The
myth of the eternal return
Eliade, Mircea
1907-1986
creator
text
xx
9999
monographic
und
xi, 195p; ill.; bibliog. notes; bibliog.; index
''Had we not feared to appear overambitious, we should have given this book a subtitle: Introduction to a Philosophy of History. For such, after all, is the purport of the present essay: but with the distinction that, instead of proceeding to a speculative analysis of the historical phenomenon, it examines the fundamental concepts of archaic societies--societies which, although they are conscious of a certain form of "history," make every effort to disregard it. In studying these traditional societies, one characteristic has especially struck us: it is their revolt against concrete, historical time, their nostalgia for a periodical return to the mythical time of the beginning of things, to the "Great Time."' -- Foreword
Part 1 - Archetypes and repetition. The problem. Celestial archetypes of territories, temples, and cities. The symbolism of the center. Repetition of the cosmogony. Divine models of rituals. Archetypes of profane activities. Myths and history. Part 2 - The regeneration of time. Year, new year, cosmogony. Periodicity of the creation. Continuous regeneration of time. Part 3 - Misfortune and history. Normality of suffering. History regarded as theophany. Cosmic cycles and history. Destiny and history. Part 4 - The terror of history. Survival of the myth of eternal return. The difficulties of historicism. Freedom and history. Despair or faith
'Originally published in French as Le Mythe de l'eternel retour: archetypes et repetition by Librairie Gallimard, NRF, Paris, 1949.'. Transl. from the French by Willard R. Trask.
Religion
Myth
History
History--Philosophy
Time and eternity
BD701 .E383 1954
(Bollingen Series: XLVI)
54-11744
ZL
161024
20220701131248.0
#B00001599
eng