The “eternal return” is a mysterious and highly intriguing concept that has puzzled many philosophers. According to this, everything will repeat itself exactly as it has already played out. Moreover, there is also the notion that even this repetition will continue infinitely.
Origins of the “eternal return” concept
The phrase “eternal return” is attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. However, we can trace the roots of this concept back to ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosophy.
Heraclitus, who greatly influenced Nietzsche, believed in the cyclical recurrence of all things, including our lives in the afterlife.
The Stoics also adhered to this idea. The Stoic philosophy of the universe “burning out” and being reborn is based on Heraclitus’ theory of eternal return and was also expressed by Plato and Aristotle.
In this rebirth, both the objects of the universe and its events are infinitely repeated like a carbon copy of the past. That is, the stars will go through exactly the same movements as previously, and the same people who lived in the previous cycle will once again come into existence. For instance, Socrates and Plato will return, as will every man on earth along with his relatives and friends.
Furthermore, each individual will endure the same sufferings and confront them in exactly the same way, using the same means they employed in previous cycles.
Events, once they occur, are recorded in history. While these events may internally repeat in a circular fashion, they necessarily follow universal time, which, as noted, moves in a straight line from the past to the future after passing through the intersection of the present.
Time runs this course because it moves in a circle like a ticking clock.
The pagan roots of the “eternal return”
This concept of eternal return finds its roots in the cyclical perception of time. This seems to be common to all pre-Christian European religions.
Eternal return presupposes a divine and sacred view of nature, the world, the lives within it, and thus an immortality of those concepts. This perception arises from observing the world as it exists. A spectacle of alternating cycles (the seasons), sequential successions (generations), and transitions between differentiation and repetition.
As Heraclitus says, “No one steps into the same river twice” and, similarly, “the sun does not rise the same way twice, but simultaneously, it is the same sun.”
This belief is based on an intuition of harmony. Its roots lie in the regular periodicity of cycles and the balance of opposites. Thus, each current event is not a mere point in time but a crossroad.
Every present moment revives the entire past and holds the potential of the entire future. Here, we find a three-dimensional form of historical time. The past, as it lives again in the present, provides a perspective that allows man to make plans while forging his destiny.
The contrast of the cyclical worldview with the linear perception of time of the Abrahamic religions
This cyclical worldview stands in stark contrast to the linear perception of time expressed in the monotheistic religions. These religions include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
In these faiths, the historical course of the world is seen as a line connecting a prehistoric state (primordial paradise, the Garden of Eden) with a post-historical state (the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth).
According to this understanding, man originally lived in harmony with the Creator. However, after committing a grave error, know as Original Sin, God exiles him from paradise and he enters history. It is a “vale of tears” whereby he must earn his bread through toil. Yet, thanks to the joyous news of the Messiah’s arrival, man can make the right choices to ensure individual salvation for eternity.
At the end of time, after the final battle of Armageddon, God will separate the good from the bad. The post-historical state will restore the pre-historical one. It will bring an end to history, and it will absorb it like a closed parenthesis.
In this view, history has momentum in both senses of the word. It moves in a specific direction and carries meaning. Consequently, human freedom is limited. Man is not entirely free to shape history.
Instead, he is bound to accept the revelation delivered to him by the highest authority in this belief system.
Nietzsche’s message through his myth
The idea of eternal return, the concept of endless repetition, is central to Nietzsche’s work “Thus Spake Zarathustra.” The philosopher poses a question: “How willing would a man be, towards himself and life, to desire nothing more ardently than the unlimited return, without change, of every single minute?”
Everything you have felt and has troubled you—the slightest moments of shame or shyness, your mistakes, your successes, your loves, your tears, your happiness, your sadness, your birth and death, your guilt, the disappointment of those around you—they will all repeat in eternity at the same pace with the same frequency in exactly the same manner.
In the “eternal return,” Nietzsche emphasizes the importance of the “being of becoming” and its cyclical necessity.
We can see Nietzsche’s world as a “copy” that reproduces itself in eternity. “Because at every moment it is a repetition, a replica of things that have already happened an infinite number of times,” says Zarathustra.
Elsewhere, he also states: “If the universe had a position of equilibrium, if becoming had a purpose or an end state, it would have already achieved it.”
What might Nietzsche’s message be behind this? We can interpret it as a life-affirming stance on life, death, and eternity.
It tells us this: Live your life in such a way that when you look back on it, when you reflect from a distance on the life you have created and the choices you have made, you can confidently say that this life was worth living—and that you would bear to live it again, and again, and again in the endless cycle called eternity.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
