell described this pattern beautifully:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

In other words, the literal object of Jason’s quest was the Golden Fleece, and the symbolic object was the restoration of his family’s throne or, more simply, justice. In our example, the boon of Jason’s adventure is justice. This is a common interpretation, but let’s explore some more.

What is the hidden symbolism of the Golden Fleece?

A skeptic may think of the Golden Fleece as a MacGuffin, which is an object, like a will-o’-the-wisp, that keeps the characters motivated and the story moving forward. A MacGuffin could be money, fame or a ticking bomb; however, it doesn’t make any difference to the story what it is. While skeptics may dismiss the Golden Fleece as a MacGuffin — which is easy to do in a world filled with bad television and movies — I see it as much more. Jason’s quest is an archetypal journey that reflects our own journey through life and battles with inner demons, which makes the Golden Fleece a symbol of awakening to the golden truths of the universe. I believe the best rewards aren’t objects but what I call moments of enlightenment, new understandings that increase our appreciation of everyday life. Furthermore, a moment of enlightenment doesn’t just benefit the hero; when the adventurer returns home with the prize, in this case, a way of seeing the world differently, it makes everyone’s life better. This is the boon. This is how we make the world a better place.

Obtaining the Golden Fleece is supposed to be an impossible task, but through much hardship and perseverance, Jason wins the fleece and the throne. To be cliché, the moral of the story is that anything is possible if you are willing to work hard and never give up on your dreams.

I believe that the object of the quest represents a moment of enlightenment. The adventurer doesn’t want the object as much as what the object represents, like power, knowledge or wisdom. Often, a god comes down from afar to assign the hero a task because the immature hero is incapable of knowing what is needed. In other words, enlightenment is a problem of not knowing what you don’t know. To give an oversimplified explanation, when I rode around the world in a quest for happiness, I thought I needed to find the secret of happiness, but what I learned is that I needed to accept that being sad is okay, too.

This brings us to a deeper psychological layer of the hero’s journey. Have you noticed while watching movies how the hero has an obvious lesson to learn, and life gives him obstacles until he learns it? It reinforces the idea that we have external caretakers, like gods and guardian angels, and reinforces the idea of right and wrong. I call this “Mother’s Promise.” As children, we are raised by all-powerful and all-wise caretakers, and as we grow into adulthood, we are at risk of thinking we will be saved, or that there is some right path we must follow, but as we mature, we learn to find our own way in the world.  

We don’t have to wait for a god to hand us a quest; we can choose our own dreams. So, I encourage you to think about what your Golden Fleece is both literally and symbolically. For example, let’s say you want a million dollars. The money would be the object of your quest, but what does the money symbolize to you? What would you buy with the money? If you bought a house, would that house represent? Security or family or…?

Once you start seeing the symbolic prize in every story, you are just one step away from seeing the prize in your own life.

A fun exercise

Try to guess the meanings of some of the common objects on the hero’s quest. As a fun exercise, you could look at this list of mythological objects and try to guess what each object represented to the hero. Or think about your favorite movie and ask yourself if the goal of the main character has a symbolic meaning. For example, what does the ring symbolize to Frodo? Or is the ring just a MacGuffin, a cheap trick to create drama?