The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History

mircea eliade willard r. trask

This founding work of the history of religions, first published in English in 1954, secured the North American reputation of the Romanian emigre-scholar Mircea Eliade (1907-86). Making reference to an astonishing number of cultures & drawing on scholarship published in no less than half a dozen European languages, Eliade's "The Myth of the Eternal Return makes both intelligible & compelling the religious expressions & activities of a wide variety of archaic & "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.

Genres philosophyreligionnonfictionhistorymythologyanthropologypsychologyspiritualitytheologyromanian literature

195 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1949

This edition

Format: 195 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 1974 by Bollingen
ISBN: 9780691017778
ASIN: B0006X2LTY
Language: English

About the author

mircea eliade

Romanian-born historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, professor at the University of Chicago, and one of the pre-eminent interpreters of world religion in the last century. Eliade was an intensely prolific author of fiction and non-fiction alike, publishing over 1,300 pieces over 60 years. He earned international fame with LE MYTHE DE L'ÉTERNAL RETOUR (1949, The Myth of the Eternal Return), an interpretation of religious symbols and imagery. Eliade was much interested in the world of the unconscious. The central theme in his novels was erotic love.