Castoriadis in Search of Origins: Exploring Archaic Greece

Abstract The essay discusses the English translation of the first volume of Castoriadis´s seminars on Ancient Greece; its main focus is on the question of a primordial Greek grasp of the world, expressed in the metaphors of chaos, abyss and meaningless disorder, and on the religious imaginary that developed around this core. Arguments for and against a religious revolution in Homeric Greece are considered. A concluding section deals with the philosophical transformation of mythological themes.