The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History [Paperback]

Mircea Eliade (Author), Willard R. Trask (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691017778 | ISBN-13: 978-0691017778 | Publication Date: November 1, 1971

This founding work of the history of religions, first published in English in 1954, secured the North American reputation of the Romanian émigré-scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-1986). Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures and drawing on scholarship published in no less than half a dozen European languages, Eliade's The Myth of the Eternal Return makes both intelligible and compelling the religious expressions and activities of a wide variety of archaic and "primitive" religious cultures. While acknowledging that a return to the "archaic" is no longer possible, Eliade passionately insists on the value of understanding this view in order to enrich our contemporary imagination of what it is to be human. Jonathan Z. Smith's new introduction provides the contextual background to the book and presents a critical outline of Eliade's argument in a way that encourages readers to engage in an informed conversation with this classic text.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A luminous, profound, and extremely stimulating work. . . . This is an essay which anyone interested in the history of religion and the mentality of ancient man will have to read. -- Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: Bollingen (November 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691017778
• ISBN-13: 978-0691017778
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #857,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an interesting and thought-provoking piece of scholarship, March 30, 2000

By 

"gabecca" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History (Paperback)

I was inspired by the icredible insight and interesting acedemic thought in this book -- it's hard to beleive that it was written over fourty years ago. The struggle with "the terror of history" and the horror of linear time is something that many of us still struggle with today.

As a student of literature, I found this book particularly helpful in studying the moderns, such as T.S. Eliot and James Joyce, who, as Eliade mentions, both express a longing to return to the cyclical. As a mythology-lover I found that this book gave me a new perspective on the study of myth -- which I feel is still important if we are to understand the primitive depths of our own minds.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still relevant, December 27, 2003

By 

Jeff Jordan "pretzeldog" (Richardson, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History (Paperback)

This book was written in 1949. In the Preface he says that he considers it his most important work. I think not; I think he was being disingenuous or modest and was concerned about "history," the book having been written only 4 years after WWII. Nevertheless I think it is an important work of his and probably the best to read for an introduction to his thought, which is still surprisingly fresh after more than 50 years.

This is a short book, only 162 pages. Each page, however, is packed with ideas and meaning. Eliade tries to show the differences between what he calls "archaic" or "traditional" man and the man of modern societies, primarily Western; those being that archaic man's behavior is governed by myths and archetypes and a cyclical, or cosmic, view of time, whereas modern man, for the most part, is governed only by himself and his own ability to "make" history, and therefore has a linear, or historical, view of time, a position that is without any "transcendant" models, myths, or archetypes. He also attempts to show the emptiness of various historicisic philosphies, such as those by Dilthey, Heidegger, Croce, Gasset. I think Eliade is still worth hearing, and in fact was one of the great minds and encyclopediasts of the 20th century. If the reader is interested in myth, the philosophy of history, phenomenology, ethnology, and theology, or even just the idea of transhistorical ideas or meaning in life, Eliade is a must read. "The Myth of the Eternal Return" is a good starting point for Eliade, followed by "The Sacred and The Profane."

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important, profound and timeless book, November 2, 1998

By 

tropicofcancer "bookcount" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History (Paperback)

This little book has managed to influence all discussions about Time not only in religion, but also in psychology (see Norman O. Brown's "Life against Death"), the natural sciences(see Gould's "Time's Arrow"), literary criticism (see Camille Paglia) etc. Eliade's insights into Time are now so pervasive that it becomes de rigueur for this book to be read and relished not just by the scholars of religion, but also by those aspiring to a broader education. Do not be deceived, however, by the book's apparent simplicity; it is only a measure of Eliade's genius that profound insights are offered with the elegance of a true artist.