A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

The line defines heroism not as fame, victory, or physical daring, but as self-transcendence: the willingness to subordinate private comfort and ego to a cause, community, or ideal. In Campbell’s broader thinking about myth, the “hero” is the figure who undergoes a transformation that benefits others—often by sacrificing something essential (status, safety, certainty, even life) to serve a larger order of meaning. The phrasing also widens heroism beyond the battlefield, implying that devotion to art, justice, family, or spiritual vocation can be heroic when it entails genuine surrender of self-interest to something enduring and communal.