Editing Mircea Eliade (section)

====Origin myths and sacred time====
Eliade notes that, in traditional societies, myth represents the absolute truth about primordial time.<ref name="Eliade, p.23">Eliade, ''Myths, Dreams and Mysteries'', p. 23</ref> According to the myths, this was the time when the Sacred first appeared, establishing the world's structure—myths claim to describe the primordial events that made society and the natural world be that which they are. Eliade argues that all myths are, in that sense, origin myths: "myth, then, is always an account of a ''creation.''"<ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', p. 6</ref>

Many traditional societies believe that the power of a thing lies in its origin.<ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', p. 15</ref> If origin is equivalent to power, then "it is the first manifestation of a thing that is significant and valid"<ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', p. 34</ref> (a thing's reality and value therefore lies only in its first appearance).

According to Eliade's theory, only the Sacred has value, only a thing's first appearance has value and, therefore, only the Sacred's first appearance has value. Myth describes the Sacred's first appearance; therefore, the mythical age is sacred time,<ref name="Eliade, p.23"/> the only time of value: "primitive man was interested only in the ''beginnings'' [...] to him it mattered little what had happened to himself, or to others like him, in more or less distant times."<ref name="Eliade, p.44">Eliade, ''Myths, Dreams and Mysteries'', p. 44</ref> Eliade postulated this as the reason for the "[[nostalgia]] for origins" that appears in many religions, the desire to return to a primordial [[Paradise]].<ref name="Eliade, p.44"/>