The Myth of the Eternal Return

Chapter 2 focuses on a specific aspect of archaic ontology: the relationship to time, periodicity, recurrence, and eternity. The passage and subjective meaning of time are the chapter’s central, organizing themes. The chapter is split into three subsections: “Year, New Year, and Cosmogony,” “Periodicity of the Creation,” and “Continuous Regeneration of Time.” After establishing fundamental elements of archaic ontology in the previous chapter, Eliade uses Chapter 2, “The Regeneration of Time,” to develop his account of the archaic mythology of eternal recurrence. Eliade’s narrowed focus indicates his agenda: to contrast the archaic conception of time and eternity to the modern, historicist conception. Chapter 2 functions, then, as a transition from the general ontology of the previous chapter to the moral and practical questions of the latter chapters.

In the first section, “Year, New Year, and Cosmogony,” Eliade discusses the cosmological relevance of new year’s festivities for archaic peoples: “The New Year,” he writes, “is equivalent to the raising of the taboo on the new harvest” (51). The harvest is deemed ripe for eating at the new year. It is a period of transition and rejuvenation. The date and length of the new year may vary by culture and geography, but its essential function remains the same.