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91-433: This Chinese word compounds xí 息 "breathe; cease; rest; grow; multiply" and rǎng 壤 "soil; earth". Noting similarities with earth-diver creation myths, Anne Birrell translates xirang as "self-renewing soil", and compares other translations of "breathing earth" ( Wolfram Eberhard ), "swelling mold" ( Derk Bodde ), "idle soil" (Roger Greatrex), and "living earth" or "breathing earth" (Rémi Mathieu). In some versions of

182-539: A classification based on some common motifs that reappear in stories the world over. The classification identifies five basic types: Marta Weigle further developed and refined this typology to highlight nine themes, adding elements such as deus faber , a creation crafted by a deity, creation from the work of two creators working together or against each other, creation from sacrifice and creation from division/conjugation, accretion/conjunction, or secretion. An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes

273-613: A common origin in the eastern Asiatic coastal region, spreading as peoples migrated west into Siberia and east to the North American continent. However, there are examples of this mytheme found well outside of this boreal distribution pattern, for example the West African Yoruba creation myth of Ọbatala and Oduduwa . Characteristic of many Native American myths, earth-diver creation stories begin as beings and potential forms linger asleep or suspended in

364-456: A controversy). In his private notes, Eliade wrote that he took no further interest in the office, because his visits abroad had convinced him that he had "something great to say", and that he could not function within the confines of "a minor culture". Also during the war, Eliade traveled to Berlin , where he met and conversed with controversial political theorist Carl Schmitt , and frequently visited Francoist Spain , where he notably attended

455-527: A correspondence with the Ceylonese -born philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy . In 1936–1937, he functioned as honorary assistant for Ionescu's course, lecturing in Metaphysics . In 1933, Mircea Eliade had a physical relationship with the actress Sorana Țopa, while falling in love with Nina Mareș, whom he ultimately married. The latter, introduced to him by his new friend Mihail Sebastian , already had

546-463: A daughter, Giza, from a man who had divorced her. Eliade subsequently adopted Giza, and the three of them moved to an apartment at 141 Dacia Boulevard . He left his residence in 1936, during a trip he made to the United Kingdom and Germany, when he first visited London, Oxford and Berlin . After contributing various and generally polemical pieces in university magazines, Eliade came to

637-503: A female sky deity falls from the heavens, and certain animals, the beaver , the otter , the duck , and the muskrat dive in the waters to fetch mud to construct an island. In a similar story from the Seneca , people lived in a sky realm. One day, the chief's daughter was afflicted with a mysterious illness, and the only cure recommended for her (revealed in a dream) was to lie beside a tree and to have it be dug up. The people do so, but

728-564: A hole opening to the underworld to stories about their subsequent migrations and eventual settlement in their current homelands. The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal (most often a type of bird, but also crustaceans, insects, and fish in some narratives) into the primal waters to find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land. Some scholars interpret these myths psychologically while others interpret them cosmogonically . In both cases emphasis

819-658: A list of party members with county -level responsibilities (published in Buna Vestire ). The stance taken by Eliade resulted in his arrest on July 14, 1938, after a crackdown on the Iron Guard authorized by King Carol II . At the time of his arrest, he had just interrupted a column on Provincia și legionarismul ("The Province and Legionary Ideology") in Vremea , having been singled out by Prime Minister Armand Călinescu as an author of Iron Guard propaganda. Eliade

910-408: A man complains that the tree was their livelihood, and kicks the girl through the hole. She ends up falling from the sky to a world of only water, but is rescued by waterfowl . A turtle offers to bear her on its shell, but asked where would be a definitive dwelling place for her. They decide to create land, and the toad dives into the depths of the primal sea to get pieces of soil. The toad puts it on

1001-468: A physical relationship with her. Eliade received his PhD in 1933, with a thesis on Yoga practices. The book, which was translated into French three years later, had significant impact in academia, both in Romania and abroad. He later recalled that the book was an early step for understanding not just Indian religious practices, but also Romanian spirituality. During the same period, Eliade began

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1092-439: A rational explanation of deity." While creation myths are not literal explications , they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They provide the basis of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to the natural world , to any assumed spiritual world , and to each other . A creation myth acts as a cornerstone for distinguishing primary reality from relative reality,

1183-463: A sense of their place in the world and the regard that they must have for humans and nature. Historian David Christian has summarised issues common to multiple creation myths: How did everything begin? This is the first question faced by any creation myth and ... answering it remains tricky. ... Each beginning seems to presuppose an earlier beginning. ... Instead of meeting a single starting point, we encounter an infinity of them, each of which poses

1274-435: A separation or splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or parents. One form describes the primeval state as an eternal union of two parents, and the creation takes place when the two are pulled apart. The two parents are commonly identified as Sky (usually male) and Earth (usually female), who were so tightly bound to each other in the primeval state that no offspring could emerge. These myths often depict creation as

1365-483: A staged ascent or metamorphosis from nascent forms through a series of subterranean worlds to arrive at their current place and form. Often the passage from one world or stage to the next is impelled by inner forces, a process of germination or gestation from earlier, embryonic forms. The genre is most commonly found in Native American cultures where the myths frequently link the final emergence of people from

1456-586: Is a type of cosmogony , a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths  – metaphorically , symbolically , historically , or literally . They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe

1547-496: Is likened to the act of giving birth. The role of midwife is usually played by a female deity, like the spider woman of several mythologies of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Male characters rarely figure into these stories, and scholars often consider them in counterpoint to male-oriented creation myths, like those of the ex nihilo variety. Emergence myths commonly describe the creation of people and/or supernatural beings as

1638-483: Is placed on beginnings emanating from the depths. According to Gudmund Hatt and Tristram P. Coffin , Earth-diver myths are common in Native American folklore , among the following populations: Shoshone , Meskwaki , Blackfoot , Chipewyan , Newettee , Yokuts of California, Mandan , Hidatsa , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Ojibwe , Yuchi , and Cherokee . American anthropologist Gladys Reichard located

1729-536: Is pre-existing within the unformed void. In creation from chaos myths, there is nothing initially but a formless, shapeless expanse. In these stories the word "chaos" means "disorder", and this formless expanse, which is also sometimes called a void or an abyss, contains the material with which the created world will be made. Chaos may be described as having the consistency of vapor or water, dimensionless, and sometimes salty or muddy. These myths associate chaos with evil and oblivion, in contrast to "order" ( cosmos ) which

1820-731: Is promoted to the highest office in the shortest of times"). He approved of an ethnic nationalist state centered on the Orthodox Church (in 1927, despite his still-vivid interest in Theosophy , he recommended young intellectuals "the return to the Church"), which he opposed to, among others, the secular nationalism of Constantin Rădulescu-Motru ; referring to this particular ideal as "Romanianism", Eliade was, in 1934, still viewing it as "neither fascism, nor chauvinism ". Eliade

1911-506: Is the good. The act of creation is the bringing of order from disorder, and in many of these cultures it is believed that at some point the forces preserving order and form will weaken and the world will once again be engulfed into the abyss. One example is the Genesis creation narrative from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis . There are two types of world parent myths, both describing

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2002-456: The Black Sea . In parallel, Eliade grew estranged from the educational environment, becoming disenchanted with the discipline required and obsessed with the idea that he was uglier and less virile than his colleagues. To cultivate his willpower, he would force himself to swallow insects and only slept four to five hours a night. At one point, Eliade was failing four subjects, among which was

2093-622: The Chukchi and Yukaghir , the Tatars , and many Finno-Ugric traditions, as well as among the Buryat and the Samoyed. In addition, the earth-diver motif also exists in narratives from Eastern Europe, namely Romani , Romanian, Slavic (namely, Bulgarian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian), and Lithuanian mythological traditions. The pattern of distribution of these stories suggest they have

2184-523: The Rig Veda , and many animistic cultures in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and North America. In most of these stories, the world is brought into being by the speech, dream, breath, or pure thought of a creator but creation ex nihilo may also take place through a creator's bodily secretions. The literal translation of the phrase ex nihilo is "from nothing" but in many creation myths the line is blurred whether

2275-650: The Romanian Army from the Eastern Front ("[In his place], I would not be grinding it in Russia"). Eliade also claimed that such contacts with the leader of a neutral country had made him the target for Gestapo surveillance, but that he had managed to communicate Salazar's advice to Mihai Antonescu , Romania's Foreign Minister . In autumn 1943, he traveled to occupied France , where he rejoined Emil Cioran , also meeting with scholar Georges Dumézil and

2366-601: The Romanian Writers' Society , of which he had been a member since 1934. In summer 1937, through an official decision which came as a result of the accusations, and despite student protests, he was stripped of his position at the university. Eliade decided to sue the Ministry of Education , asking for a symbolic compensation of 1 leu . He won the trial, and regained his position as Nae Ionescu's assistant. Nevertheless, by 1937, he gave his intellectual support to

2457-568: The Stoics Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus , and read works of history—the two Romanian historians who influenced him from early on were Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu and Nicolae Iorga . His first published work was the 1921 Inamicul viermelui de mătase ("The Silkworm's Enemy"), followed by Cum am găsit piatra filosofală ("How I Found the Philosophers' Stone "). Four years later, Eliade completed work on his debut volume,

2548-575: The University of Calcutta . Finding that the Maharaja of Kassimbazar sponsored European scholars to study in India, Eliade applied and was granted an allowance for four years, which was later doubled by a Romanian scholarship. In autumn 1928, he sailed for Calcutta to study Sanskrit and philosophy under Surendranath Dasgupta , a Bengali Cambridge alumnus and professor at Calcutta University,

2639-463: The collaborationist writer Paul Morand . At the same time, he applied for a position of lecturer at the University of Bucharest , but withdrew from the race, leaving Constantin Noica and Ion Zamfirescu to dispute the position, in front of a panel of academics comprising Lucian Blaga and Dimitrie Gusti (Zamfirescu's eventual selection, going against Blaga's recommendation, was to be the topic of

2730-454: The modernist short stories of Giovanni Papini and social anthropology studies by James George Frazer . His interest in the two writers led him to learn Italian and English in private, and he also began studying Persian and Hebrew . At the time, Eliade became acquainted with Saadi 's poems and the ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh . He was also interested in philosophy—studying, among others, Socrates , Vasile Conta , and

2821-507: The 1944 Lusitano-Spanish scientific congress in Córdoba . It was during his trips to Spain that Eliade met philosophers José Ortega y Gasset and Eugenio d'Ors . He maintained a friendship with d'Ors, and met him again on several occasions after the war. Nina Eliade fell ill with uterine cancer and died during their stay in Lisbon , in late 1944. As the widower later wrote, the disease

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2912-584: The Christian faith as expressed by peasants. Growing up, he aimed to find and record what he believed was the common source of all religious traditions. The young Eliade's interest in physical exercise and adventure led him to pursue mountaineering and sailing, and he also joined the Romanian Boy Scouts . With a group of friends, he designed and sailed a boat on the Danube , from Tulcea to

3003-593: The Devil's Waters'), and Romanul Adolescentului Miop ('Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent', 1989); the novellas Domnișoara Christina ('Miss Christina', 1936) and Tinerețe fără tinerețe ('Youth Without Youth', 1976); and the short stories Secretul doctorului Honigberger ('The Secret of Dr. Honigberger', 1940) and La Țigănci ('With the Gypsy Girls', 1963). Early in his life, Eliade

3094-507: The Iron Guard, in which he saw "a Christian revolution aimed at creating a new Romania", and a group able "to reconcile Romania with God". His articles of the time, published in Iron Guard-affiliated papers such as Sfarmă-Piatră and Buna Vestire , contain ample praises of the movement's leaders ( Corneliu Zelea Codreanu , Ion Moța , Vasile Marin , and Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul ). The transition he went through

3185-799: The Romanian state. In 1941, during his time in Portugal, Eliade stayed in Estoril , at the Hotel Palácio. He would later find a house in Cascais , at Rua da Saudade. In February 1941, weeks after the bloody Legionary Rebellion was crushed by Antonescu, Iphigenia was staged by the National Theater Bucharest —the play soon raised concerns that it owed inspiration to the Iron Guard's ideology, and even that its inclusion in

3276-603: The Western European public. He was also briefly involved in publishing a Romanian-language magazine, titled Luceafărul ("The Morning Star"), and was again in contact with Mihai Șora , who had been granted a scholarship to study in France, and with Șora's wife Mariana . In 1947, he was facing material constraints, and Ananda Coomaraswamy found him a job as a French-language teacher in the United States, at

3367-475: The actions of Mahatma Gandhi and the Satyagraha as a phenomenon; later, Eliade adapted Gandhian ideas in his discourse on spirituality and Romania. In 1930, while living with Dasgupta, Eliade fell in love with his host's daughter, Maitreyi Devi , later writing a barely disguised autobiographical novel Maitreyi (also known as "La Nuit Bengali" or "Bengal Nights"), in which he claimed that he carried on

3458-665: The attention of journalist Pamfil Șeicaru , who invited him to collaborate on the nationalist paper Cuvântul , which was noted for its harsh tones. By then, Cuvântul was also hosting articles by Nae Ionescu. As one of the figures in the Criterion literary society (1933–1934), Eliade's initial encounter with the traditional far right was polemical: the group's conferences were stormed by members of A. C. Cuza 's National-Christian Defense League , who objected to what they viewed as pacifism and addressed antisemitic insults to several speakers, including Sebastian; in 1933, he

3549-482: The author of a five volume History of Indian Philosophy . Before reaching the Indian subcontinent , Eliade also made a brief visit to Egypt . Once in India, he visited large areas of the region, and spent a short period at a Himalayan ashram . He studied the basics of Indian philosophy , and, in parallel, learned Sanskrit, Pali and Bengali under Dasgupta's direction. At the time, he also became interested in

3640-564: The autobiographical Novel of the Nearsighted Adolescent . Between 1925 and 1928, he attended the University of Bucharest 's Faculty of Philosophy and Letters in 1928, earning his diploma with a study on Early Modern Italian philosopher Tommaso Campanella . In 1927, Eliade traveled to Italy, where he met Papini and collaborated with the scholar Giuseppe Tucci . It was during his student years that Eliade met Nae Ionescu , who lectured in Logic , becoming one of his disciples and friends. He

3731-564: The bombing of Bucharest by German zeppelins and the patriotic fervor in the occupied capital at news that Romania was able to stop the Central Powers ' advance into Moldavia . He described this stage in his life as marked by an unrepeatable epiphany . Recalling his entrance into a drawing room that an "eerie iridescent light" had turned into "a fairy-tale palace", he wrote, I practiced for many years [the] exercise of recapturing that epiphanic moment, and I would always find again

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3822-469: The capital in 1914, and purchasing a house on Melodiei Street, near Piața Rosetti , where Mircea Eliade resided until late in his teens. Eliade kept a particularly fond memory of his childhood and, later in life, wrote about the impact various unusual episodes and encounters had on his mind. In one instance during the World War I Romanian Campaign , when Eliade was about ten years of age, he witnessed

3913-475: The core of earthen dams . Expansive clays, in particular, slowly expand when wetted, thus matching the "swelling" translation. When dried, they take on a puffy "popcorn" look, which could be interpreted as "breathing" or airy. Such clays are abundant in the Shaanxi Province where many of these events are thought to have occurred. The xirang mythology has interesting parallels to the mythologies of

4004-399: The creative act would be better classified as a creation ex nihilo or creation from chaos. In ex nihilo creation myths, the potential and the substance of creation springs from within the creator. Such a creator may or may not be existing in physical surroundings such as darkness or water, but does not create the world from them, whereas in creation from chaos the substance used for creation

4095-477: The distribution of the motif across "all parts of North America", save for "the extreme north, northeast, and southwest". In a 1977 study, anthropologist Victor Barnouw surmised that the earth-diver motif appeared in " hunting-gathering societies ", mainly among northerly groups such as the Hare , Dogrib , Kaska , Beaver , Carrier , Chipewyan , Sarsi , Cree , and Montagnais . Similar tales are also found among

4186-517: The far right. They displayed his rejection of liberalism and the modernizing goals of the 1848 Wallachian revolution (perceived as "an abstract apology of Mankind" and "ape-like imitation of [Western] Europe"), as well as for democracy itself (accusing it of "managing to crush all attempts at national renaissance", and later praising Benito Mussolini 's Fascist Italy on the grounds that, according to Eliade, "[in Italy,] he who thinks for himself

4277-656: The flood waters. In other versions of these myths, xirang was stolen or obtained from the Primordial Divinity , or Gun's executioner was other than Zhu Rong. A historical basis has been suggested for both the Great Flood and for xirang. Sinologist David Hawkes proposes that the myths are a symbolic interpretation of a societal transition. In this case, Gun represents a society at an earlier technological stage, which engages in small-scale agriculture which involves raising areas of arable land sufficiently above

4368-732: The ground begins to sink away, and the treetops catch and carry down the sick daughter with it. As the girl falls from the skies, two swans rescue her on their backs. The birds decide to summon all the Swimmers and the Water Tribes. Many volunteer to dive into the Great Water to fetch bits of earth from the bottom of the sea, but only the toad (female, in the story) is the one successful. Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade ( Romanian: [ˈmirtʃe̯a eliˈade] ; March 13 [ O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986)

4459-424: The habitable cosmos), but with assigning roles so that the cosmos should function. In the early 2nd century CE, early Christian scholars were beginning to see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God, and by the beginning of the 3rd century creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology. Ex nihilo creation is found in creation stories from ancient Egypt ,

4550-701: The help of Alexandru Rosetti , he became Cultural Attaché to the United Kingdom, a posting cut short when Romanian-British foreign relations were broken. After leaving London he was assigned the office of Counsel and Press Officer (later Cultural Attaché) to the Romanian Embassy in Portugal , where he was kept on as diplomat by the National Legionary State (the Iron Guard government) and, ultimately, by Ion Antonescu 's regime. His office involved disseminating propaganda in favor of

4641-432: The indigenous peoples of the Americas , particularly the earth-diver creation myth . In the earth-diver myth, the primordial waters cover all, until after overcoming great perils, a certain creature is able to dive down into the waters and retrieve a small bit of magical soil. This xirang -like soil then magically expands into the land areas of today. Creation myth#Earth-diver A creation myth or cosmogonic myth

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4732-474: The level of the marshes. The "magically-expanding" xirang soil may represent a type of friable raised garden, made up of soil, brushwood, and similar materials. Yu and his work in controlling the flood would symbolize a later type of society, which allowed a much larger scale approach to transforming wetlands to arable fields. A less mythical explanation could be sought in various forms of expansive clay . Generally impervious to water, clays are useful in creating

4823-462: The myths, Gun stole the xirang from the Shangdi , who sent the deity Zhu Rong to execute him in punishment, on Feather Mountain . According to some accounts, Yu, on the other hand, went up to Heaven. After begging Shangdi, he received from him a gift of as much xirang as his magical black tortoise could carry on its back, thus allowing Yu to successfully block up the 233,559 springs , the sources of

4914-531: The non-political Petrescu and Ionel Jianu , and Belu Zilber , who was a member of the illegal Romanian Communist Party . The group also included Haig Acterian , Mihail Polihroniade , Petru Comarnescu , Marietta Sadova and Floria Capsali . He was also close to Marcel Avramescu , a former Surrealist writer whom he introduced to the works of René Guénon . A doctor in the Kabbalah and future Romanian Orthodox cleric, Avramescu joined Eliade in editing

5005-481: The notion of God's omnipotence . However, he contended that Ionescu's text was not evidence of antisemitism. In 1936, reflecting on the early history of the Romanian Kingdom and its Jewish community , he deplored the expulsion of Jewish scholars from Romania, making specific references to Moses Gaster , Heimann Hariton Tiktin and Lazăr Șăineanu . Eliade's views at the time focused on innovation—in

5096-564: The ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness. Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions . They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities , human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore ('at that time'). Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to

5187-419: The origin and nature of being from non-being. In this sense cosmogonic myths serve as a philosophy of life – but one expressed and conveyed through symbol rather than through systematic reason. And in this sense they go beyond etiological myths (which explain specific features in religious rites, natural phenomena, or cultural life). Creation myths also help to orient human beings in the world, giving them

5278-504: The past, historians of religion and other students of myth thought of such stories as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. Today, however, they are seen as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long writes: "The beings referred to in the myth – gods, animals, plants – are forms of power grasped existentially. The myths should not be understood as attempts to work out

5369-464: The primordial realm. The earth-diver is among the first of them to awaken and lay the necessary groundwork by building suitable lands where the coming creation will be able to live. In many cases, these stories will describe a series of failed attempts to make land before the solution is found. Among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the earth-diver cosmogony is attested in Iroquois mythology :

5460-478: The program was a Legionary attempt at subversion. In 1942, Eliade authored a volume in praise of the Estado Novo , established in Portugal by António de Oliveira Salazar , claiming that "The Salazarian state, a Christian and totalitarian one, is first and foremost based on love". On July 7 of the same year, he was received by Salazar himself, who assigned Eliade the task of warning Antonescu to withdraw

5551-519: The result of a sexual union and serve as genealogical record of the deities born from it. In the second form of world parent myths, creation itself springs from dismembered parts of the body of the primeval being. Often, in these stories, the limbs, hair, blood, bones, or organs of the primeval being are somehow severed or sacrificed to transform into sky, earth, animal or plant life, and other worldly features. These myths tend to emphasize creative forces as animistic in nature rather than sexual, and depict

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5642-576: The sacred as the elemental and integral component of the natural world. One example of this is the Norse creation myth described in " Völuspá ", the first poem in the Poetic Edda , and in Gylfaginning . In emergence myths, humanity emerges from another world into the one they currently inhabit. The previous world is often considered the womb of the earth mother , and the process of emergence

5733-476: The same class as Arșavir Acterian , Haig Acterian , and Petre Viforeanu (and several years the senior of Nicolae Steinhardt , who eventually became a close friend of Eliade's). Among his other colleagues was future philosopher Constantin Noica and Noica's friend, future art historian Barbu Brezianu . As a child, Eliade was fascinated with the natural world, which formed the setting of his very first literary attempts, as well as with Romanian folklore and

5824-436: The same plenitude. I would slip into it as into a fragment of time devoid of duration—without beginning, middle, or end. During my last years of lycée, when I struggled with profound attacks of melancholy , I still succeeded at times in returning to the golden green light of that afternoon. [...] But even though the beatitude was the same, it was now impossible to bear because it aggravated my sadness too much. By this time I knew

5915-586: The same problem. ... There are no entirely satisfactory solutions to this dilemma. What we have to find is not a solution but some way of dealing with the mystery .... And we have to do so using words. The words we reach for, from God to gravity , are inadequate to the task. So we have to use language poetically or symbolically; and such language, whether used by a scientist, a poet, or a shaman, can easily be misunderstood. Mythologists have applied various schemes to classify creation myths found throughout human cultures. Eliade and his colleague Charles Long developed

6006-459: The short-lived esoteric magazine Memra (the only one of its kind in Romania). Among the intellectuals who attended his lectures were Mihai Şora (whom he deemed his favorite student), Eugen Schileru and Miron Constantinescu —known later as, respectively, a philosopher, an art critic, and a sociologist and political figure of the communist regime . Mariana Klein , who became Șora's wife,

6097-426: The society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions; found throughout human culture , they are the most common form of myth. Creation myth definitions from modern references: Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined

6188-600: The statement by alleging that Zilber was himself a secret agent, and the latter eventually retracted his claim). Eliade's articles before and after his adherence to the principles of the Iron Guard (or, as it was usually known at the time, the Legionary Movement ), beginning with his Itinerar spiritual ("Spiritual Itinerary", serialized in Cuvântul in 1927), center on several political ideals advocated by

6279-479: The study of the Romanian language . Instead, he became interested in natural science and chemistry , as well as the occult , and wrote short pieces on entomological subjects. Despite his father's concern that he was in danger of losing his already weak eyesight, Eliade read passionately. One of his favorite authors was Honoré de Balzac , whose work he studied carefully. Eliade also became acquainted with

6370-438: The summer of 1933, he replied to an anti- modernist critique written by George Călinescu : All I wish for is a deep change, a complete transformation. But, for God's sake, in any direction other than spirituality . He and friends Emil Cioran and Constantin Noica were by then under the influence of Trăirism , a school of thought that was formed around the ideals expressed by Ionescu. A form of existentialism , Trăirism

6461-531: The time, as well as his other far-right connections, came under frequent criticism after World War II . Noted for his vast erudition, Eliade had fluent command of five languages ( Romanian , French, German, Italian, and English) and a reading knowledge of three others ( Hebrew , Persian , and Sanskrit ). In 1990 he was elected a posthumous member of the Romanian Academy . Born in Bucharest , he

6552-681: The turtle's back, which grows larger with every deposit of soil. In another version from the Wyandot , the Wyandot lived in heaven. The daughter of the Big Chief (or Mighty Ruler) was sick, so the medicine man recommends that they dig up the wild apple tree that stands next to the Lodge of the Mighty Ruler, because the remedy is to be found on its roots. However, as the tree has been dug out,

6643-715: The word myth in terms of creation: Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Creation myths have been around since ancient history and have served important societal roles. Over 100 "distinct" ones have been discovered. All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how

6734-436: The world formed and where humanity came from. Myths attempt to explain the unknown and sometimes teach a lesson. Ethnologists and anthropologists who study origin myths say that in the modern context theologians try to discern humanity's meaning from revealed truths and scientists investigate cosmology with the tools of empiricism and rationality , but creation myths define human reality in very different terms. In

6825-549: The world to which the drawing room belonged [...] was a world forever lost. Robert Ellwood , a professor of religion who did his graduate studies under Mircea Eliade, saw this type of nostalgia as one of the most characteristic themes in Eliade's life and academic writings. After completing his primary education at the school on Mântuleasa Street, Eliade attended the Spiru Haret National College in

6916-475: Was "needless to explain why that is". At signs that the Romanian communist regime was about to take hold, Eliade opted not to return to the country. On September 16, 1945, he moved to France with his adopted daughter Giza. Once there, he resumed contacts with Dumézil, who helped him recover his position in academia. On Dumézil's recommendation, he taught at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. It

7007-537: Was a Romanian historian of religion , fiction writer , philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago . One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane space and time, has proved influential. One of his most instrumental contributions to religious studies

7098-485: Was a journalist and essayist, a disciple of Romanian philosopher and journalist Nae Ionescu , and a member of the literary society Criterion . In the 1940s, he served as cultural attaché of the Kingdom of Romania to the United Kingdom and Portugal. Several times during the late 1930s, Eliade publicly expressed his support for the Iron Guard , a Romanian Christian fascist organization. His involvement with fascism at

7189-440: Was also the synthesis of traditional and newer right-wing beliefs. Early on, a public polemic was sparked between Eliade and Camil Petrescu : the two eventually reconciled and later became good friends. Like Mihail Sebastian, who was himself becoming influenced by Ionescu, he maintained contacts with intellectuals from all sides of the political spectrum: their entourage included the right-wing Dan Botta and Mircea Vulcănescu ,

7280-421: Was among the signers of a manifesto opposing Nazi Germany 's state-enforced racism. In 1934, at a time when Sebastian was publicly insulted by Nae Ionescu, who prefaced his book ( De două mii de ani... ) with thoughts on the "eternal damnation" of Jews, Mircea Eliade spoke out against this perspective, and commented that Ionescu's references to the verdict " Outside the Church there is no salvation " contradicted

7371-447: Was designed by Raymond Van Over: The myth that God created the world out of nothing – ex nihilo – is central today to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides felt it was the only concept that the three religions shared. Nonetheless, the concept is not found in the entire Hebrew Bible. The authors of Genesis 1 were concerned not with the origins of matter (the material which God formed into

7462-495: Was especially attracted to Ionescu's radical ideas and his interest in religion, which signified a break with the rationalist tradition represented by senior academics such as Constantin Rădulescu-Motru , Dimitrie Gusti , and Tudor Vianu (all of whom owed inspiration to the defunct literary society Junimea , albeit in varying degrees). Eliade's scholarly works began after a long period of study in British India , at

7553-649: Was especially dissatisfied with the incidence of unemployment among intellectuals, whose careers in state-financed institutions had been rendered uncertain by the Great Depression . In 1936, Eliade was the focus of a campaign in the far right press, being targeted for having authored "pornography" in his Domnișoara Christina and Isabel și apele diavolului ; similar accusations were aimed at other cultural figures, including Tudor Arghezi and Geo Bogza . Assessments of Eliade's work were in sharp contrast to one another: also in 1936, Eliade accepted an award from

7644-437: Was estimated that, at the time, it was not uncommon for him to work 15 hours a day. Eliade married a second time, to the Romanian exile Christinel Cotescu. His second wife, the descendant of boyars , was the sister-in-law of the conductor Ionel Perlea . Together with Emil Cioran and other Romanian expatriates, Eliade rallied with the former diplomat Alexandru Busuioceanu , helping him publicize anti-communist opinion to

7735-458: Was his theory of eternal return , which holds that myths and rituals do not simply commemorate hierophanies, but (at least in the minds of the religious) actually participate in them. Eliade's literary works belong to the fantastic and autobiographical genres. The best known are the novels Maitreyi ('La Nuit Bengali' or 'Bengal Nights', 1933), Noaptea de Sânziene ('The Forbidden Forest', 1955), Isabel și apele diavolului ('Isabel and

7826-700: Was kept for three weeks in a cell at the Siguranța Statului Headquarters, in an attempt to have him sign a "declaration of dissociation" with the Iron Guard, but he refused to do so. In the first week of August he was transferred to a makeshift camp at Miercurea-Ciuc . When Eliade began coughing blood in October 1938, he was taken to a clinic in Moroeni . Eliade was simply released on November 12, and subsequently spent his time writing his play Iphigenia (also known as Ifigenia ). In April 1940, with

7917-419: Was one of Eliade's female students, and later authored works on his scholarship. Eliade later recounted that he had himself enlisted Zilber as a Cuvântul contributor, for him to provide a Marxist perspective on the issues discussed by the journal. Their relation soured in 1935, when the latter publicly accused Eliade of serving as an agent for the secret police, Siguranța Statului (Sebastian answered to

8008-528: Was probably caused by an abortion procedure she had undergone at an early stage of their relationship. He came to suffer from clinical depression, which increased as Romania and her Axis allies suffered major defeats on the Eastern Front. Contemplating a return to Romania as a soldier or a monk , he was on a continuous search for effective antidepressants , medicating himself with passion flower extract, and, eventually, with methamphetamine . This

8099-478: Was probably not his first experience with drugs: vague mentions in his notebooks have been read as indication that Mircea Eliade was taking opium during his travels to Calcutta . Later, discussing the works of Aldous Huxley , Eliade wrote that the British author's use of mescaline as a source of inspiration had something in common with his own experience, indicating 1945 as a date of reference and adding that it

8190-648: Was similar to that of his fellow generation members and close collaborators—among the notable exceptions to this rule were Petru Comarnescu , sociologist Henri H. Stahl and future dramatist Eugène Ionesco , as well as Sebastian. He eventually enrolled in the Totul pentru Țară ("Everything for the Fatherland" Party), the political expression of the Iron Guard, and contributed to its 1937 electoral campaign in Prahova County —as indicated by his inclusion on

8281-597: Was the son of Romanian Land Forces officer Gheorghe Eliade (whose original surname was Ieremia) and Jeana née Vasilescu. An Orthodox believer, Gheorghe Eliade registered his son's birth four days before the actual date, to coincide with the liturgical calendar feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste . Mircea Eliade had a sister, Corina, the mother of semiologist Sorin Alexandrescu . His family moved between Tecuci and Bucharest, ultimately settling in

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