Prague: the Myth of Creation

Résumé En

In The Myth of the Eternal Return Mircea Eliade argues that in their attempts to establish themselves the ancient cultures kept to patterns that were firmly grounded in their most profound beliefs, and he finds similar patterns across those different civilizations. While borrowing this perspective the paper attempts to look at the myths that deal with the beginnings of the civilization which founded the city to be called Prague. The analysis will rely on three main sources, Chronica Boemorum (the most ancient Czech chronicle, 12th century), Chronicle of Dalimil (first chronicle written in Czech, beginning of the 14th century) and Alois Jirásek's Staré pověsti české, The Ancient Bohemian Legends (1894). What will be explored is the ways in which the myth represents the founding efforts of the concerned ancient people with reference to the Sacred (the central), and the interaction between the natural phenomena and the people's beliefs and their rituals.