The Myth of the Eternal Return, or, Cosmos and History

«It is the profound meaning of primitive behavior that is revelatory; this behavior is governed by belief in an absolute reality opposed to the profane world of “unrealities’’; in the last analysis, the latter does not constitute a “world,” properly speaking; it is the “unreal” par excellence, the uncreated, the nonexistent: the void.» — cierre del capítulo Two: Eliade enuncia la ontología arcaica, donde lo real es lo que participa de una realidad absoluta y el mundo profano queda del lado de lo no creado

«in fact, this behavior corresponds to a desperate effort not to lose contact with being.» — la fórmula con que resume esa conducta: no extravagancia, sino esfuerzo por no perder contacto con el ser

«Archaic man, as has been shown, tends to set himself in opposition, by every means in his power, to history, regarded as a succession of events that are irreversible, unforeseeable, possessed of autonomous value.» — abre el capítulo Three definiendo por oposición al hombre arcaico: lo que rechaza es la historia entendida como sucesión de acontecimientos irreversibles con valor propio

«He refuses to accept it and to grant it value as such, as history —without, however, always being able to exorcise it; for example, he is powerless against cosmic catastrophes, military disasters, social injustices bound up with the very structure of society, personal misfortunes, and so forth.» — y acota de inmediato el rechazo: el hombre arcaico no siempre puede exorcizar la historia, porque las catástrofes y las injusticias le ocurren igual

«Thus it would be interesting to learn how this “history” was tolerated by archaic man; that is, how he endured the calamities, the mishaps, and the “sufferings” that entered into the lot of each individual and each collectivity.» — la pregunta que ordena el capítulo, dicha como programa de investigación

«Living in conformity with the archetypes amounted to respecting the “law,” since the law was only a primordial hierophany, the revelation in illo tempore of the norms of existence, a disclosure by a divinity or a mystical being.» — vive conforme a arquetipos equivale, dice, a respetar la ley, y la ley es para él una hierofanía primordial revelada in illo tempore

«And if, through the repetition of paradigmatic gestures and by means of periodic ceremonies, archaic man succeeded, as we have seen, in annuling time, he none the less lived in harmony with the cosmic» — señala el límite de la anulación del tiempo: aun anulándolo por la repetición ceremonial, el hombre arcaico seguía viviendo en los ritmos cósmicos. El tramo se corta en el cambio de plana

«but there is always a fault at the bottom of it, or at the very least a cause, recognized in the will of the forgotten Supreme God, to whom man is finally forced to address himself.» — según Eliade, el primitivo remite el sufrimiento a una falta o a una causa, y en última instancia a la voluntad del Dios supremo olvidado

«The critical moment of the suffering lies in its appearance; suffering is perturbing only insofar as its cause remains undiscovered.» — el momento crítico del sufrimiento, sostiene, no es su intensidad sino su aparición: perturba mientras la causa está sin descubrir

«As soon as the sorcerer or the priest discovers what is causing children or animals to die, drought to continue, rain to increase, game to disappear, the suffering begins to become tolerable; it has a meaning and a cause, hence it can be fitted into a system and explained.» — y el alivio llega por la vía del diagnóstico: descubierta la causa, el dolor entra en un sistema

«What we have just said of the primitive applies in large measure to the man of the archaic cultures. Naturally, the motifs that yield a justification for suffering and pain vary from people to people, but the justification is found everywhere.» — extiende del primitivo al hombre de las culturas arcaicas, con la reserva de que los motivos varían de pueblo a pueblo

«In general, it may be said that suffering is regarded as the consequence of a deviation in respect to the “norm.”» — la fórmula general que propone: el sufrimiento como consecuencia de una desviación respecto de la norma

«But the important point for us is that nowhere—within the frame of the archaic civilizations—are suffering and pain regarded as “‘blind” and without meaning.» — lo que le importa del caso arcaico es la negativa: en ninguna parte se tiene el dolor por ciego y sin sentido

«the Indians quite early elaborated a conception of universal causality, the karma concept, which accounts for the actual events and sufferings of the individual's life and at the same time explains the necessity for transmigrations.» — según Eliade, el karma es la formulación india de esa causalidad universal, y explica a la vez los sufrimientos de una vida y la necesidad de las transmigraciones

«In the light of the law of karma, sufferings not only find a meaning but also acquire a positive value.» — bajo la ley del karma, dice, el sufrimiento no solo halla sentido: adquiere valor positivo

«According to the Indian conception, every man is born with a debt, but with freedom to contract new debts. His existence forms a long series of payments and borrowings, the account of which is not always obvious.» — la imagen contable de la existencia india que expone: se nace con una deuda y la vida es una serie de pagos y préstamos

«A man not totally devoid of intelligence can serenely tolerate the sufferings, griefs, and blows that come to him, the injustices of which he is the object, because each of them solves a karmic equation that had remained unsolved in some previous existence.» — y de ahí la tolerancia que atribuye a esa doctrina: cada golpe resuelve una ecuación kármica pendiente

«Naturally, Indian speculation very early sought and discovered means through which man can free himself from this endless chain of cause-effect-cause, and so on, determined by the law of karma. But such solutions do nothing to invalidate the meaning of sutfering; on the contrary, they strengthen it.» — observa que las vías indias de liberación no invalidan el sentido del sufrimiento, sino que lo refuerzan

«Like Yoga, Buddhism sets out from the principle that all existence is pain, and it offers the possibility of a concrete and final way of escape from this unbroken succession of sufferings to which, in the last analysis, every human life can be reduced.» — según Eliade, el budismo parte de que toda existencia es dolor y ofrece una salida concreta y final de esa sucesión

«As to Vedanta, for it suffering is “illusory” only insofar as the whole universe is illusory; neither the human experience of suffering nor the universe is a reality in the ontological sense of the word.» — la excepción vedanta que consigna: ahí el sufrimiento es ilusorio solo en la medida en que todo el universo lo es

«With the exception constituted by the materialistic Lokayata and Charvaka schools—for which neither the “soul” nor “God” exists and which consider avoiding pain and seeking pleasure the only rational end that man» — la otra excepción, la de las escuelas materialistas Lokayata y Charvaka, que niegan alma y Dios. El tramo se corta en el cambio de plana

«all India has accorded to sufferings, whatever their nature (cosmic, psychological, or historical), a clearly defined meaning and function. Karma ensures that everything happening in the world takes place in conformity with the immutable law of cause and effect.» — cierra el argumento indio: el karma garantiza que todo ocurra conforme a la ley de causa y efecto, y con ello da función al sufrimiento

«But Buddhism, like Yoga, and indeed like every other Indian method of winning liberation, never for 2 moment casts any doubt upon the “normality” of pain.» — y aun así, señala, ningún método indio de liberación pone en duda la normalidad del dolor. La capa de texto lee *2* donde el impreso dice *a* (sic)

«If the archaic world nowhere presents us with a formula as explicit as that of karma to explain the normality of suffering, we do everywhere find in it an equal tendency to grant suffering and historical events a “normal meaning.”» — generaliza con reserva: fuera de la India no encuentra una fórmula tan explícita como el karma, pero sí la misma tendencia a dar sentido normal al sufrimiento y al acontecimiento histórico

«The destruction of a harvest, drought, the sack of a city by an enemy, loss of freedom or life, any calamity (epidemic, earthquake, and so on)—there is nothing that does not, in one way or another, find its explanation and justification in the transcendent, in the divine economy.» — el catálogo de calamidades con que ilustra la imputación a la voluntad divina: nada queda fuera de la economía divina

«an individual or a collective suffering always has its explanation. And, consequently, it is, it can be, tolerable.» — la conclusión del apartado: lo que hace tolerable el sufrimiento es que siempre tenga explicación

«In the Mediterranean-Mesopotamian area, man’s sufferings were early connected with those of a god. To do so was to endow them with an archetype that gave them both reality and normality.» — según Eliade, en el área mediterráneo-mesopotámica el sufrimiento humano se ligó pronto al de un dios, y esa ligadura funciona como arquetipo que le da realidad y normalidad

«The very ancient myth of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Tammuz has replicas and imitations almost throughout the Paleo-Oriental world» — sitúa el mito de Tammuz como el de mayor difusión del área, con réplicas en todo el mundo paleo-oriental. El tramo se corta en el cambio de plana

«We shall confine ourselves to a reminder that the sufferings and resurrection of Tammuz also provided a model for the sufferings of other divinities (Marduk, for example) and doubtless were mimed (hence repeated) each year by the king.» — acota su propio tratamiento y consigna que el modelo de Tammuz sirvió para otras divinidades, Marduk entre ellas, y que el rey lo mimaba cada año

«For it was not a question merely of a presentiment of the resurrection that will follow death, but also, and no less, of the consoling power of Tammuz’ sufferings for each individual. Any suffering could be tolerated if the drama of Tammuz was remembered.» — lo que atribuye al eco popular del mito: no solo la promesa de resurrección, sino el poder consolador del sufrimiento del dios para cada individuo

«For this mythical drama reminded men that suffering is never final; that death is always followed by resurrection; that every defeat is annulled and transcended by the final victory.» — la lección que el drama repetía: el sufrimiento no es final, la muerte va seguida de resurrección y toda derrota queda anulada

«What we wish to emphasize at this point is that Tammuz, or any other variant of the same archetype, justifies—in other words, renders tolerable—the sufferings of the “just.» — lo que subraya del arquetipo: hace tolerable el sufrimiento del justo

«The god—as so often the “just,” the ‘“innocent”"—suffered without being guilty. He was humiliated, flogged till the lash drew blood, imprisoned in a “pit,” that is, in hell. Here it was that the Great Goddess (or, in the later, gnostic versions, a messenger”) visited him, encouraged him, and revived him.» — el guion del dios sufriente tal como lo resume: humillado, azotado, encerrado en una fosa y revivido por la Gran Diosa o, en las versiones gnósticas tardías, por un mensajero

«This consoling myth of the god’s sufferings was long in fading from the consciousness of the peoples of the East. Professor Widengren, for instance, believes that it is among the Manichaean and Mandaean» — y atribuye a Widengren la tesis de que el mito consolador sobrevivió entre maniqueos y mandeos. El tramo se corta en el cambio de plana

«which derives—if not “historically,” at least morphologically—from lunar myths whose antiquity we have no reason to question.» — la reserva metodológica con que deriva esos escenarios míticos: la filiación que afirma es morfológica, no necesariamente histórica

«We have observed that lunar myths afforded an optimistic view of life in general; everything takes place cyclically, death is inevitably followed by resurrection, cataclysm by a new Creation» — según Eliade, el mito lunar sostiene una visión optimista: todo ocurre cíclicamente y a la muerte le sigue siempre la resurrección

«At least the gnostic, Mandaean, and Manichaean echoes of the Tammuz myth suggest this. For these sects, man as such must bear the lot that once fell to Tammuz; fallen into the pit, slave to the Prince of Darkness, man is awakened by a messenger who brings him the good tidings of his imminent salvation, of his “liberation.”» — lo que atribuye a esas sectas: el hombre carga la suerte de Tammuz, esclavo del Príncipe de la Oscuridad hasta que un mensajero lo despierta

«Lacking though we are in documents that would allow us to extend the same conclusions to Tammuz, we are nevertheless inclined to believe that his drama was not looked upon as foreign to the human drama» — y declara el límite documental de su propia conjetura, que enuncia como inclinación y no como prueba

«No military disaster seemed absurd, no suffering was vain, for, beyond the “event,” it was always possible to perceive the will of Yahweh.» — la fórmula del apartado sobre la historia como teofanía: para los hebreos, según Eliade, detrás del acontecimiento se dejaba ver siempre la voluntad de Yahvé

«Even more: these catastrophes were, we may say, necessary, they were foreseen by God so that the Jewish people should not contravene its true destiny by alienating the religious heritage left by Moses.» — y va más lejos: las catástrofes eran necesarias y previstas por Dios para que el pueblo no traicionara la herencia recibida por Moisés

«Copyright 1954 by Bollingen Foundation Inc., New York, N.Y. Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, N, Second printing, with corrections, 1965 First Princeton | Bollingen paperback printing, 1971 Second paperback printing, 1974» — la página de derechos, con la cadena de reimpresiones del volumen; el troceo es la reimpresión de bolsillo de la serie Mythos, cuyo número de tirada el OCR deja truncado

«Originally published in French as Le Mythe de l'éternel retour: archétypes et répétition by Librairie Gallimard, NRF, Paris, 1949 Published in Harper Torchbooks paperback edition (New York, 1959) under the title Cosmos and History» — la misma plana declara el original francés de Gallimard y la edición previa de Harper Torchbooks, que en Nueva York llevó por título solo el subtítulo

«Library of Congress Catalogue Card No.: 54-11744 ISBN 0.691-01777-8 (paperback edn.) ISBN 0-691-09798-4 (hardcover edn.)» — los identificadores que imprime la plana de derechos; el ISBN de bolsillo sale con punto por guion (sic) en la capa de texto

«Tantzi AND Brutus Coste in Memory of our Evenings at the Chalet Chaimite» — la dedicatoria del volumen, a Tantzi y Brutus Coste

«THE FORTY-SIXTH IN A SERIES OF WORKS SPONSORED BY BOLLINGEN FOUNDATION» — la nota de serie, que sitúa el volumen como el cuadragésimo sexto patrocinado por la Bollingen Foundation; la capa de texto lee *15* donde el impreso dice *IS* (sic)

«Geo Widengren, King and Saviour, 1 (Uppsala, 1947).» — la nota al pie con que respalda la pervivencia del mito de Tammuz entre maniqueos y mandeos

«The authenticity and religious validity of these latter must not be doubted, because they are based upon a universally verified dialectic of the sacred. But the experience of faith is due to a new theophany, a new revelation, which, for the respective elites, annuls the validity of other hierophanies.» — en nota, la salvedad con que separa la fe de las experiencias religiosas arcaicas: no les niega autenticidad, y sostiene que la fe nace de una teofanía nueva que para sus élites anula las hierofanías anteriores

«On this subject, see our Patterns in Comparative Religion, Ch. 1.» — en nota, la remisión a su propio Patterns in Comparative Religion, que no tiene ficha en el corpus

«This does not imply that these populations (which are for the most part agrarian in structure) are nonreligious; it implies only the “traditional” (archetypal) “revalorization” that they have given to Christian experience.» — en nota, la salvedad sobre las poblaciones agrarias cristianas: no las llama irreligiosas, sino que les atribuye una revalorización arquetípica de la experiencia cristiana

«eschatological speculations, though they inspired and fertilized the thought of a St. Francis of Assisi, of a Dante, and of a Savonarola, o quickly sank into oblivion, the Calabrian monk’ surviving only as a name to which could be attached a multitude of apocryphal writings. The immanence of spiritual freedom, not only in respect to dogma but also in respect to society (a freedom that Joachim conceived as a necessity of both divine and historical dialectics), was again professed, at 2 later period, by the ideologies of the Reformation and the Renaissance, but in entirely different terms» — en nota, lo que llama tragedia para el mundo occidental: que las especulaciones de Joaquín cayeran pronto en el olvido tras fecundar a Francisco de Asís, a Dante y a Savonarola, y que su inmanencia de la libertad espiritual reapareciera en la Reforma y el Renacimiento en términos distintos

«We take the liberty of emphasizing that “historicism” was created and pro- {essed above all by thinkers belonging to nations for which history has never been a continuous terror. These thinkers would perhaps have adopted another viewpoint had they belonged to nations marked by the “fatality of history.” It would certainly be interesting, in any case, to know if the theory according to which every thing that happens is “good,” simply because it has happened, would have been accepted without qualms by the thinkers of the Baltic countries, of the Balkans, or of colonial territories.» — en nota, la objeción biográfica que dirige a los historicistas: sostiene que la doctrina la crearon pensadores de naciones para las que la historia nunca fue un terror continuo, y se pregunta si la habrían aceptado los de los Balcanes, los países bálticos o los territorios coloniales

«It is well to make clear that, in this context, “modern man” is such in his insistence upon, being exclusively historical; i.e, that he is, above all, the “man” of historicism, of Marxism, and of existentialism. It is superfluous to add that not all of our contemporaries recognize themselves in such a man.» — en nota, precisa a quién llama hombre moderno: al que insiste en ser exclusivamente histórico, el del historicismo, el marxismo y el existencialismo, y aclara que no todos sus contemporáneos se reconocen en él

«On this, see our Patterns in Comparative Religion (English trans., London and ‘New York, 1958), pp. $98 ff. 4 Not to menticn the possibilities of “magical creation,” which exist in traditional societies, and which are real.» — en nota, la remisión a su propio Patterns in Comparative Religion y la mención de las posibilidades de creación mágica en las sociedades tradicionales, que llama reales

«Such afÏrmations must not be complacently dismissed merely because they imply the possibility of miracle. If miracles have been so rare since the appearance of Christianity, the blame rests not on Christianity but on Christians.» — en nota, la respuesta a quien descarte esas afirmaciones por implicar el milagro: si los milagros escasean desde la aparición del cristianismo, la culpa no es del cristianismo sino de los cristianos