Abstract
The article offers a re-examination of Eliade?s classic theory of rituals as repetitions of archetypal events that once upon a time took place in illo tempore. I confront the theory with ancient Greek myths and rituals, showing that does fit them to some extent, though it needs to be modified and further elaborated.
The Greeks were acutely aware of the ambivalence of mythical time, and their rituals were not just meant to evoke it but to keep it off as well. In myth things typically go wrong and the task of ritual is to correct them, repeating the archetypal mistake in a non-literal way that makes it possible to relate to the mythical while leaving it safely detached behind the boundaries of the civilized world.
The Greek vision of primordial time does not necessarily contradict the myth-and-ritual pattern proposed by Eliade, but it is interesting in that it that it emphasizes certain features of primordiality downplayed by him, thus inviting us to reconsider the meaning of the whole conception. This