Time and Myth

Milan Balabán

Myth is not a world-axis nor a world-order, it is rather a story, a report or an appeal. Time is that which is present, and the present is again and again uncovered in various rituals, but often also in profane life. The myth does not move merely in circle, nor is it unambiguously and always merely linear. The myth seeks to convince us that we are happy captives of eternity. Despite that, at certain moments (kairos) we must abandon the mythical blueprints and, like Abraham, set off for unknown lands. The myth does not capture the „completely novel“: that is expressed in the Hebrew faith of Creator (Gen 12, Iz 40-55) who places us before a radical decision and before a creation which has no counterpart in anything that had happened previously.