Summary of Mircea Eliade's History of Religious Ideas, Volume 3

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Turko-Mongols, a group of tribes that were inspired by the myth of the primitive hunter, invaded Europe and Asia in the fourth century. They were a pack of wolves hunting the cervidae on the steppes.

#2 The religions of central and northern Asia were influenced by many different cultures and religions, but they all shared a characteristic syncretism. They believed in a celestial god who was the sovereign of mankind, and they had a specific type of cosmogony.

#3 The god Tängri is the most important and best known among the Altaic peoples. He is the god of the sky and of the universe, and he is conserved in all the great universal religions that the Turks and Mongols have embraced.

#4 The Altaic god of the Center of the World, Tängri, is omniscient. He is generally depicted as a man with a large head and beard. His discontent is manifested by cosmic signs: comets, famines, and floods.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822526068

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Insights on Mircea Eliade's History of Religious Ideas, Volume 3

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Turko-Mongols, a group of tribes that were inspired by the myth of the primitive hunter, invaded Europe and Asia in the fourth century. They were a pack of wolves hunting the cervidae on the steppes.

#2

The religions of central and northern Asia were influenced by many different cultures and religions, but they all shared a characteristic syncretism. They believed in a celestial god who was the sovereign of mankind, and they had a specific type of cosmogony.

#3

The god Tängri is the most important and best known among the Altaic peoples. He is the god of the sky and of the universe, and he is conserved in all the great universal religions that the Turks and Mongols have embraced.

#4

The Altaic god of the Center of the World, Tängri, is omniscient. He is generally depicted as a man with a large head and beard. His discontent is manifested by cosmic signs: comets, famines, and floods.

#5

The Altaic peoples have a cosmology that is similar to that of many other cultures. The three worlds of Altaic mythology are Heaven, Earth, and Hell, and they are interconnected by a central axis. The opening through which the gods descend to the Earth and the dead into the subterranean regions is through this axis.

#6

The most widespread mythical image of the Center of the World is the Cosmic Mountain and the World Tree. The Cosmic Mountain rises from the center of the earth, and its highest branches touch the palace of Bai Ülgän. The World Tree unites the three cosmic regions.

#7

The cosmogonic myth among the peoples of central and northern Asia is widely distributed, and it has undergone many variations. It usually involves God diving to the bottom of the abyss to bring up a little mud to create the Earth.

#8

The cosmogonic dive is also found among the Finno-Ugrians, the western Slavs, and in eastern Europe. It is from the third variant, in which the Creator gets an anthropomorphic auxiliary to undertake the dive, that the dramatic and ultimately dualistic possibilities of the myth are developed.

#9

The myths about the creation of man also highlight the role of the Adversary. In central and northern Asia, God forms man from clay and breathes a soul into him. But in order for humans to know about sickness and death, the Adversary must stain the bodies of the first men with his saliva.

#10

The term shamanism is used to describe an archaic and universally distributed religious phenomenon. It is the power