David Adams Leeming wrote Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero (1998), a study of legendary heroes, in which he found this pattern: 1. * Birth of the Hero: "the conception or the birth or the events immediately following the birth (or all three) are miraculous or unusual in the extreme. This is not surprising. For all humans birth is the first experience of trauma and the first miracle of life. For the hero who will burst through the limitations of the local and historical, this first event must be special". 2. * Childhood Trial : "the child is suddenly aware of forces infinitely larger than himself which he cannot fully comprehend. In myth this is expressed by struggles with wild animals or with giants. To get through this stage the child often requires outside assistance. [The inter