the mystery

of
hyperborea
_______

julius evola
The "Hyperborean Mystery".
Writings on the Indo-
Europeans (1934-1970)
Julius Evola

Compilation and foreword by Alberto

Lombardo Epilogue by Mario Giannitrapani
 Editor's previous paragraphs
Juan Antoni Llopart

Meditations of the Summits, by Julius Evola, was the first book

published after the affair of July 8, 2003. It is exactly two years ago
when I write these lines, without my personal situation having been
resolved. Neither for the better nor for the worse. At this point in the
film, I do not know whether I am a probated citizen or the most abject
of the beings who walk the bull's skin. During all this time -as our
clients and friends know- we have not renounced, however, to exercise our
rights and, among them, the right to express ourselves freely, as the free
beings we are: we have continued to publish books and we have
continued to sell them.
As chance would have it, this unwanted and undesirable anniversary
coincides with a second book by the Roman master. Despite the
uncertainties, I can only describe it as a joyful event. It is, indeed, very
gratifying that in the editorial fund of NmvA REPÚBLICA there is The
"Hyperborean Mystery" and I believe, without fear of being mistaken, that it
constitutes a real gift for our clients and friends.
Originally published in 2002, The "Hyperborean Mystery" was
published by the Fondazione Julius Evola, Italy, in its highly
recommended "Quademi di testi evoliani". It is an accurate compilation
by Alberto Lombardo -author also of the prologue that gathers ten
essays -three as appendix-, in which Evola delves into the problematic
on the origins of Europe and Europeans, some of them written at a time
when the racial question reached its peak in Hitler's Germany and in
other European countries -including Italy-. It closes, as an epilogue,
with a timely essay by Mario Giannitrapani, entitled "Indo-European
Protohistory", insofar as it brings the reader up to date with the latest
contributions in this field. The excellent translation is by Javier
Gómez, who has also decided to add some titles in Spanish to the
original bibliography.
4 Editor's previous paragraphs

Finally, I am especially grateful for the disinterested collaboration of

Enrique Ravello, president of the identity association "Tierra y
Pueblo", who has helped this book go from design to project and from
project to reality.

Who were the Indo-Europeans? We certainly do not know many

things about these peoples, although we do know that they started from
a common trunk that expanded in a geographic space that goes from
India to the Scandinavian countries, the British Isles and the Iberian
Peninsula. Several locations have been proposed in the course of research:
Germany, Hungary, the Scandinavian countries, Lithuania, Anato- lia,
Armenia, the Black Sea region, the Russian steppes, etc., etc., from where
they would head eastwards - until they reached India and even China -
and westwards - until they reached all corners of Atlantic Europe. Hence,
it is more appropriate to speak of Indo-European peoples than of
Aryans, Indo-Aryans or Indo-Germans.
From the first studies carried out in the 19th century, linguists soon
came to the conclusion that all languages classified as Indo-
European were derived from a primordial language. The comparison
between Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Persian, carried out for the first
time by Sir William Jones, corroborated the theory of a common
language, or Pro-Indo-European, which implied the presence of a
common race from which a good part of the peoples located in the
great Eurasian region would derive.
Evola enters this fascinating cosmos from the watchtower of Tra-
dition, which is to say from a position of absolute autonomy. Although
his country lives under the iron rule of Mussolini and he himself
does not cease to manifest an undisguised sympathy for Fascism, this
does not prevent him from criticizing what we might call a
biological materialism which, for obvious reasons, he neither could
nor wished to share. In an essay published in 1934, entitled "Race and
Culture" -collected in this compilation, pp. 49-5-, Evola dotted the i's
and crosses the t's, maintaining that the decline and death of a people is
not so much due to its biological decline -which is immediate and
substantial- as to its spiritual suicide. Let us read: "To understand race as
perfectionism, selection or even as
Juan Antoni Llopart 5

formation of nature starting from a higher force and transmitted through

biological and ethnic inheritance, to preserve and defend this same
inheritance, but also - and above all to keep alive that spiritual-ritual
tension or inner formative soul which raised matter to that concrete
form. Hence the error of racists like Gobineau: the decadence of a
civilization is not due - as they claim - to the result of the mixing of the
original superior race with different races; the real cause is not its
ethnic, biological or demographic decadence, but that races with a
civilization of their own decline when their spirit decays, when the inner
tension to which it owed its 'form' and its 'type' disappears: it is then that
the race mutates or becomes corrupt, because it is corroded at the core
of its own root".
Was Evola anti-racist? No. Was Evola a racist? No. Evola was
critical, as Lombardo writes in the prologue that follows, both of
"Latin anti-Germanism, aestheticizing and dreamy," and of "the pan-
Germanist myths, which fall into the opposite error". Evola was,
according to Giovan- ni Monastra, anti-egalitarian, which is quite
different from the sterile racism/anti-racism clucking. For Evola the
term race is synonymous with quality. To put it more plainly: there is
much more quality - much more race - in a native African firmly
rooted in his traditions and his environment, free from Western glare,
than in a homo consu- mans, blond, with blue eyes and white skin,
whose life horizon lies in amphetamines, the latest model car and sex on
credit.... Evolutionary anthropology, writes Monastra, "does not aspire
to be the product of an 'original' thought in the modern sense of the
term, indivi- dualistic, but projects itself as a universal and perennial
Wisdom, situated in an archetypal dimension".
But let us not remain in the anecdote, even if the anecdote is of cala-
do: this volume is more, much more, than a traditionalist reproach to
biological materialism. The main contribution of these pages is that
Tradition, in Evola's hand, enters fully into a field that has been
monopolized, practically without exception, by archaeologists and
linguists, and over which politicians have hovered, whose footprint
has not always been very healthy to say the least. Yesterday, by excess.
Today, by default, immersed as we are in the era of meltingpotism.
With the liquidation of fascism in the mid-1940s, the democracies
should have opened their doors wide to the world, and the world's most
powerful countries should have been able to
6 Editor's previous paragraphs

and unrestricted to all ways of thinking. Since my childhood, I have

never stopped listening to those tired litanies that talk about how one's
freedom ends where the freedom of one's immediate neighbor begins, or
how so-and-so should even give up his life for so-and-so so that he
could express himself freely in the face of any threat. And I have even
had the saintly patience to read some John Dewey-like apostles of
libertarianism who, of course, point in that direction. However, we all
know that things have not worked that way. Nor do they work that way.
And I suspect that, with the exponential explosion of information
technology and, therefore, of the increase in social control, it will not
be that way in the future either. Pluriformity is not part of this world,
memory continues to have a markedly selective - not to say rabidly and
grotesquely sectarian - character, and dogma - as I have recently written
- continues to be our daily bread. So much so that one does not even
come to wonder how, even in countries of scrupulous democratic
pedigree such as Sweden, a book of scientific research such as Randi
and Haland's Fra Báckers Várldshistoria (1982) could not pass the
filter of political correctness until it was mutilated of the chapters
considered to be uncomfortable, chapters that spoke of.... about
pottery!
I am aware, as more than a few friends have told me in detail, that
Indo-European and Indo-European studies are tolerated very reluctantly in
almost all Spanish intellectual and university environments,
environments that should be
-I insist on being clear of all kinds of inquisitorial mists. It was in
these fields, whose research and discoveries moreover hardly reach the
man in the street, the simple fact of talking about issues related to our
racial origins -with the racial origins of the Spanish and the rest of our
European brothers- automatically sets off all the alarms, which is like
saying all the prejudices, all the inquisitiveness and all the nonsense.
How to stop this kind of castrating and ecumenical masochism? By
publishing books like the one you have in your hands.

Juan A. LLOPART
July 8, 2005
 "The investigation of the Indo-European roots of the civilization of Europe
has no mere historical or antiquarian value. It is the investigation of that which is
related to us and that which is foreign to us, of that which is to be assumed and
that which is to be rejected. It is the determination of the criteria according to
which not all cultural currents can be accepted indiscriminately, but a selection
will be made bearing in mind the spiritual form of European humanity. This is
the duty whose fulfillment is demanded of us by the present need to provide a
unitary myth for the European nationalism of tomorrow and, beyond the
borders of Europe, of the entire white race.
It is the point at which the horizons of a new European tradition open up, a
tradition in which a new European religious perspective with Nordic roots, a
Frámmgkeit nordischer Artung, also has its place".

ADRIANO RouuwDi, The Indo-Europeans. Origins and migrations,

CEI, Barcelona, 2002, p. 137.
[Italian ed.: Ar, Padua, 1978, pp. 188-189].
 Foreword
Julius Evola, the Indo-
Europeans and the
"Hyperborean Mystery".
Alberto Lombardo

The years from 1933 to 1943 were for Julius Evola a period of
particularly intense divulgation activity. These were also the years of the
first edition of Rivolta contro il mondo moderno ( 1934) [1], of ll mistero
del Graal e la tradizione ghibellina dell'Impero (1937) [2], of La
doctrina del risveglio (1943) [3] and of the essays on racial questions
(Tre aspetti del problema ebraico, 1936; Tre aspetti del problema
ebraico, 1936; ll mito del sangue, 1937 and 1942; Sintesi di dottri di
dottrio, 1937 and 1942; Sintesi di dottri dell'Impero, 1937) [4]; ll mito
del sangue, 1937 and 1942; Sintesi di dottrina della razza, 1941 and, for
the German version, 1943, and Indirizzi per una educazione razziale,
1941) [4]. These are also the years in which a series of collaborations
with numerous periodicals [5] began or, as the case may be, continued,
among which the newspapers Corriere Pagano, ll Regime Fascista,
Roma and La Stampa [61a the monthlies Lo Stato, Bibliografia Fascista
and La Vita Italiana; t h e biweeklies Augustea and La Difesa della
Razza [7], to which must be added numerous works in German language
magazines [8].
In those years the traditionalist philosopher organically developed and
completed a bundle of theses on the origins and development of
civilizations of Indo-European origin. The studies and contributions that
influenced his thinking are varied: from anthropology to linguistics, from
archaeology to the examination of skulls and blood groups, although it
was the data provided by myths, rites and traditional institutions that had
the greatest influence on the consolidation of his positions. The method
adopted in the investigation was that which, as stated in the first edition
of Rivolta, consists in the fact that "everything that serves as a 'scientific
result' here is valid only as an uncertain and opaque indication of the
ways - of the occasional causes, we might say - through which the
traditional realities may have manifested themselves" [9].
The result of this approach, which, despite the "distinctions" made
by Evola, brings together the studies on the classical world of
10 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'

Altheim, Piganiol, Otto, Kerényi and Bachofen; the theses of Hermann

Wirth -Aufgang der Menscheit- which were later abandoned; the
discoveries of a very young Dumézil, whose licentiate thesis is quoted
by Evola in the first edition of fiivo/fa [10], and of Eliade; the studies
on race, migrations and reciprocal influences which, although coming
from different positions, had been developed by researchers such as
Gobineau, Penka, Porsche, Vacher de Lapouge, Chamberlain, Mogk,
Her- tel, Clauss, Wilser, Günther, Rosenberg; Guénon's traditionalism
and, through him, the suggestive ideas of Tilak, and, of course, classical
sources from different civilizations, from Indo-European to Egyptian,
Peruvian and Chaldean, will make up the face of a polyhedral, rich and
elaborate doctrine of origins, very current for its time, and at the
forefront as far as the wealth of contributions is concerned.
1. The "traditional" method. Fabre d'Olivet, Guénon,
Tilak. The study of Wirth
An important step in understanding Evola's approach to the various
doctrines on origins can be found in the first eight chapters of Il mito
del sangue, especially where he summarizes Wirth's theses [l l l]: "With
reference to Fabre d'Olivet we have already said that the 'arctic', in
itself, is rather more than one of many hypotheses of modern
researchers: it corresponds, on the contrary, to a knowledge of a
'traditional' order, which has been preserved until now in certain
'esoteric' environments. It has, in sequence, value independently of the
efforts of those who, like Wirth, have had of it only an obscure
intuition, trying to justify it with modern 'scientific' methods, valid apart
from the attempt of some racists and of Wirth himself to use it ad usum
delphini, that is, for more or less circumstantial political purposes"
[12].
Evola will take more and more cautiously the works of Wirth -
rejected by scientific circles, not only because of his heretical theses but
mainly because of some conclusions with a great load of fantasy and
absolutely erroneous - but at the same time he will subordinate the
scientific approach to what is traditional knowledge, knowledge that
Evola maintains is transmitted by esoteric means, just as it is transmitted
in a esoteric way, just as it is transmitted in an esoteric way, but at the same
time he will subordinate the scientific approach to what is traditional
knowledge, knowledge that Evola maintains is transmitted in an esoteric
way, just as it is transmitted in an esoteric way, just as it is transmitted in
an esoteric way.
11 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

detected in Fabre d'O1ivet's Historie philosophique du genre hu- main

[13]. "In 1824, with an evident polemical reference to the work (...) of
Virey, a very interesting book by Fabre d'O1ivet appears entitled His- tory
philosophique du genre humain, which contains a scheme of general
racial classification, in addition to the attempt to individualize the
influence that each race would have exerted, throughout different
epochs, in a history that goes back to primordial times. The
denominations are: red or southern race, yellow race, black or southern
race, white or boreal race. The most important aspect is that Fabre
d'O1ivet, in relation to the white race, was the first to maintain a
remote Nordic, boreal and hyperborean origin. But in this author, this
thesis has both the character of a scientific hypothesis, and that of the
exposition of a traditional teaching, which was still preserved in very
closed environments with which he was in contact" [14].
Evola's judgment of Hermann Wirth, however, was never
completely negative. In the Dutchman's method of work there was
something not very different from Evola's: they shared "(...) the idea
of an original Nordic-Atlantic tradition going back to the most distant
antiquity and (the attempt) to reconstruct the paths followed by the
protagonists of that tradition in their expansion through great
prehistoric migrations. In addition, there was the attempt to systematize
various phases or differentiations represented by the traditional
symbolism as the historical times approached. (....) The positive
contribution consisted in the fact that it was a positive
contribution.(...) The positive contribution consisted in a broadening
of horizons: the need to propose a philosophy of history based on the
idea of a primordial tradition was thus delineated" [15], and it was this
task that Wirth had tried to carry out with the help of results from
various disciplines - "from philology to mythology and ethnology"
[16]. Purpose and method were, therefore, related, although the
substantial difference between Wirth and Evola consisted in the lack
of a reference to Tradition in the former.
Evola's traditional approach came from René Guénon, although his
method will prove to be very different from that of the French author.
Guénon started from a point where he intended to construct an "anti-
modern-science". Despite endorsing, albeit with some reservations, Ti-
lak's ideas, and even supporting the "hyperborean" thesis, Guénon writes
about the Indo-Europeans: "As far as we are concerned, we do not
believe in the existence of an 'Indo-European' race, even if it is no
longer called 'Aryan', which
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 12

It is significant that German scholars have given this imaginary race the
denomination of 'Indo-Germanic', and have endeavored to make such a
hypothesis plausible, supporting it with multiple ethnological and above
all philological arguments" [17].
Evola's thesis differs from Guénon's by considering the problem
of origin under a wider range of points of view. Scientific research
does not have the preponderant part, but it can be used to give an
organic sense to the Nordic-Arian thesis [18]. According to the traditional
evolutionary method, the conclusions derived from studies on
civilizations and migrations are tainted by evolutionism and materialism.
Thus, for example, in the case of the interpretation of the transition from
Cro-Magnon man to Neanderthal and Mousterian man [19]; in the
suggestive theses about the displacement of the location of the
Tradition from the original site - first phase of the civilization cycle -
to the later Nordic-Atlantic site, and to the myth of Atlantis - second
phase; in the critical positions towards the "lati- no" anti-Germanism,
aestheticizing and dreamy, or of the pan-Germanist myths, which fall
into the opposite error. All these intuitions found different forms of
expression. In fact, Evola dealt with the Indo-Europeans, as we have
already noted, under various aspects: anthropological, racial, mythical,
traditional, and, of course, the study of migrations to which Evola
attaches great importance [20].

2. Mediterranean prehistory. Baehofen

Mediterranean Prehistory is a work by Evola of 1934 which is of

fundamental importance, although it has not been republished and has
hardly been reviewed. It applies the "traditional" method to the study of
ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Significant are the positive
considerations on Cro-Magnon man and on those others that Darwinian
anthropo- logy has erroneously considered as his progenitors, the
Neanderthals and the Mousterians. Despite its simplicity, Evola's anti-
evolutionary principle is rigorous: the superior cannot derive from the
inferior. Cro-Magnon man, therefore, can only be an essentially different
type from the men who preceded him. Evola writes in this respect: "We
willingly recognize ourselves as descendants of this type whose
flattened forehead is full of nobility".
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 13

The ideas of J.J. Bachofen on the contrast between patriarchy and

the archaic Mediterranean matriarchy were probably at the basis of the
Evolaian vision of the spirit of in- doeuropean peoples. Referring to
the Swiss researcher's method, Evola notes: "It was (...) an exploration
of the world of origins, although it was limited above all to the
Mediterranean area and without going back to a prehistory as remote
as the Hyperborean or Nordic-Atlantic. Fundamentally, Bachofen was
based, in a certain way, on the historical category of 'Tradition' (...).
He recognized the importance of myth, symbol and saga (...). Apart
from this, Bachofen's most outstanding contribution has been that of a
differentiated morphology of ancient civilizations. He has individuated
two fundamental types of civilization, the uranic-virile type civilization
and the telluric (or lunar) feminine type" [21]. On these general cate-
gories - eliminating from them the evolutionist premises - it would be
necessary to add, according to Evola, more elaborate theses on the spirit
of the Indo-European civilizations [22], the priority in this sense being
the influence of studies in the German language [23].

3. The influence of Dumézil, Altheim and Günther.

It is interesting to analyze the question of the influence exerted on

Evo- la by Georges Dumézil, considered - practically unanimously - the
main Indo-European researcher of the century. There are not many, to
tell the truth, the passages in which Evola quotes Dumézil: apart from
the already indicated and surprising quotation of the French scholar's
licentiate thesis in the first edition of Rivolta, Evola mentions
Dumézil in the review, reproduced in this compilation, of Jupiter Mars
Quirinus. Evola appreciates Dumézil's work, but questions two
fundamental points of the Frenchman's text: that the trifunctional
model often presents variations of a quadripartite character, and that
this model has a normative character limited to Indo-European
civilizations.
The latter is obviously not a criticism strictu sensu. As for the first
point, the caste regime that Evola reminds us of to show the
weakness of the Dumézilian cosmic and social structure does not, in
fact, disprove Dumézil's thesis, because it is Evola himself who points
out that it is the first three castes that represent the heritage of the
Aryan invaders in India.
14 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

Apart from the recension to Jupiter Mars Quirinus, there are many
points of contact between Evola's Weltanschauung and Dumézil's Indo-
Europeanist vision. It is more difficult to clarify whether Evola reworked
the theories of the French scholar. Christophe Bou- tin [24] has
revealed, for example, the close affinity of the figure of the "warrior"
about whom Evola writes with that of the Indo-European warrior in
Ventura e sventura del guerriero [25]. Robert Steuckers [26] has
correctly pointed to a more than plausible influence of Dumézil on Evola
through the works of H.F.K. Günther, in particular Frám- migkeit
nordischer Artung [27].
Evola wrote, in 1951, to Mircea Eliade: "Eventually I might get in
touch with Dumézil, who is a friend of yours (...). Moreover, I now
intend to become more familiar with this author, of whom I have read
only a few things, because I have learned that he has made some useful
contributions to a line of research in which I myself am particularly
interested (warrior initiation)" [28]. About a year and a half later, on
July 13, 1953, he wrote again to Mircea Eliade: "(...) I have become a
sort of editorial advisor to Bocca for this September, and we are
organizing an editorial program for next year. I have thought of
Dumézil" [29]. Although the latter project will not come to fruition,
the mentions of Dumézil in Evola's correspondence confirm the
feeling that, rather than an "affinity in sentiment" with the French
scholar, there may have been a direct influence of Dumézil on him.
Bou- tin's opinion on the affinity on the theme of "warrior initiation"
would be confirmed, because the book to which Evola alludes in the
letter is undoubtedly For- tuna y desgracia del guerrero, and it is
plausible that Evola, after 1951, would have read a text in which he was
"particularly interested". It also seems plausible that the influence of
Dumézil came through Eliade, who frequently alluded to the French
researcher in his works [30], and Eliade, in turn, was widely quoted
by Evola, translator into Italian, among other texts, of Sciamanesimo
e le tecniche dell'estasi [31].
There were other affinities. Politically, Dumézil "was - and always
remained, despite finding no encouragement in politics - a monarchist
and a conservative (...). In a purely Maurrasian style, Dumézil was on
his guard against German nationalism and against the
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 15

Hitler's mystique of race, against which he opposed the classism' and

the spirit of moderation of Mussolini's fascism" [32]. Dumézil's
position was very similar to that of Evola. In this regard, Adriano
Romualdi points out: "Beyond the humanist rhetoric of the 'German
bar- barre' and that of 'Roman formalism', Evola underlines the original
unity of the Aryan lineages. Rome is not a myth for Italophile and
Latinizing li- terates, but an expression of the same Nordic spirit that
has created the Prussian style. Beyond the fable of a bureaucratic Rome
invented for Neapolitan lawyers, and the Germanism practiced by
helmeted Teutophiles, there are the realities of Rome, 'elitism,
Olympian and heroic reality, order, light, pure virility, pure action', and
the Olympian reality of the ancient Nordic world" [33]. Finally, in a
letter of 1970, Evola advises the reading of Dumézil [34].
One scholar who exerted a notable influence on Evola's thought -
greater than that of Dumézil - was Franz Altheim. Of him Evola
wrote: "Professor Franz Altheim, of the University of Halle, is one of the
most competent and enlightened scholars of ancient Romanity" [35].
From Altheim Evola reviewed [36] and used several books, and took into
account the fundamental conception of the Indo-European contribution -
"Dorian", in the text reproduced in the present compilation - to the birth
of various civilizations. Altheim's influence, moreover, proved very
fruitful. In Evola's early works we find the fundamental concepts of
"solar" civilizations as opposed to the Mediterranean matriarchy. In Il
cammino del cinabro Evola will not fail to highlight the contributions of
Wirth, Guénon and Bachofen. There is no mention of Altheim, probably
because he did not know the German's work until very early in the late
thirties [37].
Another important contribution, as already noted, was that of Hans
Friedrich Karl Günther (1861-1968), author of the well-known
Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes, as well as studies on Indo-European
religiosity, on the decline of Hellenic and Roman civilizations, on the
great "Aryan" families [38], on the Nordic-Indo-European influence in
Central Asia, Iran, India and Afghanistan. As Steuckers [39] points
out, another subject that brings Günther closer to Evola - although in a
limited way, it must be said - is the interest in Buddhism, although
the judgments of the two authors in this respect are quite different.
Steuckers points out another point of affinity: a certain anti-celitism,
typical of a common vision of Buddhism.
16 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

"This would separate Günther and Evola himself from authors such as
Klages, Schuler and Wirth. Steuckers also correctly adds that both authors
rejected "the idea of an evolution from original matriarchy to
patriarchy" [40]. He points out a hypothesis, probably taken from Ernst
Jünger's Along the Wall of Time [41], according to which Evola
would have argued that "matriarchy and patriarchy represent two
immutable psychologies, present since the dawn of time, and in
permanent conflict with each other" [42]. To these considerations, it
should be added that Günther did not only influence not only the Evola
scholar of racist theories, but also the Evola traditionalist, if we may
make such a distinction. In fact, in Rivolta contro il mondo moderno
Evola quotes Günther twice - when he deals with the subject of Romanity
- showing that he has assimilated the ideas regarding the Indo-
European influence on the emergence of Roman civilization [43].

4. The Indo-Europeans in Evola's thought. The

problem of racism. Java and culture

The vision that Evola had and pointed out about the Indo-
Europeans was that of a group of peoples related by a shared feeling,
by a common spiritual vocation, by an inclination to action and -even to
a lesser extent- to a sense of contemplation, from a "solar"
perspective, deprived of sentimentalism and "mysticism" [44], in the
framework of a tendency that contrasts Indo-Europeans to non-Aryan
peoples, peoples that would later be subdued. Evola would rework the
Nietzschean dualism between the Apollonian and the Dionysian,
from the perspective of a contraposition between different spiritual
vocations [45]. "The non-Aryan and pre-Aryan world knew spirituality
especially in the form of confused ecstasies, of Dionysian impetus
impregnated with sensuality, of suffering and longing - as opposed to
the calm superiority of the Aryan (...). Against the heroic vocation of
the Aryan soul be heroes of light, winged Olympians, as in the
symbol of the Doric Herakles, or of Paraçû-râma or of Mithra in the
Aryan-Eastern civilizations-is the fatalistic feeling of naturalistic
dependence prevailing in other races or, or, failing that, the titanic or
Promethean drift, the emergence of elemental forces that, as in the
ancient Norse-Aryan myth, seek to overthrow Asgard, the symbolic
luminous seat of the 'divine heroes' up to
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 17

The symbolic Bifröst arch linking the sky to the earth can be
brought down" [46].
Around 1930 Evola noticed that the Indo-European influence was
decisive in the development of civilizations [47]. His study of
Romanity, for example, bases its anthropological and even mythological
premises on the study of the Indo-European spiritual Koine. The same
can be said about medieval myths and the Germanic and Celtic
civilizations [48]; about Eastern traditions [49], and even about
alchemy [50]: in practically all areas of his thinking, the pan-Indo-
European evolutionary Weltanschauung has a decisive weight in the
development of his positions. A certain traditional "solar" vocation is
identifiable in evolutionary thought, as an equivocal sign of Indo-
Europeanism, and vice versa [51]. A significant example that can be
given in relation to this question is that of the doctrine of ima- mista in
the Islamic world, of which Evola will not fail to emphasize its Iranian
origin [52]. He coined and made use on many occasions of the
expression "hyperborean mystery", referring in this connection to the
heritage of the populations that, from the original polar headquarters,
brought with them the symbols and other elements of a spirituality that
Evola felt particularly close to him.
In relation to the controversial and debated topic of Evola's racism,
still used to reject his study, it is ignored that "Evola's racism was
spiritual, and not biological; coherent in itself, and of a superior nature
both 'a la Rosenberg' and that of the compilers of the Manifesto and the
subsequent racial laws of 1938: this is what Renzo de Felice, Alberto
Cavaglion and Sergio Romano have known. Also the well-known
magazine La difesa della razza accused Evola of being anti-fascist and
anti-racist" [53]. In his recent essay on Evola's racism, Francesco
Germinario argues, among other things, that Evola would have
proposed a critical confrontation "from within" Rosenberg's work [54].
This in no way means that racism did not play an important role in the
whole of evolutionary thought. On the contrary, we must share the
thesis of Professor Di Vona, according to whom "racism in Evola was
not (...) a secondary and marginal theory of his thought, a collateral
aspect that could even be marginalized, or even overlooked, without any
significant consequences for geographical understanding" [54].
neral of his ideas. On the contrary, this issue was very important in vis-
18 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

The "theology of the Church is not only a question of the application to

the civil, political and social world, of which Evola sought an integral
renovation" [55].
Racism is different from Indo-European studies - understood as the
science of the origins of civilizations of Nordic origin. Indo-European
studies cover a wide field of research, including linguistics, ethnology,
archaeology, history of religions, paleography, etc., etc., but they can
also analyze - more in the past than at present - questions related to the
delicate problem of "races". For their part, racist studies in the strict
sense of the term have based their research and assertions on the
sciences of origins, with particular attention to history and biology.
These are, in other words, domains that frequently overlap, but have
their own differentiating characteristics. Evola dealt with the fields by
making important contributions, albeit under a "traditional" overview.
At the beginning of 1934 a fundamental work by Evola appeared:
Raz- za e cultura. Anticipating the racial laws, the Manifesto della
Razza and the racist fashion that spread among Italian journalists of the
time - although the term "race" was often used in an absurd manner -
Evola set forth in nuce his doctrinal positions, vigorously affirming the
primacy of race as "culture", as opposed to the concept of race as
"nature". It is a very dense and significant text - and, according to
Evola, highly valued by Mussolini.
[56]- reasons that have led us to reproduce it.

5. Evola's later influence

Delimiting Evola's influence in this field is no easy task. His articles

and books had a different diffusion, weight and significance before and
after the Second World War. If Sintesi di doc- trina della razza received
the applause of Mussolini, Mito del Sangue could have two editions in
little more than five years, Tre aspetti del proble- ma ebraico was
printed for "pedagogical" purposes, the influence of Evola's racism -
like that of Evola's thought in general - was, in any case, limited. His
theses were influential in an influential but very closed circle of people;
in fact, Evola was one of the very few Italians who was able to meet
Mussolini after his liberation from the Great War, and he was one of the
few Italians who was able to meet Mussolini after his release from the
Great War.
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 19

Sasso thanks to Otto Skorzeny [57]. This influence, in those

environments, was not of great depth either [58], which will lead him to
work on the project of the Storia segreta delle societá segrete [59].
In the post-war period, Evola's work had an unforeseen and
paradoxical actuality. Certain circles of the traditional right were those
who recovered his studies and theses on origins. In particular, the most
extensive work of rediscovery and analysis of the Evolian theses was that
of Adriano Romualdi (1940-1973), who dedicated profound and qualified
studies to the Indo-Europeans, works that earned him the recognition
of the academic world. In addition to the translation and extensive
introduction to the first Italian edition of Günther's Indo-European
Religiosity, Romualdi devoted numerous works to the study of the
origins of Indo-European civilizations, which were later collected by
Gio- vanni Monastra in a posthumous volume that appeared in 1978:
G/i indo- europei. Origini e migrazioni [601 Romualdi not only
approached Evola's work intelligently and thoroughly, on the basis of
the writings of the "master" and of the research sources on which he
had based himself, but he widened the radius by using all the sources of
contemporary archaeological and anthropological research, especially -
even if not only German. Beyond some limitations, which Monastra
himself pointed out in the "Nota Introduttiva" to Romualdi's book [61],
it was the first and most complete experiment of structuring, on the
basis of Evola's extensive work, a "school" of interpretation of antiquity
on traditional and even pan-Indo-European bases.
It has not been the only attempt. There are still, scattered
throughout most of the world. In this regard, there are
publications that, with better or worse fortune, refer to Evola's
thought when dealing with the question of origins. Among these
attempts, the recently reappeared journal Antaios [62], the publication
that was founded and directed by Mircea Eliade and Ernst Jün- ger,
in which Evola himself collaborated with five essays [63], stands
out. In addition, the Evolian influence on Indo-European origins is
perceived, perhaps mediated by third parties and thus mixed with
other influences, in the so-called French New Right, especially in
the German drift promoted by Pierre Krebs. Along with these and
other editorial activities, texts of a certain rigor have emerged, in
which a general vision of the "traditional" world and a certain
assimilation of evolutionary thought are quite clear, even with the
absence of references
20 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

direct references to Evola himself. The reference is primarily to the

works of Professor J. Haudry and of what could be called his
"school", formed at the University of Lyon III; but also to a series of
texts that take up, from different angles, the idea of a Nordic-European
location of the Urheimat [64]. In any case, it seems to us that Adriano
Ro- mualdi's text remains the most significant work that the
"evolutionary world" has produced in these decades.
The path to follow is, therefore, to take up again the fundamental
legacy that Evola has left us also in this important field of origins,
updating and applying the positions of the Tradition in the light of
the new contributions of archaeo-anthropological research.

ALBERTO LOMBARDO

Notes

[1] J. Evola, Rivolta contm il mondo moderno. Hoepli, Milan, 1934 [English
translation: Rebelión contra el mundo moderno, Heracles, Buenos Aires, 1994
(n. of the t.)].
[2] J. Evola, ll mistero del Graal e la tradizione ghibellina dell'Impero.
Laterza, Bart, 1937. [El misterio del grial, José J. de Olañeta, Palma de
Mallorca, 1996 (n. of the t.)].
[3] J. Evola, La doctrina del risveglo. Saggio sull'ascesi buddhista, Laterza,
Ba- rt, 1943 [There is an English translation: La doctrina del despertar,
Grijalbo, Méxi- co, D.F., 1998 (n. of the t.)].
[4] I. Evola, Tre aspetti del problema hebraico, riel mondo spirituale, nel
mondo culturale, riel mondo economico sociale, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma,
1936; ll mito del sangue, Hoepli, Milano, 1937 and 1942; Sintesi di doctrina
della razza, Hoepli, Milano, 1941; Grundrisse des Faschistichen Rassenlehre.
Runge, Berlin, 1943; Indirizzi per una educazione razziale, Conte, Naples,
1941.
[5] Fundamental for examining Evola's dissemination activity in magazines and
newspapers is the important work by M. Schwarz: Julius Evola (1898-1974).
Bibliographie, Kshatriya, Vienna, 1999 (cf. especially pp. 15-61). This work is
an update and extension of the work of R. del Ponte, "Julius Evola: una
bibliogrfia 1920-1994", in Luthero Presente, 6, 1995, pp. 27-70 (especially pp.
39 ff.), which listed only the Italian titles, and also takes into account the further
bibliographical information provided by
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 21

Ch. Boutin: Politique et Tradition. Julius Evola dans le siécle (1898-1974),

Kimé, Paris, 1992.
[6] Of Evola's contributions to La Stampa, only the article "Liberazioni" was
known, which appeared on p. 2 of the Turin newspaper on November 3, 1943,
and is reprinted on pp. 211-213 of the volume Monarchia Aristocra- cia
Tradizione (Mizar, San Remo, 1986). Today we can state with a wide margin
of certainty that this collaboration took the form of sixteen articles, most of
which are very little known.
[7] In addition to the publication of books and articles, the translation and
editing of various texts (Guénon, Meyrink, Malinsky, etc.) should be
remembered from this period. In addition, beyond the divulgation and editorial
aspects, it should be noted what Claudio Mutti has pointed out as a latu sensu
diplomatic activity (see C. Mutti, Julius Evola sul fronte dell'Est, Ed.
a11'insegna del Veltro, Parma, 1998).
[8] In his Bibliographie, Martin Schwarz lists a total of 28 publications in
which Evola collaborated with writings in German in the period between 1933
and 1943. Evola had previously contributed to three German-language journals,
and from 1944 until his death in 1974, articles in German appeared in five other
journals. However, nothing excludes that there were collaborations that we are
still unaware of. Much more limited, quantitatively, are the works in French of
the period examined, which are limited to only two journals.
[9] J. Evola, Rivolta contro il mondo moderno, Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1998,
pp. 9-10; cf. also R. Melchionda, "Le tre edizioni di 'Rivolta"', in apén- dice a
la edición aquí citada de Rivolta..., pp. 449-464, and especially pp. 458-463.
[10] Cf. R. Melchionda, "Le tre edizioni di 'Rivolta'", cit.
G. Dumézil, Le festin d'immortalité, Étude de mythologie comparte indo-
Européenne, Annales du musée Guimet, Paris, 1924. Dumézil later disavowed
this book by stating: "after so much time I would save only a few fragments,
none of the basic arguments"; cf. Conversation with Didier Eribon, Guanda,
Parma, 1987, p. 18. Qui- zás Evola had assimilated elements of Dumézil's book
by reading the review, signed by Ph. de Felice, in Revue d'historie et de
philosophie religieuses, 8, 1928, p. 576.
[11] Hermann Wirth's most extensive evolutionary analysis, Der aufgang der
Mens- cheit. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Religion, Symbolik und
Schrift der atlantisch-nordischen Rasse (Jena, 1928) is from the following
year, and is found in Krur, III, 1929: Ea (pseudonym of J. Evola), "Sul
simbolismo dell'anno succes- sivo", collected in VV.AA., Introduzione allla
magia quale scienza dell'Io. Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1972, vol. III, pp. 184-
192. Cf. also J. Evola, "Nota
22 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

critica sull'opera di H. Wirth", in Bilychnis, XX, I, 1931, and in Arthos, 27-28,

1983-1984, pp. 41-43; J. Evola, / cammino del cinabro. Scheiwiller, Milfin,
1972 [there is an English translation: El camino del cinabrio, Heracles, Buenos
Aires, 1994 (n. of the t.)], p. 93, and the central paragraphs of Il mistero
dell'Artide pre-historica.' Thule, reproduced below in this compilation.
[12] J. Evola, ñ mito del sangue, cit.
[13] Paris, 1824. On Fabre d'Olivet (l 768-1825), an interesting Pythagorean
esotericist, probably related to L.C. de Saint-Martin, cf. Pietro Negri (Ar- turo
Reghini), "Della Tradizione Occidentale", currently in VV.AA., Introdu- zione
alla magia quale scienza dell'Io, cit. For the identification of Reghini, cf. R. del
Ponte, Evola e il magico "Gruppo di Ur", SeaR, Borzano, 1994, pp. 22-23 and
180.
[14] J. Evola, ll mito del sangue, cit. pp. 19-20.
[15] 1. Evola, ll cammino del cinabro, cit. p. 93.
[16] J. Evola, II cammino del cinabro, cit, pfig. 93.
[7] R. Guénon, Introduction générale á l'étude des doctrines hindoues, Éd. Vé-
ga/La Maisnie, Paris, 1921. Guénon sustains such theses in the paragraphs
entitled "L'infusso tedesco" of the fourth chapter ("Le interpretazioni
occidentali"), in which he points out as negative the influence of German
philology on the interpretation of the traditional world of India. Although any
"scientific" approach is, in itself, limited in terms of intellectual horizons,
Guénon did not speak German, which greatly prejudiced his knowledge - at
least of an instrumental nature - of the impressive results that philological
studies were producing. Slightly less hostile theses were expressed in the
compte rendu to the first edition of the Mito del sangue, 1937, in Études Tradi-
tionelles, 1937, p. 165, cf. A. Grossato, "Due recension 'dimenticate' di René
Guénon", in Futuro Presente, 6, 1995, pp. 111-113. On the methodology of
Evola and Guénon, confronted and commented, with particular reference to
racial and political studies, cf. the magnificent work of P. de Vona, Evola Gué-
non De Giorgio. SeaR, Borzano, 1993, pp. 25-38.
118] On the Nordic origin of the Indo-European Tradition, cf. B.G. Tilak, The
Ar- tic Home in the Vedas, Poona, 1903 (ed. Italian: La dimora artica dei Veda,
Ecig, Genova, 1994); Arthos, 27-28, 1983-1984, monographic issue on La
Tradi- zione artica, with significant contributions, including texts by Evola,
Tilak and Wirth; and the recent and revolutionary text by F. Vinci, Omero riel
Baltico, 2" ed, Palombi, Rome, 1998. Cf. also A. de Filippi, "La 'Patria Ar- tica'
degli ariani", in Algiza, 10, 1998, pp. 17-18.
[191 Renato del Ponte correctly referred on this subject (note 2 to J. Evola's
article "La patria iperborea", in Arthos, 27-28, 1983-1984, pp. 6-7): "These
evolutionary affirmations are taken today as a grain of salt, since Neanderthal
man has turned out to be a little less 'ape-like' than we thought.
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 23

previously thought, although a relationship with the later Cro-Magnon man

seems to be excluded".
[20] With regard to the theme of migrations, in addition to several indications
that Evola provides in the writings of this compilation, we also note:
"Esplorazioni precolombiane", in Roma, May 4, 1972 (collected in Ultimi
Scritti, Controcorrente, Nźpoles, 1977, pp. 90-95); "Le origini di Ro- ma", in
£a tradizione di Roma, Ar, Padova, 1977, pp. 25-58. Remain as fundamental
texts Rivolta contro if mondo moderno, cit., and 11 mito del sangue, cit. In this
matter, the fundamental influences on Evo- la's thought have probably been
those of Franz Altheim and Hans Günther (cf. infra in the text).
[21] J. Evola, II cammino del cinabro, cit. pp. 93-94.
[22] This opinion is also supported by G Monastra in his "Anhtropologie
aristocra- tique et racisme: L'itinéraire de Julius Evola en terreu maudite", in
Politica Her- metica, 2, 1988, pp. 76-77. 76-77, stating that Evola introduced
into his own tripartite racist formu- lation (race of the body, race of the soul,
race of the spirit) the last category thus completing "the 'traditional' knowledge
according to the typology that had been established by the historian of religions
and antiquity Johann Jacob Bachofen".
[23] On Romanity and significant for understanding the influences on his
thinking, Evola wrote ("Sui rapporti fra razza e nazione e sulla 'storia patria'", in La
vita italiana, CCCXXXIX, June 1941): "Curiously, not to Italians, but to
foreigners, the most important contributions in the study of true and living reality
are due: to Bachofen (Swiss), to W. Otto, to F. Altheim and to H.F.K. Günther
(Germans), to Kerényi (Hungarian), to Eitrem (Norwegian), to whom we can say that
the most important contributions in the study of true and living reality are due. Otto,
F. Altheim and H.F.K. Günther (Germans), Kerényi (Hungarian), Eitrem
(Norwegian), to which we can add Macchioro who, being an Italian citizen, is
not of 'Aryan' origin".
[24] Chr. Boutin, Politique et Tradition. L'oeuvre de Julios Evola /1898-1974)
(thesis), Université de Bourgogne, Faculté de droit et de science politique de
Di- jon, Dijon, 1991, p. 112.
[25] G Dumézil, Ventura e sventura del guerriero. Aspetti mitici della funzione
guerriera tra gli Indo-europei, Rosenberg & Sellier, Turin, 1974.
[26] R. Steukers, "Evola, Duitsland en het Rassenprobleem," in Dietsland
Euro- pa, 6/7, 1985; see also, "Julius Evola, l'Allemagne et le problème des
races," in Totalité, 24, 1986, pp. 54-55.
[27] Jena, 1934.
[28] Letter of December 15, 1951 published in M. Mincu-R. Scagno (eds.),
Mircea Eliade e 1'Italia, Jaca Book, Milan, 1986, p. 253.
[29] Mircea Eliade e 1'Italia, cit. p. 257.
[30] Cf., among others, the mention of Dumézil in the preface to M. Eliade, ñ
sacro e il profano, ed., Bollati Boringhieri, Tuńn, 1984, p. 7: "Dumézil's
success has encouraged me to try to emulate the same experiment".
24 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

[31] Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1974.

[32] A. Campi, preface to J.-C. Riviere, Georges Dumézil e gli studi indoeuropei,
Settimo Sigillo, Rome, 1993, p.14.
[33] A. Romualdi, Julius Evola, 1'uomo e 1'opera, Volpe, Roma, 1968; see
also, Su Evola, Fondazione Julius Evola, Roma, 1998, pp. 77-78.
[34] J. Evola, Lettere 1955-1974. Epistolario compiled, catalogued and
annotated by Renato del Ponte, Ed. La terra degli avi, Finale Emilia, 1996, p.
97. The letter is dated November 2 and is addressed to Gaspare Canizzo; Evola
misquotes the title of the Dumézilian work as Jupiter, Mars e Giano and as
editor he indicates Boringhieri instead of Einaudi).
[35] In the appendix to Fr. Altheim, "Sulla concezione romana del divino," in Il
re- gime fascista of July 26, 1942.
[36] Cf. J. Evola, "Sol Invictus. Enconters between East and West in the An-
cient World", in East and West, 8, 1957, pp. 303-306, later translated into
Italian under the title "Sol Invictus. Incontri tra Oriente e Occidente net mondo
antico", in Oriente e Occidente, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, 2001, pp. 105-110
(this is the review of Fr. Altheim, Der unbesiegte Gott. Heidentum und Chris-
tentum, Rohwolt, Hamburg, 1957, Italian tr.: ll dio invitto, Feltrinelli, Milan,
1960).
[37] In fact, Evola's review of Altheim's work, "Ricerche sulle origini. La
migrazione dorica in Italia", reproduced in this compilation, is, we believe, the
first time Evola refers to Altheim. R. Melchionda ("Le tre edizioni di 'Rivolta'",
cit.) points out that Altheim is quoted in Rivolta contro il mondo moderno only
from the second edition (1951). In the third edition two quotations from the
Rámische Geschichte (Frankfurt, 1953) are added to Die dorische Wanderung
in Italien (Amsterdam, 1940).
[38] Ludwig Ferdinand Clauss had a similar or even greater influence on this
subject than Günther. This is also pointed out by Giovan- ni Monastra
("Anhtropologie aristocratique et racisme: 1'itinéraire de Julius Evo- la en terre
maudite", cit., p. 76).
[39] R. Steuckers, "La lecture évolienne des théseses du raciologue allemand.
H.F.K. Günther", in Vouloir 2, 1994, p. 35.
[40] R. Steuckers, "La lecture...", cit. p. 36.
[41] E. Jünger, An der Zeitmauer, Klett, Stuttgart, 1959, Italian trans. by Carlo
d'Al- tavilla (J. Evola), Al muro del tempo, Volpe, Rome, 1965.
[42] R. Steuckers, "La lecture...", cit. p. 36.
[43] J. Evola, Rivolta contm il mondo moderno, cit. p. 297 and n. 1 (cf. also p.
309 and n. 36). Evola cites in both notes the Rassengeschichte des hellenischen
und rámischen Volkes (Munich, 1929). In relation to the spirit of Romanticism,
a fundamental influence on Evola was also exerted by the Frenchman A.
Piganiol.
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 25

[44] We attribute to this word the meaning given to it by Evola, contrasting it

with "magic": "mysticism" would be, in this sense, a departure from the
ordinary limits of the ego, but devoid of control and dominion.
[45] Obviously, this is a rather simplistic contraposition, which we refer to
because it is useful to convey a general image of Evola's thought. One of the
greatest values of symbols is that they can present different readings, even
opposing ones, and this without creating conflicts: Evola himself in relation to
the "Dionysian" expressed himself in other works also in a way quite different
from that indicated here. In particular, on the Nietzschean Apollo/Dionysian
contrast, which Evola (especially in the second post-war period) saw as forced
and distorted, he expressed himself quite differently on other occasions. Cf. J.
Evola, Maschera e volto dello spiritualismo contemporaneo, Ed. Mediterranee,
Roma, 1990, pp. 156 ff; cf. also the article by A. Lombardo, "Saggio di osser-
vazioni circa Evola e Nietzsche. Contatti e differenze", in Algiza, 2, 1995, pp.
6-12 (in particular pp. 6-7).
[46] J. Evola, "Importanza del1'idea ariana," in La Stampa, November 13,
1942.
[47] In fact, up to that date, in the Evolian writings the Indo-European positions
seem to be still "latent" and in nuce: the author seems to privilege the
Mediterranean-Western civilizations in general. Cfr, for example, J. Evola, lm-
perialismo pagano, Atanór, Todi-Roma, 1928; and "Sul "sapienziale" e l'
"eroico" e sulla tradizione occidentale", in Ur, II, 11-12, 1928, p. 321 (later
reprinted in Ur, II, 11-12, 1928, p. 321). 321 (later repro- duced independently
with a preface by Renato del Ponte as Sull'e- roico, il sapienziale e sulla
tradizione occidentale, Ed. de1l'Orsa Minore, Geno- va, 1979).
[48] Cf. J. Evola, ñ mistero del Graal, Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1994, in
particular pp. 83-91 [there is an English translation: El misterio del grial y la
tradi- ción gibelina del imperio, José J. de Olañeta, Palma de Mallorca, 1996 (n.
of the t.)].
[49] Cf. J. Evola, La doctrina del risveglio, Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1995, in
particular pp. 29-37 [there is an English translation: La doctrina del despertar,
Grijalbo, Mexico, D.F., 1998 (n. of the t.)]. Regarding the "Aryanity of the
'doctrine of awakening'", cf. the pertinent observations of S. Consolado, Julius
Evo- la e il Budismo, SeaR, Borzano, 1995, pp. 107-131.
[50] Cf. J. Evola, La Tradizione ermetica, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, 1996, p. 33
[there is an English translation: La tradición hermética, José J. de Olañeta,
Palma de Mallorca, 1997 (n. of the t.)]; cf. above all the contrast between
Adam and Buddha.
[51] Naturally, this idea had important attenuations and "distinctions": see, for
example and in primis, the pages that Evola dedicated to traditional Japan, to
the pre-Columbian Central American civilizations, as well as to various aspects
of Chinese, Arabic and even Hebrew culture. The other consideration he held in
relation to the Indo-Europeans must be taken as a look at the roots,
26 Prologue. "Julius Evola, the Indo-Europeans and the 'Hyperborean Mystery'."'

without conflicting with an integrally traditional vision. Vice versa, a certain

Guénonian "scholasticism" has often fallen into the opposite error, disregarding
all racial considerations1: in other words, if it is true that the racial element is
subordinated in a traditional vision to the traditional element itself, it
nevertheless plays a very precise role in the termination or at least in bringing
out characteristics, including those that are properly spiritual.
[52] J. Evola, Rivolta contro il mondo moderno, cit. p. 293.
[53] These are the words of Gianfranco de Turris in an interview with M.
Brambilla, in-laws.
terrogatorio alle Destre, Rizzoli, Milan, 1995, p. 164.
[54] F. Germinario, Razza del Sangue, razza dello Spirito. Julius Evola,
l'antise- mitismo e il nacionalsocialismo (1930-1943), Bollati Boringhieri,
Torino, 2001, p. 54.
[55] P. di Vona, Metafísica e politica in Julius Evola, Ar, Padua, 2000, p. 43.
[56] J. Evola, ll cammino del cinabro, cit., p. 148. Evola erroneously recalls
1935, instead of 1934, as the year of publication of the article. This is neither
the first nor the last time that Mussolini was interested in Evola; this interest
began already in the times of the Ur group [a magical-esoteric group founded
by Evola in the 1920s] (cfr. Evola, /f cammino del cinabro, cit, p. 88: "Mus-
solini for a moment came to believe that they wanted to act magically on him")
and, later, in relation to the polemic unleashed after the publication of
Imperialsmo pagano (cfr. J. Evola, ll cammino del cinabro, cit., p. 81). Mus-
solini commented to Y. de Begnac [Taccuini mussoliniani, ed. by F. Perfetti, II
Mu- lino, Bologna, 1990, pp. 647): "contrary to what is generally thought, I
was not bothered by the position taken by Dr. Julius Evola a few months before
the 'Council', against a convergence of any kind between the Holy See and
Italy" [Mussolini refers here to the Council or Concordat, with which the
Fascist government finally reached an understanding with the Holy See, finally
signed in 1929, and against which Evola tried to act, without success, with the
publication in 1928 of Pagan Imperialism (n. of the t.)].
[57] Cf. J. Evola, Diary 1943-1944, SeaR, Scandiano, 1989, pp. 34-35.
[58] Among these environments, Evola mentions in particular that of the
German embassy in Rome (cf. J. Evola, Diary 1943-1944, cit., p. 13).
[59] Cf. J. Evola, Diary 1943-1944, cit., p. 38, n. 2 (the note is by the compiler,
R. del Ponte); e, ll cammino del cinabro, cit, H. Th. Hansen, "Julius Evolas
politisches Wirken, in Menschen inmitten von Ruinen," Hohenrain, Tübingen-
Zurich-Paris, 1991, p. 135.
65) and underlines an important indication contained in ú cammino del cinabro,
cit., i.e. that the Italian philosopher probably had "access to the secret archives
of the SS, who had seized the documents of several societies
Alberto Lombardo (comp.) 27

esoteric, especially from various Freemasonic lodges. Evola never wanted to

provide more data on such a question, but perhaps for this work he hid himself
under a false identity". Hansen (ibidem) points out that also D. Rudatis, a
famous al-Pinist member of the "Ur Group", confirmed to him that in Vienna
Evola lived under a false name and false documentation.
[60] Ar, Padua, 1978. Apart from this significant text, Adriano Romualdi also
devoted an extensive article, later published independently, to the history of
Europe, in which he deals rather diffusely with the Indo-European theme: Sul
problema di una tradizione europea, Ed. di Vie della Tradizione, Pa- lermo,
1996 [there is an English translation: El problema de una tradición europea,
Tierra y Pueblo, Valencia, 2003 (n.d.t.)].
[61] G Monastra, "Nota Introduttiva" to A. Romualdi, Gli Indoeuropei. Origini
e migrazioni, cit. pp. 9-12. What Monastra seemed to reject from the author
was a certain inclination of the latter to accept materialistic theses, such as
those that give (or gave) much excessive weight to external factors such as
cephalic capacity, "evolution" in the Darwinian sense, or even the role played
by "crossbreeding" in the study of races.
[62] On the Italian collaboration in Antaios cf. H. Th. Hansen, "Julius Evo- la
und die deutsche Konservative Revolution", in Criticón, 158, 1988, p. 16; also
"Nachlese zum-Evola-Jahr", in Criticón, 161, 1999, p. 31, and also "Julios
Evola-100 Jahre. Ein Umdenkungsprozeâ setzt ein, in Zeitschrift für
Ganzheitsforschung", new series, 43, 1999, p. 92).
[63] Later collected in the volume J. Evola, Über das Initiatische, AAGW,
Sinzheim, 1998.
[64] We will quote here three texts which, overcoming the myths so much in
vogue in the Indo-Europeanism of the last decades, situate the original
protopatria in the North, although starting from completely different premises
and with completely different purposes. The first, the aforementioned Omero
nel Baltico, by the engineer Vinci; the second, L. Filian, Zum Urs- prung der
Indogermanen. Forschungen aus Linguistik, Prähistorie und Anthro- pologie,
Habelt, Bonn, 1988 (the ed. is from 1983), in which Adriano Romual- di's ideas
seem to be clearly reflected, although without any direct reference; finally, an
essay that, despite distancing itself from Evola, summarizes cńtically the
positions of Guénon and Tilak, leaving a glimpse of a generic adherence to
"Nordic-polar" ideas: G Costa, Le origini della lengua poetica in- doeuropea.
Voce, coscienza e transizione neolitica, Olschki, Florence, 1998.
 The "Hyperborean Mystery".
Writings on the Indo-Europeans
(1934-1970)
Julius Evola
 The Nordic-Atlantic cycle'1'.

In the emigration of the boreal race, it is convenient to distinguish two

great currents: one going from the north to the south and the other -
posterior - from the west to the east. Bearing the same spirit, the same
blood, the same system of symbols, signs and words, groups of
Hyperboreans first reached North America and the northern regions of
the Eurasian continent. After several tens of thousands of years it seems
that a second wave of emigration advanced to Central America,
concentrating in a single region, now disappeared, located in the
Atlantic region, where it would have constituted a center in the image
of the polar center, which would correspond to the Atlantis of the
stories of Plato and Diodorus. This dis- placement and reconstitution
explain the similarities of names, symbols and topographies that
characterize, as we have seen, the memories related to the first two ages.
It is essentially a Nordic-Atlantic race and civilization that should be
discussed.
From the Atlantic region, the races of the second cycle would have
spread to America (from there would derive the memories, already
mentioned, of the Nahua, the Toltecs and the Aztecs concerning their
homeland beyond the Atlantic, from where the white Quetzalcoatl would
have arrived, a land that coincides, later on, with the paradise of their
kings and heroes) [2], as well as to Europe and Africa. It is very probable
that in the high Paleolithic, these races crossed western Europe. They
would correspond, among others, to the Tuatha of Danann, the divine race
arrived in Ireland from the western island of Avalon, led by Ogma grian-
ainech, the "solar-faced" hero, whose equivalent is the white and solar
Quetzalcoatl, who would have arrived in America with his companions
from the "land beyond the waters". Anthropologically, this would be
the Cro-Magnon man, who appeared, towards the end of the glacial
period, in the west of Europe, specifically in the area of the French-
Cantabrian civilization of the Madeleine, Gourdon and Altami-
30 "The Nordic-Atlantic cycle".

The Cro-Magnon people are certainly superior, both from a cultural and
biological point of view, to the aboriginal type of Glacial and
Mousterian man, to the point that the Cro-Magnon people have been
called "the Hellenes of the Paleolithic". As far as their origin is
concerned, the affinity of this civilization with the hyperborean
civilization, which appears in the vestiges of the peoples of the far
north (reindeer civilization) is very significant. Prehistoric vestiges found
on the Baltic and the cold-Saxon coasts would correspond to the same
cycle, and a center of this civilization would have been formed in a region
that has partly disappeared, the Doggerland, the legen- dary Vineta. Beyond
Spain [3], other waves reached West Africa [4]; Others, later, between the
Paleolithic and the Neolithic, probably at the same time as the races of
purely Nordic origin, advanced across the continent from the
northwest to the southeast, towards Asia, where the cradle of the Indo-
European race is situated, and beyond, as far as China [5], while other
currents traveled along the northern coast of Africa [6] as far as Egypt,
where they reached by sea, the Balearic Islands and Cer- deña, as far as
the prehistoric centers of the Aegean Sea. As far as Europe and the Near
East in particular are concerned, this is where the origin of the
-The megalithic civilization of the Dolmen, known as the "people of the
battle-axe", remains enigmatic (like that of the Cro-Magnon people) for
positive research. These processes took place entirely through great
migratory waves, with ebbs and flows, growths and encounters with
aboriginal races, or races already mixed or even coming from the same
original lineage [7]. Thus, from north to south, from west to east,
civilizations arose by irradiation, adaptations or dominations, civilizations
that originally had, to a certain extent, the same imprint, and often the
same blood, on the basis of a spirituality that resided in the dominating
elites. Wherever inferior races linked to telluric demonism and
impregnated with animal nature are found, memories of struggles have
remained, in the form of myths, where the opposition is always
emphasized against a dark type that did not come. In the traditional
organisms constituted by conquered races, a hierarchy, both spiritual and
ethnic, was established. In India, Iran, Egypt, Peru and many other
places, there are very clear traces of the caste regime.
We have said that, originally, the Atlantic center must have
reproduced the "polar" function of the hyperborean center, and that
this circumstance is the
Julius Evola 31

source of frequent interferences in the matter of traditions and memories.

These interferences, however, should not prevent us from noting, in the
course of a later period but always belonging to the highest pre-history, a
transformation of civilization and spirituality, a differentiation that
marks the transition from the first to the second era - from the
golden age to the silver age - and opens the way to the third era, to
the bronze age or age of the Titans, which, strictly speaking, could be
called "Atlantean", since the Hellenic tradition presents Atlas, as the
brother of Prometheus, as a figure related to the Titans [8].
Be that as it may, anthropologically speaking, it is important to
distinguish in the following areas. Among the races derived from the
original boreal trunk, a first Neolithic group differentiated by
idiovariation, that is to say, by a variation without mixture. This group
was vertebrated by waves whose 'arctic origin is the most direct and
corresponds to the different filiations of the pure Aryan race; we
must then consider a second large group differentiated by
mixtovariation, i.e. by mixing with aboriginal races of the South,
with protomongoloid and negroid races [9]. It is to this second group
that the red race of the last Atlanteans (those who, according to the
Platonic account, would have been separated from their primitive
"divine" nature by reason of their repeated unions with the "human"
race) belong to: it must be considered as the original ethnic stock
of many later civilizations founded by waves moving from the West to
the East (the red race of the Crepto-Egyptians, Eteikretes, Pelasgians,
Lycians, etc.), the Egyptian kefti, etc.) [10] and perhaps also of the
American civilizations, which kept in their minds the memory of their
ancestors coming from the divine Atlantic land "seated on the great
waters". The Greek name of the Phoenicians means precisely the
"reds" and is probably another remembrance of the first
Atlantic navigators of the Neolithic Mediterranean.
Just as from the anthropological point of view, from the spiritual
point of view, two components, one boreal and the other Atlantic,
must be distinguished in the vast matter of the traditions and
institutions of this second cycle. One refers directly to the light of the
North, and largely reflects the original Uranian and "polar" orientation.
The other relates to the transformation that occurred after contact with
the powers of the South. Before examining the meaning of this
transformation, which represents, so to speak, the internal counterpart
of the loss of the polar residence, the first alteration, a precision is
necessary.
32 "The Nordic-Atlantic cycle".

Almost all peoples have a memory of a catastrophe that closes the

cycle of a previous humanity. The myth of the deluge is the form in
which this memory appears most frequently, among the Iranians, the
Mayans, the Chaldeans and the Greeks, as well as in Hindu
traditions, among the peoples of the Atlantic-African littoral, from
the Chaldeans to the Scandinavians. Its original content is,
moreover, a historical fact: it is essentially the end of the Atlantic land,
described by Plato and Diodorus. At a time which, according to some
chronologies mixed with myths, is considerably earlier than that
which, in the Hindu tradition, would have given birth to the "Dark
Ages", the center of the "Atlantic" civilization, with which the various
colonies must have maintained links for a long time before sinking
into the waves. The historical memory of this center disappeared little
by little in the derived civilizations, in which fragments of the ancient
heritage were maintained for a certain time in the blood of the dominant
castes, in the language, in a similarity of institutions, signs, rites and
programs, although later, alteration, division and oblivion ended up
imposing themselves [1l]. The historical memory survived, however,
in myth, in suprahistory. The West, where Atlantis was during its
original cycle, when it reproduced and continued the most ancient
"polar" function, constantly expresses the mystical nostalgia of the
fallen, the melior spes of heroes and initiates. By means of a
transposition of planes, the waters that closed over the Atlantic land
were compared to the "waters of death" that the following post-
diluvian generations, composed of already mortal beings, must cross
initia- tively to reintegrate into the divine state of the "dead", that is,
of the vanished race [12]. The mystery of the "paradise" and of the
places of immortality in general was joined by the mystery of the West
(and even of the North, in some cases) in a corpus of traditional
teachings, in the same way as the theme of those "saved from the
waters" and those who "do not sink in the waters" [13]; from a real,
historical sense - alluding to the elites who escaped the catastrophe and
founded new traditional centers - took on a symbolic sense and
appeared in legends concerning prophets, heroes and initiates. Generally
speaking, the symbols of this race of origins reappeared enigmatically
through a subway way until a relatively recent period, where traditional
kings and dominating dynasties reigned.
Julius Evola 33

Thus, among the Hellenes, the teaching that the Greek gods were
"born" from the Ocean may have had a double meaning, since some
traditions place in the Atlantic (or Nordic-Atlantic) West the ancient
home of Uranus and his sons Atlas and Saturn [14]. It is also here,
moreover, where the divine garden in which the Olympian god Zeus
[15] is generally situated, as well as the garden of the Hesperides,
located "beyond the river Ocean", and which was considered by some as
the daughters of Atlas, the king of the western island. This is the garden
that Hercules must reach in the course of his symbolic labors closely
associated with the conquest of Olympian immortality, labors in
which he had as his guide Atlas, the "knower of the dark depths of the
sea" [16]. The Hellenic equivalent of the Nordic-solar way, of the
deva-yana of the Aryans of India, is the way of Zeus, which, from
the fortress of Cronus - located on the distant sea, on the island of
heroes - leads to the heights of Olympus [17], an eminently western
way. For the reason already indicated, the island where the blond
Radamanto reigns is identified with the Nekya or "land of those who
are no more" [18]. It is also to the West that Odysseus goes to reach the
other world [19]. The myth of Calypso, daughter of Atlas, queen of the
island of Ogygia, the "pole" - the "navel", Om- phalos - of the sea,
obviously reproduces the myth of the garden of the Hespé- rides and
many others that we find among Celts and Irish, and where we also find
the theme of the woman and that of Elysium, as Western is- la.
According to Chaldean tradition, it is in the West, "beyond the deep
waters of death," "those where no ford has ever been and which no one,
from time immemorial, has ever crossed," that we find the divine
garden where Atrachasis-Shamashnapishtin reigns, the hero who
escaped the flood and who thus retains the privilege of immortality.
Garden that Gilgamesh reached, following the western way of the
sun, to obtain the gift of life, related to Sabitu, "the virgin seated on the
throne of the seas" [20].
As for Egypt, it is significant that its civilization has not been a
"barbarian" prehistory. It arose, so to speak, at a single stroke, and is
situated, from the beginning, on a high level. According to tradition, the
first Egyptian dynasties would have been constituted by a race coming
from the West, called the "companions of Horus" -shemsu Heru-,
under the sign of the "first of the inhabitants of the land of the West",
that is to say of Osiris, considered as the eternal king of the "Fields of
Yalu",
34 "The Nordic-Atlantic cycle".

in the "land of the sacred Amenti", beyond the "waters of death" that
break "in the far West", where the external light is extinguished and
the spiritual light of the "land of triumph" [21] is lit, and which,
precisely, alludes, at times, to the idea of a great insular land.
We have already mentioned, in connection with the Far-Oriental
and Tibetan traditions, the "Western paradise" with "trees sprouting
golden fruit as in the garden of the Hesperides", also called Ni- pan -
the Nirvâna - where Midu, "glory", "illuminated light", reigns. Very
suggestive is also, with regard to the mystery of the West, the frequent
image of Midu with a rope, associated with the legend of "the one
who brings [the souls] to the West" [22]. We find the same memory,
transformed into a paradisiacal myth, in the Celtic and Gaelic legends
already mentioned, concerning the "Land of the Living", Mag-Mell,
Avalon, places of immortality conceived as Western lands [23]. In
Avalon the survivors of the race "from above" of the Tuatha de Dannan,
King Arthur and legendary heroes such as Condla, Oisin, Cuchulain,
Loegai- ro, Ogiero the Dane and others would have passed into a
perpetual existence [24]. This mysterious Avalon is equivalent to the
Atlantic "paradise" of which the aforementioned American legends had
spoken: the ancient Tlapalan or Tolan, the "Land of the Sun", or "Red
Land" to which, like the Tuatha in Avalon, both the white god
Quetzalcoatl and the legendary emperors (e.g. Huemac, of the Codez
Chimalpopoca) would have returned and disappeared. The various
historical and supra-historical data find, perhaps, the best expression in
the Mexican chronicle Cakehiquel, which speaks of four Tulan: one,
located in the "direction of the rising sun" (in relation to the American
continent, i.e. in the Atlantic) is called "the land of origin"; the other
two correspond to the regions or centers of America, to which the
emigrated Nordic-Atlantic races gave the name of the original center;
finally, it speaks of a fourth Tulan "in the direction where the sun sets
[i.e. the West proper] and it is here that the God dwells". The latter is
precisely the Tullan of the supra-historical transposition, the soul of the
"Mystery of the West". Enoch is also led to a western place, "to the
end of the earth," where he finds symbolic mountains, divine trees
guarded by the archangel Michael, trees that give life and salvation
to the elect but which no mortal will ever touch until the day of the
Great Judgment [25]. The last echoes
Julius Evola 35

of the same myth reach through subterranean channels to the

Christian Middle Ages, in the form of a mysterious Atlantic land,
where the navigating monks of the monastery of St. Matthias and St.
Alban would have found a city of gold in which Enoch and Elijah, the
"never dead" [26], would dwell.
On the other hand, in the Flood myth, the disappearance of the
sacred land that a dark sea - the "waters of death" - separated from
men, can also be associated with the symbolism of the "ark"; that is,
with the preservation of the "seed of the living" (living in a figurative
sense) [27]. The disappearance of the legendary sacred land may also
signify the transit towards the invisible, the hidden or unmanifested,
of the center that preserves intact the primordial non-human
spirituality. According to Hesiod, in fact, the beings of the first age
"who have never died" continued to exist, invisible, as guardians of
men. To the legend of the city, of the land or of the island swallowed
by the waters, often corresponds that of the subterranean peoples or
the kingdoms of the depths [28]. This legend is found in many
countries [29]. When impiety prevailed on earth, the super-living of the
preceding ages migrated to a "subterranean" - i.e., invisible - residence,
which, by interference with the symbolism of "altitude" is often
situated on mountains [30]. They will continue to live there until such
time as the cycle of decay is completed, and it is possible for them to
manifest themselves again. Pindar [31] affirmed that the way to reach
the Hyperboreans "can be found neither by sea nor by land" and that it
was only thanks to it that heroes such as Perseus and Hercules were
given the chance to survive. Montezuma, the last Mexican emperor,
could only reach Aztlán after having undergone magical operations and
undergone the transformation of his physical form [32]. Plutarch reports
that the inhabitants of the north could enter into relationship with
Cronus, king of the golden age, and with the inhabitants of the
extreme septuplet, but only while dreaming [33]. According to Lie-tsé
[34], the wondrous regions - which refer to both the arctic and the
western regions - "can be reached neither by ships nor by chariots, but
only by the flight of the spirit". In the Lamaist teaching, finally, it is
said that Shambhala, the mystical northern region, "is in my spirit"
[35]. It is thus that the testimonies concerning what was the royal seat
of beings that
were more than human, they survived and took on a supra-historical value,
36 "The Nordic-Atlantic cycle".

serving simultaneously as symbols for states situated beyond life or else

accessible only initiatively or "heroically", sub specie interioritatis.

Notes

[1] [This text corresponds to chapter IV of the second part of the first edition
(Hoepli, Milan, 1934, pp. 251-260) of Rivolta contro il mondo moderno. We
have chosen to propose the first version of the text for a "historical" reason,
because in it the terminology adopted by Evola is associated with terms such as
"Aryan" or "Indo-Aryan" and in later editions they were modified and replaced
by "Indo-European", and because it also allows us to perceive the author's
original intuitions. But we will also add a reason of a "systematic" type; that is,
dictated by the need to offer the reader a collection of writings that are as
contemporary as possible, n. c.]
[2] [Cfr. Emanuela Monaco, Quetzalcoatl. Saggi sulla religione azteca,
Bulzoni, Roma, 1997, n. del c.].
[3] The so-called Tartessos culture (the biblical Tarshish), of which remains
have recently been found near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, can be
considered as an Atlantic center. Cfr. A. Schulten, Tartessos, Hamburg, 1922.
[4] This is the legendary kingdom of Uphaz and the prehistoric African
civilization reconstructed by Frobenius, who, confusing the partial center with
the original headquarters (of which it was probably a colony), mistakenly
identifies it with the Platonic Atlantis. Cf. L. Frobenius, Die Atlantische
Gátterlehre, Jena, 1926 [id. Erlebe Erdteile, Leipzig, 1925]. Italian translation:
I miti di Atlantide, Xenia, Milan, 1993.
[5] Very recent findings in China refer to the remains of a great prehistoric
civilization, similar to the Egyptian-Mycenaean, probably generated by such
waves.
[6] On the prehistoric centers of North Africa, present in the researches of
Herrmann and Bochhardt, cf. A. Bessmertny, Das Atlantisrátsel, Leipzig, 1932,
pp. 42 ff.
[7] In the reconstruction made by H. Wirth, Der Aufgang der Menschheit. Un-
tersuchungen zur Geschichte der Religion, Symbolic und Schrift der atlantisch-
nordischen Rasse, Jena, 1928 - cf. also 1. Kadner, Urheimat und Weg des
Kulturmenschen, Jena, 1931 - one can roughly glimpse the iti- nerarios
described above, by the displacements of the primordial races. No
Julius Evola 37

We have limited ourselves to those absolutely general lines, which in Wirth

himself may be susceptible to endorsement by traditional teachings.
[8] The legend of Atlas holding the weight of the world on his back is, under a
first aspect, that of the sorrow of the titan Atlas who, according to some authors
[cf. Servius, Ad Aeneidem, IV, 247; Hygin, Fabulae, 150] would have
participated in the fight against the Olympians; under a second aspect it can be
seen as a symbol to indicate the same "polar" regency, precisely the function of
"pole" or spiritual "axis" that, after the Hyperboreans, would have been
exercised by the Atlantean peoples. In his exegesis, Clement of Alexandria will
write: "Atlas is an impassible pole, he can also be the immobile sphere and
perhaps, in the best case, he alludes to the immobile eternity", an exegesis that
can also be found in other authors (cf. L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie,
Berlin, 1872, vol. I, pp. 463-464; A. Bessmerntny, Das Atlantisrátsel, cit., p.
46).
[9] The latter probably contain the degenerated residues of the inhabitants of
another prehistoric continent that has disappeared, located in the south,
designated by some as Lemuria. Hence, some modern authors, such as Karsts,
propose the hypothesis of two Atlantis (cf. Bessmertny, op. cit., pp. 111 ff.). Cf.
in the aforementioned work of Wirth the attempt to use, in order to define the
two races derived from the same original root, the so-called Sanineoserological
classifications.
[10] A. Mosso, Le origini della civiltá mediterranea, Milan, 1910, p. 332. It is
also pointed out that the Greek name of the Phoenicians means precisely "the
reds" and that in this element there is clearly a residual memory of the first
Atlantean navigators of the Neolithic Mediterranean.
[11] Traditionally, the flood - the catastrophe of the Atlantic island - appears to
be associated with the punishment of the Titans. For the moment we will only
point out that, in the Hebraic tradition, the "titanic" theme of the Tower of
Babel, which was punished by the "confusion of tongues", could allude to a
period in which the unitary tradition was lost, the different forms of civilization
were dissociated from their common origin, and it was no longer understood
that the catastrophe of the waters closed the "titanic" cycle of Atlantic
humanity.
[12] In the Egyptian traditions it is said that the first prehistoric dynasties were
created by the "dead heroes", which is an allusion to the disappeared divine race
of the West, to the Atlantic groups that came to Egypt. Cf. D. Mereshkowsky,
Das Geheimnis des Westens, Leipzig-Zurich, 1929, pp. 200 ff. and passim,
where many of the Atlantic references in the form of rites and symbols of
antiquity are not without foundation. On the same basis, the aforementioned
theme of the "island of the dead" can be understood in the same sense, i.e., as
transformations of the memory of the sunken "island" of a vanished race.
38 "The Nordic-Atlantic cycle".

[13] For example, Yama, Yima, Noah, Deucalion, Shamashnapitshiri, Romulus

himself, the solar hero Karna of the Mahâbhórata, the Christ in his
aforementioned symbolic miracle, etc. It can also be pointed out that Manu son
of Vivashvant, that is the heir of the solar tradition, survivor of the flood, and
creator of the laws for a new cycle, has as his brother Yama (who is related to
the wrathful Yima, solar king, also survivor of a flood), "god of those who are
not dead"; Thus Minos, with whom there is an etymological relationship, often
appears as the counterpart of Radamanto, who is the king of the "island of the
blessed" or of the "heroes" (cfr. Preller, Griechische Mythologie, cit, II, pp.
129-13 I). In the Indo-Aryan tradition, of the bramacharin, that is, of the one
"who practices Brahman", it is said: "On the back of the wave, in the sea, he is
right practicing asceticism" {Atharva-Veda, XI, 5, 26) [Italian translation:
Atharva Ve- da, UTET, Turin, 1992].
[14] Cf. Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, III, 53, 55, 60; V, 66 [Italian
translation: Biblioteca storica, books I-IV, Sellerio di Giorgianni, Palermo,
1986].
[15] In many, if not all cases, the observation of Piganiol (Es- sai sur les
origines de Rome, Paris, 1917, pp. 142 ff.), that the appearance of Olympian
gods alongside female divinities of the earth was the result of the interference of
cults of Nordic origin with cults of southern origin, is valid. This theme brings
up a legend in which the western garden appears as the place of the nuptials of
Zeus with Hera, nuptials which, as is known, were far from happy.
[16] Cf. Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, II, 5, 11 [Italian translation: Biblioteca,
Adelphi, Milan, 1995]; Hesiod, Theogonia, v. 215 [Italian translation in Esiod,
Opere, Einaudi, Tuńn, 1998].
[I 7] Cf. W.H. Roscher, Die Gorgonen und Verwandtes, Leipzig, 1879, pp. 23-24.
[18] Cf. Strabo, Geographica, I, 3; Pliny, Naturalis Historia, VI, pp. 202 and 202.
ss. [Italian translation: Storia naturale. Vol I: Cosmologia e Geografia, books
1-6, Ei- naudi, Turin, 1982].
[19] W. Ridgeway (The early Age of Greece, Cambridge, 1901, pp. 516-518)
gives a timely relevance to the fact that the belief in the western seat, where
immortality reigns, is characteristic mainly of the peoples who used the
essentially Nordic ritual of cremation, and not that of burial.
[20] Cf. Gilgamesh, X, 65-77; XI, 296-298.
[21] Cf. E.A. Wallis Budge, Egypt in the Neolithic and Archaic Periods,
London, 1902, pp. 165-166. As among the Hellenes, the location in the north
and west of the seat of the immortals often interferes, as well as in certain
ancient Egyptian traditions the fields of peace - Sekhet Hete and the country of
triumph - ta-en-mâ eru - where the divinized dead, in the solar sense, reach by
crossing a passageway in the "mountain", and where "the great chiefs proclaim
eternal life and power for him", also pointed in a sep- ticular direction, and
where "the great chiefs proclaim eternal life and power for him".
Julius Evola 39

tion. Cf. Budge, Book of the Dead, cit. pp. CIV-CV.

[22] Cf. Réville, La Religion Chinoise, Paris, 1889, pp. 520-524. In particular, cf. Lie-
Tse (c. III) on the journey to the West of Emperor Mu, who reaches the "mon-
te" (the Kunlun) and meets the "Mother-queen of the West," Xiwangmu.
[23] Cf. C. Squire, The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland, London,
1909, pp. 34-41; E. Beauvois, "L'Elysée transatlantique et 1'Eden occidental", in
Rewie d'Histoire des religions, vol. II, 1883, pp. 287, 315, 291 and 293; for
Avalon: J. Husserius, Britannicarum ecclesiarum Antiquitas et Primordia, Du-
blin, 1639, pp. 524 et seq. 524 et seq. On the more recent Celtic legends on the
subject of the ship of "heroes" sailing for Flath-Innis, the "noble island," the
"green island" calm amidst the storms of the western ocean, cf. J. Macpherson,
Intmduction to History of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1772, p. 180.
[24] Cf. Alano da Lilia, Prophetia anglicana Merlini, Frankfurt, 1603, pp.
100-101, who compares the place where King Arthur disappears with the place
where Elijah and Enoch disappeared and from which they would one day have
to return. Referring to the land of the Hyperboreans, already in the classical
world, he speaks of beings, often noble ones - e.g. Kroisos - "abducted" to that
land by Apollo (cf. Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyklopádie der classichen
Altertumswissenschaft, Druc- kenmüller, Stuttgart, 1893-1980, IX, pp. 262-
263).
[25] Book of Enoch, XXIV, 1-6; XXV, 4-6. Enoch finds seven mountains in
that land, and in Aztlan, where the high mountain Culhuacan is located, there
are seven groups. Cf. Réville, Les religions du Mexique, de 1'Amerique
centrale et du Pému, Paris, 1885, p. 319.
[26] Cf. Goffredo da Viterbo, Pantheon, Regensburg, 1726, pp. 58-60; E.
Beau- vois, "L'E1ysée transatlantique et l'Eden occidental," in Revue d'Historie
des Re- ligions, vol. VIII, pp. 681-682.
[27] In the Chaldean form of the myth, the gods order Atrachasis to save from
dilution, by "burying" them, the sacred writings of the preceding epoch; that is,
the purpose of wisdom: and such writings are conceived as the "residual
bosom" from which everything, later on, will have to develop.
[28] In certain Norse legends there is, for example, a connection between the
mountain on which an emperor disappears (a mountain equivalent to the
"mountain of the fortune-teller", about which we have already spoken), and a
sunken place or city (cf. J. Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Berlin, 1876, vol. lI,
pp. 819-820). According to tradition, King Yima builds a shelter -vara- which
often appears as "sub-earthly", to save the seeds of the living from the winter and
the waters (cf. Vendidád, II, 22 ff.; Zarádusht-náma, v. 1.640 ff., for the idea of
a carpeted cave or subway palace with iron walls cf. Bundeshah, XII, 20, and
Shanami, IV, 196).
[29] On this, we refer, once again, to R. Guénon, Le Roi du Monde, Paris,
1927, chapters VII-VIII. VII-VIII.
40 "The Nordic-Atlantic cycle".

[30] Thus, in the Irish sagas it is said that the Tuatha retired in part to the
"western paradise" of Avalon, others chose subterranean dwellings - sidhe -
from which the name Aes Sidhe derives; that is, "race of the sung heights" (cf.
C. Squire, The Mythology, cit., p. 41). The two seats are symbolically
equivalent to each other. In Mexican traditions, in the caves of Cha- putelpec is
the entrance to the underworld, where King Huemac II disappeared and from
which he will return one day to rebuild his kingdom (cf. E. Be- auvois,
L'Elysée des Mexicains, cit., pfig. 27). And so on.
[31I índaro, Pythica, X, 29 [Italian translation: Le Pitiche, Mondadori, Milan,
1995].
[32] Cf. E. Beauvois, €'Elysée des mexicains, cit.
[33] Plutarch, De facie in orbe lunae, § 26 [Italian translation: ll volto della
luna, Adelphi, Milan, 1991]. It is known that, according to the ancients, sleep
helped to silence the physical senses, awakening the inner senses, thus favoring
contact with suprasensible forces and beings.
[34] Lie-tsé, chap.
[35] A. David-Néel, La vie surhumaine de Guisar de Ling, Paris, 1931, pp.
XLII, LVII, LX [Italian translation: Vita sovraumana di Gesar di Ling, Ed.
Mediterranee, Rome, 1990].
 The mystery of the prehistoric Arctic:
Thule'1

It is very significant that in the heart of a series of very recent research on

prehistory, ancient ideas, until yesterday considered as myths without
further ado, are appearing.
One of these ideas refers to the legendary primordial land of the
Hyperboreans. Leaving aside the presumed certainty that only an ape-like
humanity would have lived in prehistory, and ready to face the problem of
origins with a fresh and unprejudiced look, one can easily come to
suspect that the Stone Age was the witness of a true and authentic
civilization of a superior type, This idea has been taken up by some
researchers today, who have made this idea a "working hypothesis",
even if only as a symbolic-spiritual reality, and whose aim is none other
than to arrive at a great historical synthesis. The primordial homeland of a
highly civilized prehistoric white race, sufficiently civilized to be
conceived as "divine" by the ancients, would properly have been the
Arctic, the North Pole, the fabulous Hyperborea.
The paradoxical appearance of this thesis turns out to be not so
paradoxical as soon as one remembers what physics teaches about the
phenomena derived from the so-called "precession of the equinoxes".
Because of the inclination of the earth's axis from epoch to epoch, there is
a modification of the climate on earth. If fossil carbon has been found
under the polar ice, this means that there was a time when that area was
covered with forests (and subsequent fires). Freezing would not have
come to the arctic region until a later period. One of the designations for
Asgard, the seat of the "divinities" and the original homeland of the
Norse royal stock, according to Scandinavian traditions, is the "green
island" or "green land", in modern German Grünesland, i.e. Greenland.
But this land, as its name indicates, even up to the time of the Goths
seems to retain a lush vegetation, not yet being totally affected by the
42
42 "The mystery of the prehistoric Arctic: Thule".

freezing. But there is more: recently, in the region of the 'artificial' ice, the
expeditions of the Canadian Genes, the Danish Rasmussen, Therkel and
the American Birket-Smith have made some truly unique archeological
discoveries: at the bottom, under the ice, they have found remains of a
civilization of a much higher level than that of the Eskimos and signs of
even older, prehistoric strata. Such a civilization has been given the
name of Thule civilization. Thule is the name given by the Greeks to
a region or island in the far north, which is often confused with the
lands of the Hyperboreans, where the solar Apollo or, what is the same,
the god of the Doric-Achaean races, who indeed came from the north to
Greece, would have arrived. And of Thule Plutarch says that the nights
lasted, for almost a month, only two hours: it is the "white night" of the
boreal countries. And if other Hellenic traditions call the boreal sea Mare
Cronide, i.e. the Sea of Cronus (Saturn), this is a significant indication,
since Cronus was conceived as one of the gods of the golden age, that is
to say of
the primordial age, the first age of humanity.
If we turn our gaze to America, to the Aztec civilizations of Mexico,
we also find unique correspondences, even down to the names. In fact,
the ancient Mexicans called their primordial homeland Tlapa- llan,
Tullan and also Tulla (the Hellenic Thule). And as the Hellenic Thule
was associated with the solar Apollo, so also the Mexican Tulla was
considered as the "House of the Soi".
But let us confront such Mexican traditions with Celtic ones. If the
very Celtic progenitors of the Mexicans would have arrived in America
from a Nordic-Atlantic land, the Irish legends also speak of a "divine race",
Thuatha dé Danann, who would have arrived in Ireland from the West,
from a mystical Atlantic or Nordic-Atlantic land, Avalon. Both traditions
could be conceived, therefore, as two forms of the same memory. The
two civilizations would correspond to two different irradiations, one
American, the other European, arising from the same center, from a single
headquarters that has disappeared (myth of Atlantis), or has been
frozen. But there is more, in the sense that, if we turn to the field of
modern positive research, we find elements that could very well agree
with these legendary echoes. On the European Atlantic coast (especially in
the so-called culture of the Madeleines) there are very precise traces of a
true civilization and of a type of humanity - the so-called "Madeleine
culture".
Julius Evola 43

Cro-Magnon man - which is far superior in development to the almost

animal-like races of the so-called "Iceman" or "Mussulmans" then
inhabiting Europe. The fragments that have come down to us from this
civilization are of such a nature that, in the words of the researchers, the
Cro-Magnon people could very well be called the Hellenes of the Stone
Age. But might not this Cro-Magnon race, which appeared enigmatically
in the Stone Age along the Atlantic seaboard among inferior and almost
ape-like races, perhaps be the same thing as the Tuatha dé Danann, of the
"divine race" coming from the mysterious Nordic-Atlantic land, spoken of
in the above-mentioned Irish legends? And could not the myths
concerning the struggles between the "divine races" and the races of
"demons" or monsters be interpreted, perhaps, as fantastic echoes of the
struggle established between those two races, between the Cro-Magnon
men, "the Hellenes of the Stone Age", and the animalistic
"Mousterian" men?
Returning to traditional memories, it is not only the Greeks and
Amerindians who remember a primordial arctic seat. According to the
Iranian memories of the Avesta, the original and mystical homeland of
the Aryans, conceived as the "first creation of the God of Light" - the
aryanem vaéjó - would have been a land in the extreme north, and it is
even said that there, at a certain moment, winter began to last ten months
of the year, just as it does in the arctic regions. It is, therefore, a very
precise reminder of the freezing that occurred with the precession of
the equinoxes in the boreal region: a reminder which, moreover,
corresponds to that of the "terrible Fibur winter" unleashed at the end of a
certain cycle, or "world", spoken of in the very ancient Scandinavian
traditions. In India, too, an island or luminous land in the far north, the
çveta-dvipa, and a race in the far north, the uttara-kura, are
remembered; the same memory is preserved in Tibet, in the myth of the
mystical northern city of Shambhala; in the far east Lie-tsé refers to the
tradition about the land situated "at the northern end of the northern sea"
inhabited by "transcendent men"; and so one could go on with many
other references, so concordant, that one has to wonder if one can
attribute to "chance" the presence of the common theme in peoples so
different and distant from each other.
So much, then, for traditional memories. These ideas have now
been taken up again in a truly massive scientific research that,
44 "The mystery of the prehistoric Arctic: Thule".

The results of various researches - such as those of Frobenius,

Herrmann, Karsts, etc. - are brought together to force the question of a
common origin. Following this line, we have to speak here of the
consecrated work of the Dutch scientist Herrmann Wirth, specifically
of the Dawn of Humanity. This is neither a "theosophist" nor an
imaginative dilettante, but a scientist whose competence in the fields of
philology, anthropology, paleogeography and related disciplines
cannot be doubted.
The results of Wirth's research, summarized, would be the
following: that in the highest prehistory - around 20000 B.C. - a great
white unitary race, of solar cult, would have abandoned the polar region
because it was uninhabitable due to its freezing, emigrating towards the
South, to Europe and America, but above all to a land that has
disappeared today, located to the North of the Atlantic. From that site, this
race would have moved successively, in the Paleolithic period, towards
Europe and Africa, in a displacement from West to East; emigration that
would have reached the Mediterranean basin, founding a cycle of
closely related prehistoric civilizations, in which the Egyptian, Etruscan-
Sardinian, Pelasgian, etc. civilizations would be framed, as well as
others, that new waves, that new waves of migration would have
reached the Mediterranean basin, and others, which new waves would
have been founded in their advance across the continent until they
reached the Caucasus and beyond, until they reached India and China.
Thus, what was considered to be the "cradle of mankind," the Pamir
plateau, would be only one of the more recent centers of irradiation of a
much older race. The Aryan and Indo-Germanic races, and homo eu-
ropaeus in general, would be races derived from and, to a certain extent,
mixed with older and purer, "hyperborean" stocks, to which the
memories, symbols and even the prehistoric figurations on rock,
concerning the "foreign conquerors with great vessels", equipped with
"axe", with the "sun", and also represented as the "solar man with raised
arms", refer. A mysterious unity would form the center of a group of
great civilizations and ancient religions flourishing precisely where the
animal-like cave man was supposed to have lived until yesterday.
In short, this is the strange and suggestive conception that, starting
from the realm of myth, comes to light today: the Arctic, seen as the first
country of mankind, even of civilization, in the highest, "solar"
sense.
Julius Evola 45

And since the symbol calls the symbol, to conclude, we will

remember the following. In Roman times the idea of the northern region
as a mystical country, inhabited by the "father of the gods", by the
numen of the first age or golden age, together with the idea that the
almost nightless arctic day is associated with the mythical representation
of the perennial light that illuminates mortals was so vivid that, according
to the testimony of Eumanzio, Constantius Chlorus would have led an
expedition to the north of Britain, confused with the same legendary
Thule, not so much for the desire of military glories, but rather to reach the
land "which is closer to the blind than any other" and almost sense the
divine transfiguration that heroes and emperors were believed to
undergo at the moment of their death.
And these same regions, which would have witnessed the dawn of
humanity, which held the mystery of a race of primordial white
conquerors, whose symbol was the axe, reappear in the same Roman
symbol of fascism; these legendary Nordic-Arctic regions, from Iceland
to Greenland and even North America, are the same ones that yesterday
the Italian wings flew victoriously over, in an enterprise that,
enigmatically, has bequeathed something fateful in those places of vivid
primordial grandeur [2].

Notes

[1] [This is an important article published in // Corriere Padano (Ferrara,

January 13, 1934), in which, on the basis of Hermann Wirth's approaches, the
author analyzes the physical and symbolic meaning of the Nordic origin of the
Primordial Tradition. No other editions of this article are known to us].
[2] [The author refers to the Atlantic crossing by the squadron of 25 seaplanes,
captained by the then Minister of Aeronautics Italo Balbo. It departed on June 1,
1933, and arrived on the 19th in New York, where Balbo was greeted with great
cheers and received by President Roosevelt. On his return to Italy, on August
12, Mussolini appointed him air marshal. Shortly afterwards, on January 1,
1934, Balbo was appointed governor of the occupied Tripolitana and Cirenai- ca
provinces, replacing Pietro Badoglio, n. del. c.]
 Race and CuIture.

The new importance which, as a result of the latest developments in

Germanic political ideology, the race theory has acquired today is
known to all. Discussions of various kinds have arisen about this theory
and its implications. For some, racism is the symbol of a new
spiritualism; for others, it represents the danger of a contaminating
imiption of the biological element on the plane of higher values. There
are those who consider that we are dealing only with a superstitious
myth, since in our days the idea of race seems, to say the least, an
extremely confused matter; and there are those who, on the contrary,
consider that this theory represents the call to a new realism, understood as
the recognition of the deepest substratum on which any organically
creative action must rest. This being the case, it will not be superfluous to
make some considerations and provide some clarifying clarifications:
all the more so since it is not difficult to find connections, even if
involuntary, between the theory of race and the very notion of nation as
lineage, frequently assumed and accepted by many of the reactions that
have arisen against the dangers of the late cosmopolitan civilization.
The premise of racism is decidedly pluralistic. There is no such
thing as "hu- manity". There are many races, and each has special
qualities and characteristics, which cannot be altered without incurring
degeneration and decadence. To the inner, biological and morphological
laws, to which each race is subject, corresponds a soul of its own, a truth
of its own and a singular vision of the world; which may manifest
themselves, or remain latent, but which in essence do not change with the
passing of the centuries. Hence, a pluralism that is also cultural and
spiritual. For so many races, so many "truths", so many conceptions of
the world. This denies the possibility of being able to speak - in the
absolute sense of the term - of the
47 "Race and Culture."

justice, or even less of a certain vision of the world. One can speak of it
only in relation to a given race, to the aims and the will of existence and
power of that race; and even the truths which are healthiest for one
race, because they are biologically innate in it and are suitable for the
manifestation of its life, may in many cases represent for a different race
not only a grave danger, but its own end. Racism means, therefore, re-
knowledge of a certain differentiation of men: relationship between a
certain group of men and a "type"; purity of the trunk or root of the
lineage against foreign elements, whether ethnic or cultural; intimate
adherence of the individual to the tradition of his own blood and to the
"truths" that are intimately linked to the blood; elimination of any
mixture.
This is the most recent form of the doctrine of race. Two elements are
therefore recognizable. Race is not only considered as a biological
concept, but also as a cultural concept. But what is the relationship
between the one and the other? What is the common reference? To
understand racism, to delimit the scope of its claims, to assimilate the
positive aspects, it is necessary to address this problem.
Racism, understood as a reaction against an abstract universalism,
against the enlightenment-rationalist ideal of "immortal principles valid
for all"; as a demand for a differentiated and organic type of truth, capable
of finding its echo in the deepest forces of our being; only under this aspect
does racism certainly represent something positive and salutary. But just
as clearly, however, it must be recognized that racism becomes an
aberration wherever it is thought that an almost zootechnical defense and
culture of race in its simply bio-logical and empirical aspect can eo ipso
be equivalent to something creative or decisive. If the preservation or
reintegration of the purity of the animal race can be everything, in man it
may constitute a necessary condition in certain respects, but in no case
sufficient: the "race" factor does not exclusively define man.
Nor does one go much further than this naive materialism when one
speaks no longer of "race" but of the "spirit" of the race, thus passing on
to a sort of mysticism of blood. In reality, the mystique of race
characterizes the lowest types of human society; it is the quality of
primitive societies of the totemic type. The totem is the mystical soul of
the
Julius Evola 48

tribe and the horde, elevated to taboo and conceived as the intimate
vital force of the individual members of the clan, as the soul of their
soul, as the primary element. This is undoubtedly the state in which the
individual feels above any group, race or tribe, extracting from it his
fundamental distinctive traits, not only biological but also psychic. There is
also a racism which, as a mystique of blood mu- tatis mutandis, leads to
such a level and thus, despite all appearances, to naturalistic and
ultimately pre-personal forms of life: it constitutes a danger as serious as
that of the universalism it combats. Race remains here as nature and
each of its claims to the values of personality and culture has a
prevaricating character.
In Germany, the racists do nothing but talk about Aryanism. But in
reality they are far from understanding this concept, which could have
led them to a higher vision. In fact, according to the original
conception of the term, árya was synonymous with dvija, i.e.
"regenerated" or "twice-born". A transcendent act - initiation -
arrested his nature, and in the Mánavadharmaçástra (11, 172) it goes so
far as to say that, if the árya does not practice such a rite, then he cannot
really be differentiated from the çúdra, that is, from the element that
constituted the dark and servant castes, originally formed by the
aborigines subjugated by the Aryans. If we take "initiation" in its
traditional sense (relating to inner horizons today almost completely
forgotten) but in its analogical sense of culture, understood as an action
by which the individual frees himself from his own naturalistic-material
element, reacts against this element and imposes on it a higher law: only
then do we have the fundamental premise for reaching a higher
conception of the doctrine of race.
When a being owes every form and every basis of its life
exclusively to instinct and blood, that being still belongs to "nature. In
the case of a human being, he may develop on such a basis including
superior qualities, but such qualities will always remain an expression of
nature, never a clear domain of personhood: like the splendid racial traits
that can be found, for example, in a tiger and in every "thoroughbred".
One does not pass from the realm of nature to that of culture (in the
above-mentioned, classical sense, and not in the modern sense of
instruction, erudition, etc.) if not through the
49 "Race and Culture."

manifestation of a different force, which is present in the simple

element as the soul is in the body, formed in its image: the laws and
instincts of organic nature are not the basis and principle of the spiritual
faculties and of the truths proper to a given blood, but the other way
around. Here we find a style, which is taken as raw material and vehicle
of "nature", but without being reduced to it, while at the same time
testifying to the presence and formative action of an element of a
metabiological order. Only this "style" forms an elevated sense, referring
to man as man and not as animal, that is to say a "superior" being;
only this can be called race.
In the animal kingdom and in primitive social forms race is an
element belonging to the biological plane, where it begins and ends,
appearing only as a mere datum, detached from any creative initiative,
and collectively predetermined; when we speak of man, "race" is no
longer on this plane, although it can manifest itself there1: It becomes
visible through a typified and well-determined complex of qualities,
attitudes, dispositions, sensibilities and interests which, however, in the
final analysis, turn out to be only signs and symbols for a fact of a
spiritual nature. Culture as a deep substratum of race.
When ancient traditions spoke of the "divine" origins of certain
races; when in our classical antiquity the patriciate claimed its own
dignity on the basis of having as its own a sacred heritage linked to that
of blood, initiated by a "hero" or demigod founder of the lineage, and
connected with a ritual tradition; also when árya was synonymous with
"regenerated" or the Iranian-Aryan ruling castes defined themselves as
particular forms of a "heavenly fire", etc., etc. In all these examples, and
many others that we could give, we observe that, leaving behind the
merely mythical and symbolic aspect, we really find the meanings of
which we spoke before. And we arrive, therefore, at an opposition: the
opposition between civilizations in which race means culture and
civilizations in which race means nature. In approaching the problem of
racial differences, beyond purely empirical race, it can only be solved
by introducing the distinction between superior races and inferior races.
As a man, who is all the more worthy of the name the more he knows
how to give a form and a law to his character, to his tendencies and to
his
Julius Evola 50

actions (form and law that end up being reflected also in its external
appearance); thus a race will be so much higher when ethnic tradition
is accompanied by a dominating spiritual tradition, almost like body and
soul, and the more indivisible is the union of one and the other
element.
On the contrary, the current revival of the inferior and natural concept
of race can only act negatively. In fact, today there are values of
"civilization" which are not of spirituality, but of intellectuality and
which, in contrast to the concept of civilization, are extrinsic elements,
subordinate to the values of "blood" and "race". At the center of the
question and as a taboo is then placed a purely accumulative and
collectivist entity, which admits culture only as an instrument of nature,
with the consequent subordination of all value, of all truth and of all
dignity of the personality to the lowest will of existence and power of
the race. In this line one inevitably arrives at a radical irrationalism,
which is a very dangerous deviation for the elements of all true
human greatness, a deviation as serious as that of the anti-racist and
intemative rationalism which it was intended to combat.
It is normal that within the framework of the naturalistic
conception, the hygiene of race, the defense of simple ethnic purity
against the outside, together with a basic rejection of all that is of
"others", form a sort of universal panacea, although at this level,
practically, it does not go beyond the stage of myth. If the true center is
conceived as race as "nature", in the present state of race mixing it
seems inconceivable to look for racial elements that can serve, because
of their purity, as a solid basis for a racial hygiene, this will be nothing
more than a hopeless undertaking. Possibly, it would be more useful to
act in a negative sense, that is to say, preventing further mixtures; and
not in a positive sense, that is to say, reintegrating creatively and in an
individualistic and "civilized" way the original force of the blood in
the whole of the altered and vacillating ethnic trunks. Nor would it be
worthwhile, on the basis of the "mystique of blood", to draw on ancient
traditions and ancient mythologies of the lineage: if we do not change the
plan, it is only worthwhile as an emergence of the irrational and the
primitive or, in other words, of elements inferior and not superior to
the world of the common culture which, although it has ended up
perverting itself in its deviations, it should not be forgotten that it
contributed the
bases for the inner formation of western man.
51 "Race and Culture."

Turning now to the other conception, that is, to the idea of race not as
nature but as culture, we observe how the defense of race presents and
implies a double condition. To understand race as per- fectioning,
selection or even as the formation of nature starting from a higher
force and transmitted through bio- logical and ethnic inheritance, to
preserve and defend this same inheritance, but in addition to this, it is
also necessary to understand race as a way of life, a way of life, a way
of life, a way of life, a way of life, a way of life.
-And above all to keep alive that spiritual tension or inner formative
soul which raised matter to that concrete form. Hence the error of racists
like Gobineau: the decadence of a civilization is not due - as they
claim - to the result of the mixing of the superior race in origin with
different races; the real cause is not its ethnic, biological or
demographic decadence, but that races with a civilization of their own
decline when their spirit decays, when the inner tension to which it
owed its "form" and its "type" disappears: It is then that the race
mutates or becomes corrupt, because it is corroded within its own
root. Then the ethnic and biological elements are deprived of their
intimate connection with those which have held fast to the unity of a
form, and any altering action will suffice to produce rapidly the
degeneration and comiption, the decline or mutation not only morally,
but also ethnically and biologically of that stock. In that case it returns
to the plane of the simple forces of nature, subjected to the
contingencies proper to that plane.
Certainly, we must take ethnic purity-wherever we can speak of
correspondence with reality-as the most favorable condition for the
"spirit" of a race to maintain its original strength and power, just as in the
individual the health and integrity of the body are the guarantee for the full
efficiency of the higher faculties. Just as a morally constituted man, with
a strong will, never makes his own internal life dependent on the
external. Similarly, when a race has as its soul and basis a true and full
culture, the mere fact of its contact and intermingling with other races
will not necessarily bring about its ruin. It may even happen that its
spirit reacts like an invisible and irresistible ferment on the foreign
elements, until it reduces them and includes them in its own type. It is
not necessary to recall that there are many historical examples of this
process, which really lies at the basis of the very process involved in the
passage from the idea of race to the idea of empire.
Julius Evola 52

And this is a very important element for the opposition to which I

alluded earlier. There where the naturalistic idea can only lead to a limiting
par- ticularism, to a petty and envious exclusivism that equals, most of the
time, to a fear of horizons before whose vastness one feels only
impotence. Even so, as we were saying, in the superior idea of race is
implicit the potentiality of the imperial function, which suggests the
overcoming of both the leveling internationalism and the disintegrating
racism. And precisely Mussolini writes that "the tendency to empire is
a manifestation of vitality; while its opposite is only a sign of
decadence". What truly and spiritually shapes a race also leads it
fatally beyond itself.
Let us make one last consideration. It is implicit in its very concept,
that every "return" to race as nature can only present a collectivist
character and, in its political applications, a demagogic one; even if an
attempt is made to disguise this demagogy under mystical forms or
authoritarian structures. It is a return of the omnipotence of the pure
demos, it is the advent of the "mass spirit", the reincarnation of the
"primordial horde".
The "return" to the race according to the other conception means,
on the other hand, a return to its internal tradition, and is closely
connected to the idea of a Duce (of a guide, a leader) and of a
hierarchical order. If the race is a formation from above, a triumph of
"culture" over "nature," then the renewal of the primordial formative
force that beats in its bosom cannot be effective in practice if not through
a clear-headed elite, a firm yearning, an immovable superiority; an elite
that will act in a double sense. First of all, through its function of order,
authority, formation and articulation of the social whole, in the terms in
which a State flees from entelechy; that is to say, the vital articulating
principle that arises from within, in the heart of the nation. Secondly,
acting as an action of presence. We mean that the chiefs, as eminent
encamations of the "type" of the race, present themselves as "ideals
in action" and, as such, reactivate a deep latent force in the individuals,
hence the magic of the enthusiasm and the spirit that they arouse due
to a true recognition and a heroic and conscientious dedication, far from
any passive collective suggestion. This is exactly the idea expressed
by Mussolini when he spoke of the lineage not as a canti-naturalistic
type, but rather as a "multitude", a collectivity or a unity of a
naturalistic type.
53 "Race and Culture."

The unified multiplicity of an idea", an idea that "in the people

becomes an act in the form of the conscience and will of a few, or
rather of One, who personifies the ideal acting in the conscience and
will of all". It is then that the manifold forces of a lineage, fatally bound
to alteration and disintegration when they are deprived of their inner
self and abandoned to the contingencies of material, ethnic or even
political factors in a restricted sense, find a solid and living point of
unity through a galvanizing contact.
And this is the conclusive point: against the return of the mystique
of the "primordial horde", of the racist ideology that subordinates
everything to the right of a mere community of blood, land or origin,
the aristocratic conception and tradition of race as a manifestation of a
force of "culture" is opposed, a tradition that finds its natural coronation
in the Roman idea of the Imperium.

Note

[l] [The present work was the first of Evola's writings to be positively and
explicitly valued by Mussolini. Published in the journal La Rassegna ita- liana
(Rome, 188/XVII, 1934), and as noted in the introduction, the Du- ce
communicated to the editorial staff his congratulations, n del. c.]
 Mediterranean Prehistory'1'.

The very recent prehistoric finds from excavations in Sardinia and

along the Ligurian coast have rekindled the need to shed light on
Mediterranean prehistory. This region, which was to become a fateful
melting pot of the most varied civilizations until the rise of the Roman
Empire, what races did it harbor at the dawn of time? There are those
who have even spoken of a Negroid Mediterranean race; those who
have established a relationship between those "very ancient
barbarians" Siculo-Ligurians, of whom Diogenes of Halicarnassus
speaks, and the mysterious Pelasgians; and, finally, those who have
brought into play proto-Mongoloid and, later, Iberian, Camitian and
Indo-Germanic stocks. We will say, therefore, something in relation
to this subject, to be able to orient the readers in this suggestive but
complex matter, that day by day seems to be taking shape out of the
dense fog of the origins.
Let us go back to the beginning. If we look at the most ancient traces
of European mankind, we see that there are elements available which
seem to corroborate the erroneous Darwinian hypothesis of the ani- mal
descent of man. These very ancient traces, arranged from multiple
fragments, refer us to the so-called Homo Neanderthalensis, which
preceded the relatively more recent type of Homo Mousteriensis of the
Dordogne caves. Whether in one case or the other, it is a human type
of exceptional morphological brutality, of a bes- tiality which cannot be
made to correspond to any of the currently existing races, not even in
Australia. When speaking of these cavemen, we place ourselves in the
upper quaternary, at the end of the "glacial" period. And, in particular,
the Mousterian "civilization", that is to say, the civilization related to
this animal-like man, seems to have been present in a large part of
continental Europe.
55 "Mediterranean prehistory".

But in the Mediterranean we also find other indications, the so-

called Grimaldi race. With it, unfortunately, it does not go much
higher. It is a human type reconstructed on the basis of finds obtained in
the Principality of Monaco and later located in other places; this type
has been defined by many as being of Negroid origin, so much so as to
suggest the existence of a Paleolithic civilization center located in
southern Africa, from where it would have spread to the Mediterranean
and the European continent in general, before the end of the
Quaternary.
However, some elements provided to support this hypothesis are
very uncertain. Thus, for example, the well-known female statuettes with
a monstrous accentuation of the parts relating to fertility and maternity.
Here, the element, not realistic, but symbolic, to which such figurations
should refer, is overlooked. Precisely the idea of universal fecundation,
and not an ethnic character, is what was intended to be represented by a
sought-after deformation that, in itself, would be reminiscent of the
negroid type. Even the Diana of Ephesus, with huge breasts,
corresponds to such an idea: but surely no one, to explain it, would
resort to a corresponding ethnic type. In any case, it is a widespread
tendency to admit as an appendix to the "Mousterian" cycle a race, if not
negroid, at least of short stature, rather brachycephalic, and whose
characteristic type is embodied in the so-called Lau- gerian-Chaneclade
man. But it is surprising how, suddenly, in the bosom of such inferior
races an absolutely different civilization makes its appearance: it is the
"Magdalenian" civilization of the so-called Cro-Magnon man. Thus, if
before the reconstruction and representation of the Neanderthalensis,
Mousterian and Negroid Abono, we feel repugnance when considering
this animal type as belonging to our own gealogical line, this repugnance
disappears before another human type, that of Cro-Magnon: We
willingly recognize ourselves as descendants of this human type with a
flattened forehead and full of nobility, whose face no longer shows the
simian prognathism, and whose artistic remains, as a key piece of their
civilization, are such that they have led an archaeologist to affirm that
the Cro-Magnon could very well be called the Hellenes of the paleo-
lithic: a Helad, therefore, fifteen thousand years before Christ!
On the other hand, the appearance of the Cro-Magnon in Europe
constitutes a mystery. In fact, it is not possible to conceive of such a
race as a product
Julius Evola 56

of "evolution" from the preceding Mousterian races: the time span is too
short for such a biological transformation to have been possible.
Moreover, it must be taken into account that we cannot speak of a
development, but of the practical disappearance of the Mousterian
civilization: at a certain moment, almost as if it had exhausted its vital
possibilities, the Mousterian race ceases to appear in the prehistoric
remains. Where, then, did Cro-Magnon man, the "Paleolithic
Hellenist", come from?
A silent clue to this exciting question comes from the fact that not only
the most important traces of the Cro-Magnon themselves, but also that the
other populations supposedly derived from them, are found mainly in the
western Atlantic regions of Europe, even in Africa and, in general, in the
Mediterranean, almost as if by a migratory wave that penetrated this region
through the ancient "Colum- nas of Hercules". In this way, we arrive at the
hypothesis of a western Atlantic race, which would have arrived from the
sea, from the Atlantic, being the same and very ancient race, but
appearing in Europe more or less when the cycle of the Mousterian
civilization of the bestial man - and, therefore, very different from Cro-
Magnon - was about to die out; and, in any case, subjugating or destroying
the ancient European and Mediterranean-European aboriginal populations,
or mixing, in some occasions, with them.
If this hypothesis is accepted as plausible, then, once again, the famous
Platonic account of Atlantis comes to mind. The Cro-Magnons, the
true progenitors of Western man, could have been waves of biologically
superior and highly civilized populations arriving in Europe and Atlantic
Africa from an Atlantic or Nordic-Atlantic continent that has now
disappeared: Atlantis for some, Thule or Hyperborea for others. Not
only the mystery of the new Paleolithic races, but also the same affinity
positively verified between Cro-Magnon men and the Atlantic-Skimo
races would be clarified, since the arctic zone would be a fragment of the
dis-appeared Atlantic-Hyperborean continent.
On the other hand, if we go from prehistory to myth, we will have
several elements in singular agreement with these ideas. Thus, for
example, the very ancient Gaelic legends tell us of the "divine" race of
the Thuata of Danann who, coming from the mysterious Atlantic or
Nordic-Atlantic land of Avalon, would have arrived in Ireland,
destroying there
57 "Mediterranean prehistory".

the animalistic and "demonic" races of the Fumori, who formerly

inhabited it: does not such an account spontaneously induce one to
think of a memory of the arrival of the Cro-Magnon men and their
struggles with the aborigines belonging to the bestial Mousterian man?
Many other legends of the same plot could be traced in the
mythologies and folklore of the peoples of Europe and West Africa.
Moreover, the recent investigations of Frobenius, carried out in our own
colonies [2], are destined to open unsuspected horizons for us. On the
other hand, like an echo, the memory, the nostalgia and the secret of a
mysterious Western sacred land have survived until relatively recent
times. To the West, "beyond the Ocean Sea", lies the garden of the
Hesperides, where Heracles obtained the fruits of immortality.
Western, according to the Hellenes, are the "fortunate islands" or "of the
heroes" and, likewise, the Chaldean hero Gilgamesh goes to the West
to obtain the plant of perennial life.
From the West the divine king Horus would have come to Egypt with
his followers, and in the West the Egyptian traditions place the
mythological aspect of "king of the Land of Triumph" of this god-king.
To the western and Atlantic Mag-Mell, the "plain of delights," the
Celtic heroes are attracted; and to cite many other forms of the same
motif in European and Mediterranean peoples, there would be no
more difficulty than to face the problem of a vast possibility of choice.
In all of this could not perhaps be hidden the obscure memory of the
original prehistoric homeland, the nostalgia for the origins among the
descendants of the "Hellenes of the Paleolithic", the prehistory that
becomes myth and that as myths is transmitted as an "enigmatic
testimony"?
Aboriginal residues, "Atlantean" veins, other races of Asian origin,
later new elements with an even more elevated culture, as well as
those of a purer Nordic-Western origin: these are the main ethnic
components with which the Mediterranean world presents itself at the
threshold of historical times. After this, it would certainly be interesting
to contemplate the role that, from the spiritual and religious point of
view, as well as ethnic, has corresponded to these encounters or dis-
encounters of primordial races in the Mediterranean, from the
Pelasgians to Rome. But this is another question, which would lead us
too far beyond the limits I have set for myself in these notes: although,
perhaps, we or others will return to this path.
Julius Evola 58

Notes

[1] [This article, published in ll Regime Fascista (Cremona, IX, March 21,
1934), is little known and presents some analogies with Evo- la's theses
expressed in // mito del sangue (Hoepli, Milan, 1942, pp. 162-165). However,
in this book he polemicizes with Wirth's theses and some intuitions are
missing, which are nevertheless developed here, n. c.].
[2] [Evola refers here to the colonies that Fascist Italy possessed at that time in
Africa, n. of the t.].
 Sense of the
Nordic-Aryan thesis'1

In the manifesto of the Italian intellectuals that preluded the definitive

position of Fascism in the face of racism and Hebraism, among
other things, it was affirmed that the "Italian race" was of the Nordic-
Aryan type. Unfortunately, after this affirmation, which has the value
of a happy intuition, little has been done to undertake research or to
draw general, historical and cultural frameworks on this thesis, suitable
to confirm and clarify it. On the contrary, certain intellectual circles,
among which racism is only very recent, have not only failed to take
this thesis into consideration, but have often defended very different
opinions in a dilettante manner, without apparently encountering any
opposition or resistance. As a result, this environment certainly does
not offer, to the outsider, the best example of unity or solidity of
positions in the field of Italian racism.
As far as we are concerned, we are of the opinion that the thesis
of the Nordic-Aryan origin of what is generally called "Italian race", is
the thesis that must be maintained and sustained more than any
other. However, it is necessary to draw attention to any possible
misunderstandings by providing adequate clarifications.

The meaning of the thesis

First of all, it should be pointed out that the meaning of this thesis
does not suppose that all the Italian people present a direct
correspondence with the Nordic-Aryan physical and spiritual type.
Instead, what it maintains is that among the various racial components
present in the Italian stock there is also that of the Nordic-Aryan race,
and that this component is the most important, because it has been the
element that has allowed the action of
60 "Sense of the Nordic-Aryan thesis".

selection, purification and exaltation of the general Italian racial type

and, therefore, deserves to occupy the most prominent place in the
Italian racial typology.
But it can be objected that such a vision is anti-Italian or, in other
words, by accepting the Nordic-Aryan thesis, the Italian people would
recognize the alleged superiority defended by foreign peoples,
especially Germanic, while undervaluing the Italian and, in general,
Latin element. This objection is very frequent, but it derives either from
a lack of interest in deepening the meaning we give to certain terms
here, or from ignorance of the general problem of origins, today posed
on very different bases from those of the preceding historical,
prehistoric and anthropological research.
We will say, therefore, that for us "Aryan" and "Nordic-Aryan" are
by no means synonymous with "Germanic" or "German". The
Germanic races are but one of many branches of the Nordic-Aryan
stock. And not only this: they were the latest to appear on the scene of
great history - in the period of the so-called barbarian invasions -
while other Nordic-Aryan strains have for centuries, or even millennia,
already created and developed higher forms of civilization in India,
Iran, the eastern Mediterranean itself, in the Hellas and in Rome. It is
not, therefore, in any case, the idea, untenable in our opinion, of a
direct derivation of the best elements of our people from Germanic
races. The true meaning of the thesis in question is that the highest racial
and spiritual heritage that has manifested itself in the properly Nordic
civilizations, has also manifested itself in the Italian race,
corresponding - with respect to the physical data - to the type that
has been called by different researchers and by Sergi [2] himself
"Mediterranean": dolichocephalic type, with the same proportion in the
limbs, the same facial index and other characteristics of the Germanic
and Nordic type, but the brown and not blond type prevailing. The
Italian Mediterranean type would therefore be a different mode of
appearance, depending on certain historical conditions and under the
influence of a different environment, of the same Nordic-Aryan
primordial nucleus, of which the Germanic breeds are also a derivation
and manifestation.
Our thesis, then, far from signifying a submissive and humiliating
acknowledgment of the Germanic races' claim to superiority,
Julius Evola 61

is rightly aimed at criticizing such a claim, maintaining that the Italian

race, in its most valid nuclei, has the full right to trace its origins back to
the same origin, to qualify itself as Nordic-Aryan and, therefore, with
the possibility of claiming for itself an identical mission of dominion
and a superior historical direction.
It is only in order to make such assertions persuasive and documented
that it is necessary to go back to historical times which, as we have
said, are far removed from the studies currently being carried out in the
field of racism. Thus, referring to pre-Aryan Italy, we will say, for
example, that there were certainly non-Aryan populations there, but that
not a few of the branches commonly considered as such in reality
represented the remains or involuted and decadent forms of originally
Aryan peoples and civilizations, but much older, settled in the
Mediterranean as early as the Megalithic period: because of their
antiquity, these Italic Aryan elements can almost be considered
aboriginal, these population groups being found in our peninsula
long before the penetration of those Celtic or Central Danubian
elements, which many researchers want to consider as the only Aryan
elements of pre-Roman Italy.
Rome, which in the purest and most virile forms of its spirituality,
ethics and law shows an undeniable correspondence with the typical
traits that in comparative research are typical of all Indo-European
civilizations of Nordic-Aryan origin, must be considered as a kind of
revival and rebirth of the archaic Aryan Italic heritage, although
manifested by ways that are still enigmatic to us.

The invasion period

Let us now turn to the period of the invasions. Here, when

referring to Germanic races, it is not quite accurate to pronounce sic et
simpliciter "barbarians", to claim, like certain foreign racists, that it was
only through these waves that pure blood and Aryan spirituality migrated
southward to a "semi-itized" and decadent Mediterranean. We do not
dispute that the Romanity of the lower Empire was composite both in
race and in spirit. But it is also possible to speak of an involution in
reference to the Germanic races; these abandoned in last place some
dominions
62 "Sense of the Nordic-Aryan thesis".

which had been rendered uninhabitable by increasing freezing. This

meant that, having been preserved from contact with other peoples
(and thus from inevitable interbreeding), such races were able to retain
a greater degree of physical purity. But, on the other hand, the adverse
conditions of environment and climate, together with a continuous
struggle, led them to a materialization and an involution of spiritual
traditions and customs, which is why they could be seen as "barbarians".
This is also the reason why the Germanic races in the first period of the
invasions were not able to exert any notable influence on the Roman
world, nor were they even able to put up a viable opposition to
Christianity: instead, in many cases these races forgot their most original
traditions and became rapidly Byzantinized. Only later, through a
process of reciprocal integration of their blood and latent "barbarian"
heritage with their Aryan heritage, did they succeed, in spite of
everything, in recovering the symbol and tradition of Rome in the
superior type of civilization of the Germanic-Roman Middle Ages and
the Holy Roman Empire.
A few words, in conclusion, on "latinity". It would be convenient to
make as little use as possible of this much abused and ambiguous
term. It is clear that Rome exerted a formative action on the
subordinate peoples - of very diverse races - who were most in contact
with it: these are the so-called "Romanic" peoples, the group of which
corresponds precisely to the term "Latinity". But here insufficient account
is taken of what Romanity really meant, which, as is well known, also
presented diverse aspects and gathered in itself different influences.
Those who insist on Aryan or Nordic-Aryan Rome are therefore
making a discri- mination and believe that, with such terms, they can
indicate the pre- vailing influence that manifested itself in ancient
Roman history, which was by no means fully assimilated or
adequately developed by all the peoples considered genetically
Romanic.
Once things have been thus stated, the fear and suspicions regarding
the Nordic-Aryan thesis present in our racism are revealed to us as
unjustified, and a more objective investigation can thus be
undertaken, giving each one his due.
Julius Evola 63

Notes

[1] [This article, published in ú Regime Fascista (Cremona, XV, July 12, 1940),
is the first to appear after the proclamation of the racial laws and Italy's entry
into the war. Its tone is more inclined to emphasize and draw attention to the
"heroic" and insists on giving greater relevance to the "Nordic-Aryan" spiritual
heritage present in the Italian ethos. Soon after, Evola will begin to criticize
Italian racism, criticisms first expressed in the article "La situazione del
razzismo in Italia", in La vita italiana (CCCXXXVI, February 1941), n. del c.].
[2] [Of D. Sergi, an Italian author of racist tendencies, Evola knew: Arii e Ita-
fici, Turin, 1893; Origine e diffusione della stirpe mediterranea, Turin, 1895;
Gli Arii in Europa e in Asia, Turin, 1903; Europa, Turin, 1908; L'uomo, Turin,
1911; Italia. Le origini, Turin, 1919; Da Albalonga a Roma, Turin, 1934. Cf. J.
Evola, Il Mito del Sangue, Hoepli, 2' ed., Milan, 1942, p. 303, and Rivolta
contro il mon- do moderno, cit.]
 The Latin Equivalent.

Until yesterday - that is, until Italy's entry into the war - the old myth
of the antithesis between what is Latin and what is Germanic had as
its logical counterpart the other myth of "Italian fraternity", of the
fundamental unity of the civilization and spirit of the "Latin" peoples.
And this last myth, in spite of everything, has not entirely lost its
credence in certain intellectual circles.
But there is a great misunderstanding concerning this question,
which needs to be clarified. What is really meant by the term "Latin"?
And to which domain is this expression referring?
We have intentionally emphasized that the intellectual circles, in
which the aforementioned myths are much appreciated and in which
the antithesis between the Latin element and the Nordic or Germanic
element is insisted upon, are composed of nothing but half-baked
intellectuals and literati. In reality, as it is commonly used, the term
"Latin", like that of "Latin civilization", has a certain meaning only on
condition that it refers to an aesthetic, "humanistic" or literary level. It
refers essentially, therefore, to the world of the arts and of "culture" in
the most external sense of the term. Latinity", here, is more or less a
synonym for the "Roman" element: it refers, therefore, to the reflections
of the formative action of ancient Rome preserved by certain peoples
already included in the orbit of the Roman Empire, of the language of
Rome or the Latin language.
But if one were to examine the question more closely, one would
immediately realize that this "Latinity", a reflection of the ancient
Greek-Roman, "classical" civilization, or whatever one wants to call
it, is only something very external: we would say that it is almost like
a varnish that strives uselessly to conceal differences, whether ethnic
or spiritual, which - as history shows us up to the present day - can
even be translated into
65 "The Latin equivocal".

true internal antitheses. Unity, as we said, does not subsist outside the
world of letters and arts, especially under a markedly "humanist"
interpretation of them: it subsists also on the philological level, but
there even in a very precarious way, after the indisputable belonging of
the Latin language to the general trunk of the Indo-European languages
has been fully accepted. Thus, to put it bluntly, the much-lauded
"Latinity" does not attain any of the truly creative and original strengths
of the peoples who would have it in common. It is only a façade, in no
way essential, but an accessory. And there is more: it would be
appropriate to review the meaning of that classical "Greco-Roman"
world from which Latinity would have derived and to which humanists
render a truly superstitious cult.
But there is still another point to be made: we will say that the
"classical" myth is very similar to the "enlightenment" myth, which
tries to make people believe that only with the "conquests" of the
Renaissance and with the developments that, step by step, led to
encyclopedism and the French Revolution were possible and that, after
the "darkness" of the Middle Ages, the "true" civilization would emerge.
This aestheticist and rationalist mentality is also at work in the classical
myth. What counts as "classical" is a civilization which - whether we
speak of Rome or Greece - in more than one respect, and despite its
outward splendor, already presents itself to us as a form of decadence: it
is the civilization that arose when the cycle of the previous heroic,
sacred, virile and properly Aryan civilization, whether with respect to
its Hellenic or Romanic origins, was on its downward slope.
It is important to underline that, if we go back to that world of
origins, the term "Latin" assumes a totally different meaning, a
meaning all the more different if we relate it to the myths already
mentioned above. This is not the best occasion to expand on the most
recent research concerning races and traditions of Italian prehistory. We
will only say the following: the term "Latin" originally served to
designate people whose racial kinship with the group of Aryan and
even Nordic-Aryan peoples appears to be uncontestable. The Latins
constituted a migration - pushed as far as central Italy - of that other
race whose people practiced the rite of cremation of corpses, which was
opposed to the Osco-Sabin civilization characterized by the funerary
rite of burial, and whose relationship with
Julius Evola 66

Mediterranean and pre-Aryan Asiatic-Mediterranean civilizations is

equally evident.
Among the most ancient traces left, almost like a stele, by the
peoples from which the Latins emerged, those of the Valcamonica
stand out. After analyzing these traces, we find a significant
correspondence with the prehistoric remains of the Aryan-Atlantic
(Altamira civilization) and Nordic-Aryan (Fossum civilization) races.
And not only this: new affinities appear with respect to the civilization of
the Dorians, who came to Greece from the north and founded Sparta:
corresponding manifestations - Rome and Sparta - of the same spirit and
of races of related branches, in turn connected to the Nordic-Aryan
ones.
But to speak of the civilization of the first Romanity and of Sparta,
evidently, we place ourselves in a world of unattenuated forces, of a rigid
ethos, of a truly virile and soul-dominating essence, a world that will
hardly be perceptible in the following so-called "classical"
civilization, from which in turn one wants to derive "Latinity" and
the "unity of the Latin family".
If, on the contrary, when we use the term "Latin" we refer to the
origins, we will observe that there is a complete inversion of the "Latin"
theory proper to the aforementioned intellectual and aestheticizing
environments. The true, the original "Latinity" - which basically
corresponds to what the Roman grandeur presented as properly
"Aryan" - leads us to forms of life and civilization that are not
opposed to, if not akin to, those that the Nordic-Germanic branches
would later demonstrate, in the face of a world that, more than "Latin",
was unfortunately "Romanic", in the decadent sense of the word.
Beyond the aesthetic varnish, the pretended "Latinity" hides
heterogeneous forces, capable of walking together only as long as they
travel along more serious paths than those of the world of "letters and
arts". Thanks to the presence of a "Roman" Italy, in the most austere
and virile sense, and the denunciation of the fallacy of the Latin myth,
the premises are laid for an encounter and an understanding between
our race and the Germanic race, not only on the political level, but also
on the level of higher vocations and the general vision of life.
67 "The Latin equivocal".

Note

[l] [This article, published in ll Regime Fascista (Cremona, XVI, March 11,
1941), apart from the first two paragraphs and the last one, corresponds to
chapter XIV of Indirizzi per una educazione razziale (Conte, Naples, 1941)
which, in fact, compiles a series of articles reworked in an organic unicuin, n.
of the c.]]
 Did primordial populations
inhabit the North Pole?'1'

The idea that in primordial times the Arctic region may have been
inhabited, and not only by primitive populations, such as the present-
day Eskimos, but also by the progenitors of the main Indo-European
races, is not a new idea, but was already present in the work of certain
authors, although with tendentious aims, even of a political nature, since
this idea was frequently associated with "Nordic racism". This
association is clearly hasty, as if one could establish without further
ado a relationship between the present-day Germanic populations and
human groups that belonged to the most ancient and mythical
prehistory. Turning to the subject, in the circle of the above-mentioned
authors, the most non-table work, although of very unequal interest,
has been that of the Dutchman H. Wirth, published in 1924 under the
title Der Aufgang der Menschheit (The Dawn of Humanity), which
defends the idea, already mentioned, of an original arctic or, better said,
Nordic-Atlantic homeland. It is known that the long epoch, called glacial
by geologists, had a rather dynamic character, with ups and downs,
ebbs and flows of extreme temperatures, separated by intervals of
temperate climate. The "arctic" period of a certain group of races should
be included in one of these intervals. It should be added that several
geophysical indications suggest that the present arctic region has not
always been the realm of eternal ice, but that freezing occurred only
after a certain period. Then, the races that inhabited it abandoned it,
migrating to the south and southeast. Apart from the scientific data, the
concordant data concerning these events preserved in the traditions of
various peoples are very significant.
Even in the time of the Goths, Skåne, i.e. the Scandinavian region,
was called vagina gentium, remembered as the matrix of peoples
who later, after emigrating, would disperse. On the other hand, the
name
69 "Did primordial populations inhabit the North Pole?"

an arctic land, Greenland, etymologically means nothing else than

"green land", a very strange denomination, if it did not refer to a period
in which in that region there must have still existed a luxuriant
vegetation. Moreover, in recent "soundings", fossil coal has been
found under the polar ice, and fossil coal, as is well known, comes
from primordial forests.
At the beginning of this century a Hindu scholar, Tilak, published a
work entitled The Artic Home in the Vedas. Accompanied by a vast
amount of scholarship, it showed that a great many elements of the
Veda tradition (the sacred books of the Hindus), including calendar data,
descriptions of constellations, etc., are incomprehensible unless
reference is made to an arctic home where the progenitors of the races
that later descended to India were to be found. And still today in India,
but also in Tibet, the north is the "sacred direction": towards the north
one must go to perform various rites (as Islamists pray towards
Mecca), almost as if in memory of mystical origins.
If we turn from India to Persia, we find an even more precise
memory. In the Vendidad, which is one of the traditional Iranian texts,
the original homeland of the Iranian races is mentioned. This land is
called Aryanem vaLy^ and is conceived of as a region in the extreme
north, and it is said that at a certain period, through the work of the anti-
God, the adversary of the God of Light, the eternal winter descended,
as a result of which ten of the twelve months of the year were winter
and only two were summer. It is evidently a question of the
conditions in the arctic regions.
But classical antiquity also preserves memories that lead us to the
same conclusions. Among the Hellenes there was talk of the
Hyperboreans, a mysterious people inhabiting the extreme north,
whose main god would have been Apollo: Apollo who, indeed,
historically was the most characteristic god of the original branches
that descended from the north and founded Greek civilization, being
venerated especially by the Dorians; Apollo, associated with the swan, a
sacred animal, whose central symbol was preserved as an archetypal
representation among the Scandinavian peoples, reappearing in that
form on the Viking ships.
Finally, the memory in this regard in the Roman world is very
significant. This recollection is based on the theory of the four ages -
age
Julius Evola 70

of gold, silver, bronze and iron, which, far from being a myth without
more, reflects the effective sense of cycles of civilizations that followed
one another since ancient times. The god, or king, of the first of these
ages, the golden age, would have been Cronus. It is significant that the
Romans called the Arctic Ocean Mare Cronide, sea of Cronus, and
believed that Cronus, "sleeping", resided in the Arctic region: it is
evident that this region was conceived as the land where the "golden
age", also called "age of being" and "of truth" by the Hindus, would
have taken place at the origin of time.
Would all these concordances, and many others to which we could
refer, necessarily be coincidental? Or, on the contrary, does the
"hyperborean mystery" hide a profound content of truth, which perhaps
one day a properly oriented investigation will be able to bring to light?

Note

[1] [Evola deals here with the theme of the "hyperborean mystery", while
dealing with the main works of Wirth and Tilak and adding considerations
relative to the Nordic-polar origin of the Hyperborean Tradition. This approach
has been corroborated by subsequent studies, among which are those cited in
note 64 of the introduction to this volume. It was published in the Neapolitan
magazine Como (October 22, 1952, p. 3), n. of c.].
Appendix
 Research on origins:
"Doric" migration in ItaIy'1'.

Given the importance that racial ideas have acquired, the study of origins
and, of course, that of prehistory in general, is destined to take on greater
relevance; naturally, once it is reconstructed on the basis of new criteria,
quite different from those of po- sitivist materialism, until yesterday
prevailing in this field. A study of such an enverga- dur, referring to the
Italic land, is therefore particularly complex. Different forces, racial,
spiritual and cultural, seem to have crossed, confronted and overlapped in
our peninsula from very remote ages and in the same places where Rome
arose. The investigation of this vein, which for us is essential and which
led to the emergence of fundamental features of the great North American-
type civilizations in Roman times, requires the prior clarification of a series
of particular questions, which today await to be approached from a
suitable point of view.
An important contribution in this regard is the recently published
monograph by Franz Altheim and E. Trautmann entitled Ita- lien und
die dorische Wanderung [Italy and the Dorian Migration] (Leipzig,
1940). Altheim is one of the most acute and gifted scholars of the
ancient Roman spiritual world, and the ideas he expounds in this mo-
nography complement, to a certain extent, those of the first volume of
his non-table History of Roman Religion. In summary, this is how Al-
theim approaches the question of the Italic origins.
In prehistoric Italy there were two great migrations of peoples,
that of the Italics who practiced "cremation" and that of the Italics who,
on the other hand, practiced "burial"; peoples, therefore, who were
accustomed, the former to cremate their corpses and the latter to
bury their dead.
Such habits, as Altheim rightly points out, are not the result of chance,
but are connected with different conceptions
73 "Origins research: 'Doric' migration in Italy".

of the afterlife and, consequently, they form two different visions of

the world and, ultimately, two different types of civilization [2].
Those who bury the dead think that man belongs to the earth and
that he must return to the earth; and, eventually, that he will return to
the earth in a cycle generated by the earth: for this reason, in such
places the "telluric" divinities, that is, earthly divinities, especially in
the form of feminine and maternal divinities, are placed in the
foreground. On the other hand, the people who cremate their dead think
that the human soul "goes beyond", a beyond that is foreign to the earth
and to their own body, a body that is destroyed, burned, to facilitate
this transit [3].
The wave of the Italic cremationists is the most antique: it spread in
northern and central Italy, reaching the Albanian mountains; the
Albanians could be considered as a residue or derivation of that wave.
The first migration was followed by a second migration of Italic
inhumers, almost a millennium apart, in areas that essentially coincide
with those occupied by the ancient Sabine-Oscan peoples, and in some
cases overlapping with elements of the previous wave. On the other
hand, Celts, Etruscans and Illyrians constituted further branches,
which later settled in our peninsula, in some cases absorbing and in
others erasing the characteristics of the two preceding civilizations.
Even in Rome, in the area of the Forum, remains of people who
practiced cremation have been found in the oldest stratum, under a
more recent stratum of buriers, while Etruscan elements and those of
other mixed populations are clearly visible in the actual historical
period of the city.
As for the racial problem, the opinions of researchers on the two
most ancient Italic waves are not in agreement. Originally, Altheim
favored the idea that both were Indo-Germanic, composed of related
Aryan elements; later, he has had to recognize that, in spite of
everything, the two groups must have been originally differentiated and
that only with their contact in Italy will the two civilizations end up
presenting many common traits. Even so, unless the term "Indo-
Germanic" or "Aryan" is given a broad meaning, a distinction is
necessary, especially in matters of a spiritual nature. For example, the
affinity of the civilizations of the "inhumers" with that of various pre-
Hellenic, i.e. Aryan, Mediterranean populations is indisputable, and
Altheim himself considers
Julius Evola 74

The Etruscans were rightly considered a non-Italian and non-

Indogermanic people, having their origin precisely in those non-
Hellenic populations of the eastern Mediterranean.
The new monograph by Altheim and Trautmann is very interesting
because, based on new archaeological materials, it deals with the traces of
the original Aryan-Nordic element in prehistoric Italy. These authors take
as a basis what, in a state of special strength favored by favorable natural
conditions, has been preserved in Valcamonica, especially in a series of
cave paintings very important for their symbolic content. These are
most probably remains from the first of the prehistoric Aryan-Italic
waves.
Moreover, Altheim puts beyond doubt the very close analogy
between these remains and the Nordic-Aryan vestiges found in the
regions of northern Europe, including Sweden. And, what is important,
there is a more than evident analogy that is manifested in a particularly
intense way on the spiritual symbolic level: the same solar symbols are
recurrent here, figures of sacred animals, such as the deer or reindeer, of
men wielding the symbolic weapon of the Hyperborean races, the axe
or the double-bladed axe, which will reappear in Rome as the priestly
sacena and as the axe of 1fascio. The "solar chariot" is also common
and, later, men on horseback, the latter of great importance, because it
shows how these prehistoric races knew the art of riding, while in the
other peoples of the same period the horse was used only to pull
chariots. Another characteristic feature: in such Italic vestiges are
conspicuous by their absence those feminine figures or symbols to
which we referred earlier, which predominate in the pre-Aryan
Mediterranean civilizations and which, as has been pointed out, are
closely related to the "telluric" civilization of the "inhumadores".
Moreover, from the point of view of style, the cave paintings of
Valcamonica, according to Altheim, are reminiscent of the style of the
Doric Helladic, and on this basis the central thesis of the monograph in
question takes shape. In Valcamonica a race and a tradition manifested
itself, which later moved towards central Italy. This emigration, like
that of the Doric branches in Greece, was provoked by the pressure of
the Illyrian peoples located in northeastern Italy. The races that, as
properly Latin peoples, arrived in Latium, were originally, like the
Dorians, from the north-eastern part of Italy.
75 "Origins research: 'Doric' migration in Italy".

Hellenic, of a closely Nordic-Aryan type and civilization. We can speak,

therefore, of a migration and a "Doric" tradition not only Greek, but
also Italic. And the result has parallel features. What for Greece was
Sparta, creation of the Dorians, was for Italy Rome. In both centers of
virile and "solar" civilization, the same spirit is reflected, the same
power and the same clarity of common origin, linked to what we have
agreed to call the "hyperborean mystery".

Notes

[l] [As we pointed out in the introduction to this volume, this is not the only
review in which Evola has explicitly dealt with the work of Franz Al- theim: in
particular we will recall the other review, appearing in the postwar period, of
Der unbesiegte Gott, Heidentum und Christentum, Rohwolt, Hamburg, 1957;
i.e., "Sol Invictus. Encounters between East and West in the Ancient World," in
East and West, 8, 1957, pp. 303-306, later translated into Italian under the title
"Sol Invictus. Incontri tra Oriente e Occidente nel Mondo Antico", in Orien- te e
Occidente (Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 2001, pp. 105-110). In any case, this is
probably the first instance in which Evola refers to the German scholar. The
article was first published in ll Regime Fascista (Cre- mona, XV, November 1,
1940, p. 3), n. of c.]
[2] It is worth noting how the thesis of the "Aryanness" of the cremation rite
was appropriately upheld - albeit with some simplistic exaggeration - in May
1924, on the occasion of the V International Congress of Philosophy sponsored
by the Italian Philosophical Society at the Regia University of Naples, by
Professor Luigi Valli, the well-known researcher of the symbolism of Dan- te's
work, in a paper entitled Il rito della cremazione e lo spiritualismo della razza
ariana (Naples-Genoa-Città di Castello, 1924).
[3] It was probably on the basis of this historical-religious conception of the
afterlife that Evola was able to defend the doctrine of reincarnation, essentially
non-esoteric (insofar as non-ary, obviously) and therefore foreign to the most
authentic tradition of India: a thesis that in the latest edition of Lo Yoga della
Potenza (Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1994) the introducer of the book, Prof. Pio
Filippani-Ronconi, rejects with persuasive arguments (p. 15; Evola's thesis is
set out on p. 15). Mediterranee, Rome, 1994) the introducer of the book,
Professor Pio Filippani-Ronconi, rejects with persuasive arguments (p. 15;
Evola's theses are set out on pp. 69-70).
 Jupiter, Mars and
Quirinus for the
ancient Romans . [1]

The image that educated people have, in general, of ancient Roman

civilization and religion is more or less that of an isolated phenomenon.
According to the outlines that follow the current teachings and the
method adopted by more than one specialist in the Roman subject, after
a quick mention of the pre-Roman Italian civilizations and the
Etruscans, the Roman cults and institutions are considered in isolation,
even if the influences that doctrines from Greece and the East will
exert on Rome are pointed out. This being the case, the publisher
Einaudi has done very well to publish in our language the work of a
well-known French scholar, G. Dumézil: Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus (Turin,
1955); a work that represents a different method - the comparative
method on an "Indo-European" basis - for the study and interpretation
of the Roman world.
This method is certainly not new. It dates back to the second half
of the last century [2], through which we know that civilizations such
as Hindu, Iranian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic and several others
had a common origin. The thesis was demonstrated above all at the
level of philology; that is, at the level of the inheritance of elements of
an ancient original language. From this point of view, we moved on to
that of race, trying to reconstruct the possible prehistoric migrations of
groups of peoples of identical racial stock - the Indo-Europeans - who,
possessing such a language, would have marked the aforementioned
civilizations with their essential imprint. Finally, the problem of
cults, divinities, institutions and juridical forms was tackled in order to
establish other parallels and comparisons.
As was to be expected, the enthusiasm of the first moment led to
one-sided views, errors and fantasies. It is only recently that the
comparative method has been refined and perfected, and the Indo-
European thesis has
77 "Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus for the ancient Romans."

has been formulated in a scientifically acceptable way. Dumézil is

among the scholars who have made most use of this thesis, and he
has been applying it to the study of Roman civilization for many years.
The above-mentioned book comprises the main essays published in this
line by the author between 1941 and 1948.
Written with extreme clarity and vivacity in spite of all the
scholarly apparatus, the book is therefore interesting, first of all, in
terms of method. New horizons are opened by considering the Roman
question as a function of that broader cycle of civilization, of the Indo-
European heritage which, in Rome, may certainly have had a
particular and original formulation, but without ever entirely losing its
essential features. On the contrary, it is only in this perspective that
many Roman aspects reveal their most profound and original
meaning.
Secondly, the book is interesting because Dumézil opportunely
takes up the idea, already present in Vico and de Coulanges, of an
internal, organic unity of the cults, social organizations, vocations,
functions and institutions of ancient civilizations. In Rome, no less than
in any other traditional civilization1, all this was organized, at first,
around a single axis.
We will now consider the specific aspect of Dumézil's research.
The author argues that all Indo-European civilizations had their own
tripartition of "functional divinities", which would be reflected in an
analogous social-political tripartition. These would be, in the first place,
divinities that incarnate the idea of sovereignty in its mystical and
almost magical aspect (sacred power that asserts itself directly, that
wins without fighting), or juridical; of warrior divinities, and, finally, of
divinities of fecundity, of wealth, of productivity. The three divine
types have their visible correspondence in three castes or functional
classes: chiefs or chief-priests, warriors, bourgeoisie or herdsmen,
landowners or farmers. Through complex and tenacious research,
Dumézil demonstrates that this trifunctional structure, easily seen in the
East, was not foreign to Rome; although here, early on, the principle
of a uniform social unity based on the civic idea would prevail over the
principle of the original hierarchical-functional articulation. The triad
of the gods in Rome would have been that of Jupiter, Mars and
Quirinus. The tradition of the highest Roman priesthood corresponded
to it: the
Julius Evola 78

of the Flaminians. Finally, the social counterpart would have consisted

of the three ancient tribes of the Ramnes, Luceri and Thyatians.
These remnants of the common Indo-European heritage would have
survived in Rome until the moment when they became little more
than simple inanimate archaic copies of the animating idea that had
served as their basis.
In this essential aspect of his research, Dumézil has probably let
himself be carried away by his own thesis, by wanting to include too
many aspects in his closed schematism. Although this is not the place to
enter into critical considerations, we will mention only two issues. First,
instead of a social tripartition, we often find ourselves with a
quadripartite scheme: sovereignty, labor, bourgeoisie and workers. And
it is of little use for Dumézil to argue that in the East the fourth caste
was not composed of the Indo-Europeans, but of the subjugated
aboriginal peoples, because for Rome and the Norse the author admits
that the tripartition was arrived at by association with originally
heterogeneous and even enemy ethical groups. The second point is the
following: is tripartition, or social quadripartition, really a characteristic
of the Indo-Europeans and one might almost say a particular sign of
them, or is it a scheme that has an intrinsic value, an internal necessity
and even an analogy with the articu- lation of the human race? In spite
of what Dumézil thinks, we believe that the second alternative is the
correct one and that, at most, it can be said that the Indo-Europeans were
peoples who, more than any other, knew how to recognize and apply the
ideal of an organic-functional social hierarchy: an ideal that retains an
objective and normative value and cannot be seen as a sign of a social
hierarchy, but which, in the end, is a sign that the Indo-Europeans
were a people who, more than any other, knew how to recognize and
apply the ideal of an organic-functional social hierarchy as the casual
creation of a specific human group.

The importance of this last point will not escape the reader, if he is
able to recognize, apart from all that Dumézil's book can reveal to us
about a Romanity studied from a new and broader point of view, that
beyond all this, one comes to sense the perennial meaning that
manifested itself in a whole group of great civilizations understood as
an authentic order of social functions and referring to a State which, as
Plato said, exists as an idea beyond history and precedes every
particular, every more or less perfect realization.
79 "Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus for the ancient Romans."

Notes

[1] [This article, published in Roma (Naples, January 21, 1956, p. 3), is well
known, since it has been reproduced both in J. Evola, La tradizione di Roma,
Ar, Padua, 1977, pp. 119-123, by R. Lupo; and in J. Evola, La "forza
rivoluzionaria" di Roma, Fondazione J. Evola, Roma, 1984, n. del c.]
[2] [The nineteenth century, obviously, n. of the t.]
 Indo-European Religiosity'1'.

In the preceding period a demand was formulated, a just demand in

principle and put forward by the movement that came to power in
Central Europe, according to which a political struggle cannot be
complete if, as a counterpart, it does not propose a new vision of the
world. The later popularized term Weltanschauung [2] was used to
designate man's general stance not only towards the world and life, but
also towards ethical and spiritual values, enough to end up in conflict
with religious approaches. And because of this opposition or struggle
on a higher plane, it was thought that the best possible formula was that
of a return to the origins, that is, to the recovery of the ideas and ways of
feeling that were known, before they manifested themselves with all
their power, as the factors that have shaped the ultimate civilization,
leading it towards the Spenglerian (spiritual) "decline" of the "West".
But in many cases, this orientation had a "racist" character. There
was talk of "Aryanness", of the Nordic-Germanic heritage and similar
topics. The danger of a narrowing of horizons due either to racism or to
a one-sided and biased use of ideas on a purely German basis was quite
obvious. All this is expressed very clearly in a book that was widely
distributed in the Third Reich, Alfred Rosenberg's The Myth of the
Twentieth Century, which was basically nothing more than a
compilation based on rather heterogeneous third-hand materials. Less
reservations should be made about the research of a specialist, Professor
Hans F.K. Günther, author of numerous works on ancient races and
civilizations, including those of Greece and Rome. Worthy of note was
an essay by Günther in which he attempted to define the fundamental
worldview and religiosity of the ancient peoples.
Indo-European peoples, but keeping a distant distance from the
81 "Indo-European Religiosity."

political contingencies. This essay has been republished (for the sixth
time) after the war and has been published in an Italian edition (Edizioni
di Ar) by Adriano Romualdi and Carlo Minutoli. Its original title was
Frámmigkeit nordischer Artung, or Religiosity of the Nordic type; the
Italian title is, instead, Religiositá indoeuropea, a modification that
seems to us opportune and apt to avoid the reservations that might
be raised at the use of the term "Nordic" in the author's theses. "Indo-
European" is a much broader concept, encompassing the various
branches and civilizations of the white race, including their Asian
extensions (the Indo-Europeans of Iran, India, etc., etc.), considered by
Gün- ther, even if he maintains reservations against the thesis that
considers them as part of an original generating nucleus of "Nordic"
origin. It should be noted that this term (Nordic) is understood here in a
particular way; that is, in reference to the migrations of primordial
peoples, and not applied only to the Nordic-Scandinavian or North
Germanic populations of more recent times; in such a way that all kinds
of possible misunderstandings are clarified.
These misconceptions are also partly overcome by Adriano
Romualdi's extensive "Essay on the Indo-European Problem" [3],
which serves as an introduction to Günther's work and occupies more
than twice as many pages as the German one. It is an authentic and
complete bibliography, formulated in a serious manner and with a wide
and varied documentation that summarizes all the philological,
anthropological, ethnic, historical and cultural research that has been
carried out on the problem of Indo-European origins, although the
author maintains the Nordic thesis with a notable racial accent.
It seems more opportune, however, to stick to the proper breadth of
the "Indo-European" concept, which is precisely related to the reasons
that have led to the present Italian translation of Günther's essay. In
fact, the aim of this translation is to restate the demand for a "struggle
for a worldview" [41], but no longer in German-national-socialist
coordinates, but in European ones. Indeed, Romualdi writes (pp. 12-
13) [5]: "All of us, and in particular the members of the new
generations, sense that we are at a historical crossroads. The old
national perspectives, in which we were still educated, are breaking
down on all sides. The Italian, French or German homelands -and
with them the particular
Julius Evola 82

Italian, French or German historical approaches - are no longer

sufficient and can no longer do so. Nationalists without a nation,
traditionalists without a tradition, we seek recognition in a larger
homeland and tradition".
In this perspective, the Indo-European idea is redefined as a myth.
The idea of common origins, either as an idea capable of acting as a soul
for a European or Western unity that is not reduced to a formless
conglomerate. In this respect the Nordic connotations, despite all
possible precision, are detrimental. For, moreover, one can never
generalize about concepts made up of multiple elements (in this case
multiple peoples), especially when it seems that even the Nordic
European peoples themselves (including, unfortunately, even the
Germans) are currently the least concerned with making ethical
demands of this kind or with embodying the world view or attitudes
we are talking about.
Let us now turn to some of the issues in Günther's work. In general,
it should be pointed out that in this essay it would have been more
opportune to stick to morphological considerations, reducing racial
factors to a minimum, i.e., to define only a certain form of values and
of the way of feeling and behaving, and then to present it as "ideal". In
fact, one could make a well-founded methodological objection to
Günther, pointing out how often he moves in a vicious circle. Indeed,
the author himself acknowledges that the sources for his research are
not based on the materials of the Nordic peoples, since not even the
Nordic mythology par excellence, i.e. that of the Edda, would be of
little use as a true document of the "Nordic" spirit; instead, Günther
considers that the best sources would be those coming from the
ancient Hellenic, Roman, Iranian and, in part, also Hindu world, in
which he nevertheless introduces a discrimination: He isolates certain
elements of this tradition, while other elements, also present but which
do not refer to the basically pre-conceived or a priori idea of the
"Nordic" (or "Aryan" or "Indo-European"), are relegated to secondary
and inferior aspects due to foreign influences, to alterations of the race
due to mestisism, etc.The procedure which is equivalent to what in logic
is called a plea of principle. Such an objection would lose part of its
force only in the case of an approach, co
as we said, essentially "morphological". In addition, the arguments
83 "Indo-European Religiosity."

Günther's ideas refer essentially to the elites, introducing as a

postulate the idea that it is in the elites where the values of the original
race, bearer of a superior worldview, would have been preserved. Thus,
Günther writes (p. 116): "Much of what is presented to us as
belonging to the Indo-European religion is nothing but the
expression of lower castes who had learned to communicate in the
Indo-European language", a quotation that shows us the a priori
discriminating procedure mentioned above. There is no doubt, therefore,
that much has been idealized and generalized by the author, placing
outside the walls what did not fit his thesis.
As for the concrete characteristics, Günther points out that the
notion of a transcendent creator God to whom one praises slavishly
and fearfully would be non-Indo-European, as would the idea of a
mere "creature" man. "Insofar as he is not the servant of a sovereign
God, the Indo-European does not pray on the ground or on his knees,
but standing, with his eyes directed heavenward and his arms stretched
upward" (p. 122). The Indo-European has a feeling of connection and
familiarity with the divine, with the "gods". For him, the world is not
created, but eternal, "without beginning and without end". He does
not conceive of a dualism between "this world" and the "other
world," at least not that dualism whereby the former is undervalued in
relation to the latter, and only in the other world is the spirit
concentrated. The consequence of this conception is that no contrast
is perceived "between perishable body and immortal soul, between
flesh and spirit". Neither the idea of "redemption" nor that of sin
would be present; redemption instrumentalized by a "Savior" versus
"self-redemption of the soul that purifies itself and plunges into the
depths of being" (this would be the orientation of Indo-European
mysticism), as an overcoming of the passions in which the path of
primitive Buddhism and also of Stoicism consisted. As for "sin" in the
Indo-European feeling, it is replaced by the concept of "guilt", which
entails the responsibility that a "noble soul" must and is capable of
assuming.

The Indo-European would conceive the world as order and cosmos, as

a whole shaped by a higher ratio. But in our opinion this characteristic
does not seem to agree with another one, pointed out by the way
Julius Evola 84

by Günther, referring to an "agonistic" conception of existence: the

world as the arena of a perpetual struggle, in correspondence with "the
hereditary and congenital vocation towards combat" of the Aryan or
Indo-European. In fact, this second conception evidently
presupposes a dualism, because it includes not only the sovereign vigor
of a universal rational order but also the presence of something that is
antithetical to that order, the cosmos, against which one fights. Even
more reservations are raised by another idea of Günther's, in our
opinion mistaken, according to which the Indo-Europeans "have
always been inclined to see the force of fatum as something superior
to the gods themselves, especially among Hindus, Hellenes and
Germans" (p. 129). We do not see how such an idea can be founded; an
idea that, at most, has prevailed in areas that are not considered as Indo-
European (as in the late Etruscan civilization or in the Pelasgian and
not Hellenic; Bachofen having already demonstrated the Pelasgian,
and not Hellenic - Günther would rather say "non-Nordic" - origin of
the aspects that in ancient Greece suffered most from the influence of
that dark fatalistic idea). In any case, Günther sticks to his thesis, because
it serves him to indicate, as another characteristic of Indo-European
man, the acceptance of the fate of firmness and imperturbability in
the face of destiny: "proud fierceness with which one accepts fate as the
embodiment of one's own destiny, which he faces upright, thus
remaining true to himself" (p. 131). Such a way of seeing was
embodied in the recent past in the so-called "tragic heroism", which is
known to have a strong romantic, Wagnerian and twilight imprint,
being quite far from the line of that Olympian and victorious
character manifested in Indo-European and classical antiquity.
On the other hand, Günther makes a serious cut in the heritage of
Indo-European spirituality by denying or ignoring what we can call the
"dimension of transcendence" in the human order no less than in the
divine (where the Faerie would reign, and not a supreme freedom),
intentionally disregarding multiple and univocal testimonies in the
opposite sense. Fortunately, Günther has not insisted on a previous
thesis of his, according to which the "Nordic" Indo-Europeans, and
only once they had emigrated to Asia, found lands uninhabitable
because of the climate and the environment, which would lead them to
invert their original impulse of "affirmation of life", transforming it
into an imposition, basically foreign to their race (artfremd) [6],
tending to free themselves from life, understood as
85 "Indo-European Religiosity."

"pain". In fact, a fundamentally Indo-European idea has been that of the

"Great Liberation", of the attainment of the Unconditioned (for
example, in primitive Buddhism), or of the exit from the "cycle of
generation" (in the Hé- lade).
The reason for this attitude of Günther's is that he also had certain
"racist" concerns which, in spite of everything, have marked his
interpretations with a certain naturalistic tendency. Thus, for example,
the fact that in the Indo-Aryan tradition the "way of the gods" (deva-
yana), which leads to the Unconditioned, is already in contrast to the
"way of the fathers" (ipitri-yana), precisely that of those whose destiny
is to continue life in the coordinates of their racial roots, here below, is
non-existent for him.
Here we see the consequences of the presumed indivisibility of body
and soul, which will jeopardize any higher conception of immortality.
In the end, Günther ends up reducing spiritual horizons to a "remnant
immortality" (ephemeral), to an immortality understood as the
perpetuation of the individual in the lineage and race of which he is a
part, and which "in the order of the generations produces life in the end"
(p. 147). Be that as it may, although with attempts to mitigate such
positions, Günther ends up in pantheism; which, as we understand it,
entails the denial of all true transcendence. Thus, Günther erroneously
includes pantheism as a fundamental feature of "Aryan" religiosity
(going so far as to speak of an "inspired naturalistic pantheism"), which
is tantamount to degrading it arbitrarily, and even more so by proposing
a suspicious "cult of life" as a counterpart. It should be borne in mind
that one should not confuse with "pantheism" a sacralized conception of
the world, which was typical of the origins, but which must be
understood as traditional in a general sense, not acceptable as an
exclusively "Aryan" or in- doeuropean prerogative.
It is within the framework of ethics that Günther pa-
The author speaks of the ideals of firmness and greatness of spirit, of a
natural dominance of self, of an equally natural sense of distance and
non-compromiscuity, of the distrust of the individual. The author
speaks of the ideals of firmness and greatness of mind, of a natural self-
possession, of an equally natural feeling of aloofness and non-
promiscuity, of distrust of all abandonment of the soul and thus also of an
unruly and yearning mysticism. In addition to all this, one should also
include the natural feeling of honor, the disposition to fidelity and loyalty,
a
Julius Evola 86

measured and conscious dignity (humanitas in its classical meaning),

and love for truth and repugnance for lies. Freedom is an ideal, but in
the sense of Goethe's maxim: "Everything that frees our spirit without
elevating us to a greater mastery of ourselves corrupts us. The ethics that
is articulated with reference to certain values, always according to
Günther, would be "natural" in the Indo-European, not linked to
external precepts or norms (Indo-European religiosity would be
"natural", and not due to "revelations").
One can agree with this, but from the perspective of a non-racist
conception of "race". Belonging to a "race", in a higher sense,
naturally entails acting and behaving in a certain way, but without the
need for external (physical) references. Therefore, it is not appropriate
here to speak of the main characteristics of the Indo-European "race".
Such natural ethical qualities of the "man of race", to give an example,
are also manifested in other peoples (suffice it to refer to traditional
Japanese nobility) and the reference to the "traditional" is not extrinsic,
since in this connection one must pay attention above all to what
becomes congenital thanks to the basis of a rigorous tradition. As far as
"nobility" is concerned, we will mention in passing the curious fact that
Günther frequently speaks of the spirit and noble ethics of a "peasant
aristocracy" (when one could at best speak of a feudal aristocracy).
Here it seems to us that Günther has picked up the echo of a "racial"
slogan of Hitlerism, "blood and soil", using it in the name of
"settlement" and of a certain policy, intending with this the
liquidation of the preceding myth of the original Aryan races as those of
the hunters and conquerors constantly migrating eager for great distances
and distant horizons.
It has already been pointed out that, in order to isolate the "Nordic"
elements in his theories, Günther has had to systematically attribute to
racial contaminations due to miscegenation and exogenous influences
that would denaturalize everything that in Indo-European civilizations,
even though they are in fact present, does not correspond to the same
values and behaviors. Again, this reveals the biological racist idea
underlying Günther's thought, insofar as the author takes little account of
the fact that mixing is by no means the only factor of alteration, because
processes of involution, rupture and collapse are possible, even if they
are still present in Indo-European civilizations, and even if they do not
correspond to the same values and behaviors.
The original blood is not sufficiently intact. Precisely, already
87 "Indo-European Religiosity."

At the outset we noted that the present-day mainly "Nordic" peoples,

as such, are particularly insensitive to "Nordic" ideals as Günther
defines them. In the historical field, it will suffice to recall only one
example. Günther rightly considers the spirit of the Protestant
Reformation as foreign to the "Aryan" line, because of its
exasperation of the concepts of sin and the irremediably corrupt
nature of man, having to surrender to faith alone, because of the
necessity of the grace freely given by God to the human servant (of
servo arbitrio). The Reformation struck a deep chord above all among
the Germanic and Nordic peoples, while the peoples of the south and
west, who were supposed to be more racially altered by
intermarriage, were resistant to such an influence.

Toward the end of his essay (p. 172) Günther writes: "With the
twentieth century, the Indo-Europeans begin to be eclipsed in the
world of spirituality and history. Today, all that in music, art,
literature (one should add: in the pre-dominant customs and political
forms) of the free West' is praised as particularly pro- gressive', no
longer reflects an Indo-European spirituality". This seems to us to be
correct, but with the need to define first, as we have already said, pro-
pitively what is Indo-European in essentially morphological and general
terms, without narrow exclusively ethno-racial references. The same
clarification should be made with respect to the complex of "Indo-
European" values (having to overcome misrepresentations,
misunderstandings, and unilateral or evidently idealized views such as
those mentioned above) that serve as an anima for a new solidarity
and supra-national Western unity; but given the current times, unlike
Romualdi, we are rather skeptical: we do not believe that fertile ground
can be found to obtain the proper resonance and chris- talization of
these values.
As for the rest, an analogous sentiment can also be detected in
Günther, if in the preface to the latest edition of his interesting essay
(pp. 105-106), referring to the eventualities of "our time, in the age of the
decadence of the West" (Spengler), he says: "Although if what
Julius Evola 88

The feeling that the remaining Western European world would finally
perish because of the lack of true Indo-Europeans of race, that is to
say, of authentic Westerners, will in any case remain in a feeling rooted
in the traditional Indo-European spirituality, that feeling that already
lived among the Romans, romanorum ultimi, in a scarcely 'Roman'
Empire, the feeling of firmness and unyielding in the face of destiny....
to which Horace exclaimed: Quorcica vivite fortes, fortiaque adver- sis
opponite pectora rebus!
An idea likely to be inherited only by a few, it should perhaps be
modulated in the sense of an outstanding impassivity; it would seem
more realistic than that of a "nostalgic" background (in the negative
sense of this term, in relation to certain aspects of well-known current
Italian political trends), accompanied by the corresponding revocation
of "Nordic" origins.

Notes

[1] [This work, originally published in Il Conciliatore ( Milan, 15 August 1970, pp.
311-314), with the exception of the part devoted to the essay by Adria- no
Romualdi, constitutes the introduction to the Italian edition of Religiosidad in-
doeuropea (Religiositá indoeuropea, Ar, Padua, 1970); while Romualdi's essay
(Gli Indoeuropei. Origini e migrazioni, Ar, Padua, 1978) has been ree- dited
several times as an independent volume. N. of c.]
[2] [German term equivalent in English to "vision" or "conception of the
world"; that is, the worldview or general vision of life that a group or people
has, but at the time in question the political aspect of the term was more
relevant. Evola, on the other hand, will focus on the spiritual, religious aspect,
to the point that a scholar of his work, Piero di Vona, says that this term is
central to Evola's work. This term he would have taken from the authors of the
German Conservative Revolution, only, according to di Vona, substituting the
concept of Weltanschauung for that of Tradition, based on the reading of René
Guénon. Cfr. Piero di Vona, Metafísica e politica in Julius Evola, Ar, Padua,
2000. N. of the t.]
[3] [This introduction by Romualdi was later published as a monograph and is
translated into Spanish: A. Romualdi, Los indoeumpeos. Orígenes y
migraciones, CEI, Madrid, 2002. There is also a Spanish edition of Günther's
work: Religiosidad Indoeuropea, Colección Janus, 1997. N. of the t.].
89 "Indo-European Religiosity."

[4] [Translation of the German expression "kampf in der Weltanschauung".]

[5] [A. Romualdi, The Indo-Europeans. Origins and migrations, cit. The
paragraph in
The original Italian edition is on page 6.
[6] [In German, something that does not belong to its race or type. N. of the t.]
 Epilogue
Indo-European Protohistory
Mario Giannitrapani

"Tibi serviat ultima Thyle".

VlRGILIUS, GeorgicaS, I, 30

The reconstruction of Indo-European culture cannot escape those

characteristics of a "systemic" type, by virtue of which the singular
elements that constitute it must not be analyzed and evaluated
individually, but must be referred to in the general framework in
which they exist [l].
Some, on the other hand, maintain that Indo-European culture is an
"unprovable reality", since language and culture do not always go hand in
hand and, therefore, have to be clearly distinguished from such elements
as the concept of race, nowadays almost abandoned in the scientific
field [2].
For some, the notion of "Indo-European" would concern exclusively the
field of linguistic competence, although without neglecting the results
obtained in other disciplines. The physical-anthropological and
archaeological aspect of the question is the most delicate and controversial,
a fact that can be seen in the current abandonment by science of "migra-
tory" theories and racial studies, based largely on the measurement of
skulls, which today are seen by many paleoanthropologists as inaccurate
and lacking in many aspects, apart from lacking any statistical validity
whatsoever. Craniometry" has gradually been replaced by more
complex taxonometric studies, to the extent that in the past the skull
was the main, if not the only, remains recovered from isolated
individuals, while today the study of complete skeletons and neo-
copulations provides a greater amount of data on entire populations
regarding anatomical (height, sex, age, pathologies), demographic and
nutritional aspects that were previously little taken into account.
91 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

Craniological studies [3] were based on the contrast between the

brachycephalic type, which would have predominated among European
peoples before the Indo-European invasion, and the dolichocephalic type,
characteristic of the invading peoples. Dolichocephaly [4] became,
therefore, an incontrovertible testimony of the presence of Indo-European
man, called "Indo-Dogermanic" by Broca [5]. Thus, the thesis [6] of the
original European dolichocephaly was elevated to the category of scientific
dignity, and it was rolled back to the general acceptance that associated the
linguistic notion of European unity with physical characteristics. Then,
after having deduced a presumed greater receptive capacity in the
intellectual sense of the dolichocephalic skull with respect to the
brachycephalic one (less powerful in intellectual capacity), the
preeminence of the first ethnic type with respect to the second was
ineluctably affirmed. The anxious search for the relationship between
dolichocephaly and blond hair and light eyes subsequently accentuated the
apodictic and almost absolute aspects of the thesis [7].
Ultimately, racial anthropology, Rassenkunde, has been almost
"convincingly" dis- credited, but without totally denying it the ability of the
new biological anthropology to develop methods with which to study the
relationships and physical affinities of extinct peoples [8].
Today, in archaeology, at least for certain schools of thought, the
terms of this dispute cover too vast a field of research, referring to
cultures and/ or races so broad in time and space that they end up
constituting a non-problem, i.e., something that is simply not talked
about. No one today can be a specialist in all the fields that are of direct
and fundamental importance for a serious study of the Indo-European
koine, although such an overview would be very useful for specialists.
Other archaeologists, on the other hand, more sensitive to linguistic
data, have long been embarked on some Gordian knots of the vexata
quaestio [9]. The formation of an Indo-European language would be an
integral part of a very complex and long-lasting cultural sequence:
obviously, there are periods of fluidity and periods of coagulation (and,
therefore, of crystallization), which represent the successive formative
moments of the Indo-European language.
tives.
Although increasingly updated studies have been published in recent
years (also in the field of bibliography) [10], we cannot
Mario Giannitrapani 92

We will stop delimiting some aspects and retrace our steps to make a
brief review of some of the highlights of the debate led by some
archaeologists since the beginning of the twentieth century [11].
Thus, Kossinna [12] was the first to establish an equation between
population, prehistoric languages and ceramic types; he considered the
possibility of the expansion (north-south-east) of a group of cordate and
Indo-European-speaking ceramic craftsmen, who would be of
Northeastern Germanic origin.
Gordon Childe [131] argued that the original Indo-European
homeland should be located in the steppes north of the Black Sea, in
what is known as the "Black Sea".
The period of time of the period between the end of the Neolithic and
the beginning of the Bronze Age is approximately the same as that of
the present-day Russia, and he established relations between linguistic
notions and archaeological data concerning chordate pottery.
Bosch-Gimpera [14] considered the hypothesis according to which
the development and articulation of the Indo-European language would
have taken place along a series of ramifications from a single original
root, as well as the possibility that such development would have taken
place in "waves", waves that would annul the direct derivations,
accepting the possibility of the meeting of two linguistic "waves"
centrum and satem.
According to Gimbutas [15], from the second half of the 5th
millennium BC, several "waves" or "infiltrations" of warrior, nomadic
and semi-nomadic human groups, shepherds and horsemen (kurgans)
can be detected, especially along the north-south and east-west
direction, which will cause the elimination of Neolithic religions or
their hybridization by syncretism with the new "ideology".
Makkay [16] compares the Neolithic Linienbandkeramik and
Notenkoph (linear and musical note-shaped pottery) groups of the
Danubian I period with the successors of the Stichbankeramik (laciform
pottery) of Danubian II, as possible Proto-Indo-European.
Yakar has highlighted the impact of the Indo-Europeans on
Anatolian cultural development: there are many occasions in Anatolia
when cultural transformations interrupt the Chalco-Lithic sequence.
Thus, Mellaart [17] clearly points out three cultural areas: Yortan
and Akhisar-Manisa, southeastern Anatolia, and the plains of Kenya
and
Mario Giannitrapani 93

Cilicia, which will disintegrate under the pressure of the "waves" coming
from the region north of the Sea of Marmara.
The Sherrat brothers [18] favor a process divided into three periods
(from before 4500 to 3000 B.C.). The first is based on the model of the
four-petaled flower, whose center-heart, the central area of irradiation,
would represent the P.P.I.E. (pre-proto-Indo-European), where
agricultural civilization began.
The Zvelebil [19], on the other hand, assume the existence of three
stages (from 6500 to 2500 B.C.) from Greater Anatolia, in which the
dispersion may certainly not have been a uniform and continuous
process but rather in different phases, at different times and caused
by different reasons.
Renfrew [20] has advanced the thesis that Archaic Indo-European,
located in central Anatolia, could date back to the middle of the 7th
millennium BC and have been transmitted by Neolithic Aryans in
waves advancing 40 to 60 km. per generation.
Subsequently, Sergent [21] has specified the archaeological
connections between the V-IV millennia B.C. that allow us to assimilate
the origins of the Proto-Indo-European Kurgans to the Near-Eastern
Mesolithic culture of Dzhebel, which knew agriculture through the
influence of Namazga.
The stratigraphic correlation sequences between well-known
excavations such as those of Beycesultan, Troy, Poliochni, the plains of
Ko- nia, Cilicia and the Amuq area, were thus incompatible with
what was then (1962) conceived as an "Indo-European invasion", which
in the course of time became an event of great archaeological-cultural
importance, especially in the light of the theories closer to
"diffusionism".
Characterized by fire rites and a warlike ideology, these peoples
were part of the "pan-European" movement of the late Neolithic, one of
the common features of which was the use of bell-shaped vessels
(around 2500 B.C.) and the use of miniature vessels, linked to
intoxicating rites, conceived, mainly in Brittany, as "group-oriented
chiefdoms" (central power expressed in the immense works of art of
the late Neolithic period).), and the use of miniature vessels, linked to
intoxicating rites, conceived, mainly in Brittany, as "group-oriented
chiefdoms" (central power expressed in the immense monumental
works) and distinct from the later chiefdoms of the ancient bronze
period "of individual character" (luxurious utensils accompanying
individuals of particular importance). The archaeological culture of
94 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

the bell-shaped vase has recently been attributed with the

diffusion of the mythical-religious concepts that have inspired, in
part, the extraordinary rock art heritage of Mount Bego,
Fontanalba and the Valley of Wonders [22].
With respect to the previous explanation of migration/diffusion, we
then spoke of "interaction between forms of equal degree" in which
local communities interacted reciprocally, without any of them being
superior to the others.
As for the model of an advanced wave [23] linked to agri- culture, it
has been considered by some as appropriate also to relate it to the
transmission to the Balkans, especially with regard to the spread of
early Danubian farmers, from Band- keramik (banded pottery), to the
North Sea and its proximities.
Assuming, moreover, the possibility that mutations occurred
before the spread of agriculture and, above all, questioning the advance
wave mode and highlighting the resilience of the pre-existing Mesolithic
populations (in addition to the long time taken for the process of
"culturization"), I have come to consider the presence of large pockets
of other local languages, preserved among the Indo-European
languages brought by the farmers in their advance [24].
The hypothesis of archaic Indo-European languages already
spoken in the 7th millennium B.C. has become for some authors the
most plausible, especially thanks to studies [25] on the changes of
consonants and a revised grammatical structure, which would lead us to
the conclusion that the focus of the original area would be located
precisely in central Anato- lia.
There are also those who maintain that it would be necessary to
go back to the Paleo-Mesolithic [26], in particular to the Magdalenian
culture -a little more than 10,000 years BC- in order to find the
necessary cultural unity of a land of origin.- to find the necessary
cultural unity of a land of origin, theses that seem to receive
surprisingly curious con- formations even by some lexical-statistical
retro-datings [27], which would make the antecedents of a possible
Paleo-Indo-European language oscillate precisely up to 9-10,000 years
BC; opinions obviously taken with much skepticism by linguists.
In support of the antiquity of the origin of the Indo-European language
communities, seem to come all those literary sources, the importance of
which has again been brought to the fore by researchers [28].
Mario Giannitrapani 95

The sources seem to confirm not only a dwelling located in the

extreme north, circumpolar or arctic, but also the reference to Orion
in the most important cosmological myths [29]; a character whose main
attributes include that of a hunter, hence the famous shape of the
constellation.
If in the light of archaeoastronomical research [30] the side cycles
confirm the Neolithic chronology for the fitting of the Rg-Veda in the
Pleiades age (Taurus, 4000-2000 B.C.), the periods to which the
hymns would refer would be earlier, as perhaps are the eras spoken of
in the Avesta and Odyssey, in addition to a whole series of Norse
poems.), the periods to which the hymns would refer would be earlier,
as perhaps are the ages of which the Avesta and Odyssey speak, as
well as a whole series of later Norse poems (Gesta Danorum,
Kalevala, Skáldskaparmál) in which appears the mythical-sacral image
of the mill and the act of grinding, a reflection of that multi-millennial
movement of the equinoctial precession [31], seen as the dramatic
replacement of an age that comes to replace another.
In this reading key [32], the progenitors of the groups in possession
of Indo-European languages could be individualized, among other
hypotheses, among the late-Pleistocene Cro-Magnon communities of
the Upper Paleolithic, in one of the last interglacial phases, for example
the isotopic stage 3 (in which the Cro-Magnons "manifest" themselves
pro- pitively in Europe), which lasts until 24.000 years Before Present
(BP), in relation to the cycle that develops in a period of approximately
26,000 years, marked by sensitive inter-glacial climatic improvements,
ours standing out for the abrupt warming that began around 15,000
years BP and in the Allerod oscillation (10,000-8,000 BC) manifested in
that climatic optimum [33] celebrated precisely by the multiple Paleo-
European and Indo-Iranian sapiential sources.
Archaeology in Upper Paleolithic sites from the far east of Siberia -
where it seems that Neanderthal predecessors were not present with the
same intensity as Cro-Magnon [34] - to North America and central and
northern Europe, seems to confirm not only the widespread
"colonization" of Homo sapiens sapiens a. [nató- mically] m.[odern],
but also the possibility that the latter type may become more systematic as
we approach Arctic latitudes where precisely the presence of the latter type
becomes more systematic as we approach Arctic latitudes.[natologically]
m.[odern], but also the possibility that the presence of the latter type
becomes more systematic as we approach the arctic latitudes where
precisely paleontology has not yet been able to carry out exhaustive
96 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

investigations (Spitsbergen Islands, Greenland, Iceland) because of

the obvious problems associated with the climate of these regions.
In a reduced regional framework, for longer chronologies (45,000-
40,000 BP), a rapid imiption of Aurignacian groups (Cro-Magnon) has
been observed towards the west, along the northern shores of the
Mediterranean, apart from a later Aurignacian wave that also went
north of the Alps. In the Iberian Peninsula, north of the Tagus River,
there is a region of early Aurignacian penetration, while in the south,
the Mouste- rian was maintained for much longer. These same
distributive analogies also occur in other remote areas of northwestern
Europe, with a large presence in the north of Aurignacian groups that
will influence the industry and crafts of the Neanderthals
(Castelperronian, Uluzzian), among which the Castelperronian sites
should be highlighted [35].
Among the epigones of the Late Pleistocene groups of central-
northern Europe, the Magdalenians (15,000-11,000 ca. BP) inhabited
regions rich in precious flint, shells and amber, whose distribution
marked the emergence of true social groups, even hierarchically
structured [36] and with hereditary chiefs. Along with the former, the
ancient Scandinavian coastal groups stand out, as well as a whole
series of Baltic, Scots-Irish and Franco-Cantabrian groups, which may
have constituted those cultures in which the memory of that polar or
arctic dwelling first flourished, a legacy of the golden age that some
authors, such as F. d'Olivet, R. d'Olivet, R. d'Olivet, R. d'Olivet, R.
d'Olivet and R. d'Olivet, have described as the "golden age" of the
ancient Scandinavian culture. d'Olivet, R. Guénon or J. Evola, did not
limit only to a teaching of a "scientific" character -more evident in
other authors such as B.G. Tilak, H. Wirth, W. Wilser and K. Pen- ka-, but
which was not only limited to a teaching of a "scientific" character.
Pen- ka-, but focus on a doctrine of traditional [37] and esoteric
character.

***

The relationship of Julius Evola with Indo-European protohistory,

although not characterized by a tenacious and continuous philological
specialization, is, at least, captivating and suggestive, precisely because
Evola was an expert who, with a vast knowledge of the sources,
studied and contributed ideas on complex and ambitious subjects.
Mario Giannitrapani 97

Although it is true that the various sources he consulted are

nowadays considered to have been superseded by more recent studies
[38] and discoveries, which have not only refuted certain theses, but
have also opened new methodological research perspectives that were
unimaginable in Evola's time [39], we must recognize his high regard for
prehistoric disciplines in general, from whose study it was possible to
obtain data of extraordinary and significant importance [40],
although with the necessary and prior marginalization of the usual
positivist and historicist apparatus.
It is not by chance that some of the most famous works with which
our author achieved fame are essentially based on many elements
derived from the scientific studies of his time, but considered under the
perspective of a "spiritual light" quite different [41] from the still
persuasive framework of modern science; discoveries that Evo- la was
able to adequately rework, highlighting curious and interesting
coincidences suitable to endorse the hyperborean mystery of the origins
of Thule, which the ancients had already transmitted to posterity,
sometimes in the form of myths [42].
The texts presented here in their original versions, fully testify to
the marked interest especially in those distant epochs for which
craniological, blood-serological, paleontological or phrenological
studies in Evola's time had only very controversial results.
Critics [43] of the "racist" Evola have not objectively considered
some of his theses:
-We will say, therefore, that for us Aryan and Nordic-Aryan are in
no way synonymous with Germanic or Alemannic" [44].
-By Aryan we mean the element common to all the great Indo-
European species" [45].
-With regard to the expectation aroused by the Nordic thesis, it
must be pointed out that it is based on a misunderstanding. By sustaining
such a thesis one cannot automatically affirm the Pangermanic
myth..." [46]. [46].
In fact, these indications tend to free the Aryan-Indo-European
question faced by the author from a banal and exclusive political-
ideological and instrumental purpose; therefore, along with the most
consistent and "official" writings, these theses should be recognized
with equal dignity by
Mario Giannitrapani 98

This historiography, still fully endorsed today, where scholars from

other ideological fields have not been dis- fortunately divulged.
More ambivalent, however, is the recurrent use of terms such as
pure [47], superior, white race [48], which, to the extent that they are
used, denote the persistence of a lexical heritage that inevitably does
not escape the ideological positions of its time.
But it is to the review La Difesa della Razza and the fascicles of Ur-
Krur (1927-1929) that we must refer in order to glimpse the incubation
of the thought that Evola would later dedicate to the hyperborean
mystery of origins. Il ciclo nordico-atlantico (collected in the present
an- tology: Il ciclo nordico-atlantico) could reflect, in fact, some of the
research developed in the article L'aurora dell'Occidente {Krur, no. 3-
4, 1929), inspired by the work of Evola. 3-4, 1929), inspired, in part, by
Wirth's ideas; just as one would perhaps have to refer to Sulla
Tradizione Iperborea (Ur, Av:vo [49]) to find one of his first
investigations on the "science of origins".
It is precisely this last article that is essential, from our point of
view, to understand the coordinates in which the idea of a primordial
Tradition was recovered and explained with appropriate historical and
geographical references. The resulting point of view is above all that of
a necessary replacement or revision of bibliography and "positive"
research, as well as the consequent abandonment of the "evolutionary"
paradigm, which is inadequate to explain the genesis and memory of
peoples who never transmitted in their sacred literature the memory of
an "animalistic past" [50].
The term "evolution" is evidently associated with "progress",
although many evolutionists today insist that "evolution" should not be
understood as belonging to the plane of so-called "economic"
improvement or even "progress"; thus, the idea, which at that time was
not rejected by academic circles, of a "man who went to caves to
celebrate rites and not to live in them" is today a statement considered
"peaceful" by many paleontologists.
But the arctic and polar idea as a precise esoteric-sacial teaching is
almost completely endorsed. What is new in the view expounded by the
one who hides behind the pseudonym Arvo, is that "this
99 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

The fateful concordance between symbol and reality was dissolved in

the following times". With this mention, the author specifies a clear and
well-determined coincidence between metaphysical symbol and reality,
the latter being understood as an eminently temporal domain for the
successive changes "of the climate, determined by the inclination of the
earth's axis", and which occurred immediately afterwards. The same
tilt of the axis, as a fact that occurred at the beginning of the last
cycle, is therefore for the author the "cosmic consequence of a
spiritual deviation of man".
After a synthetic distinction between the hyperborean headquarters
and the later Atlantic headquarters, we arrive at the sources used to
prove certain considerations of a metahistorical order or, better said,
referring to that plane of supra-history in which symbol-myth-reality
coincided, not having yet split into separate domains, as they are now
presented in separate fields of study by the modern sciences.
The contrast between an Atlantic European and an Iberian-African
civilization of Cro-Magnon man versus that of animalistic 'Mousterian' men
is revealed to be totally inadequate, if not totally wrong, in the light of the
most recent archaeological findings. In fact, the "brute" Neanderthal
man has not been considered as such by prehistoric archaeologists for
many years now; he is no longer regarded as an archaic great ape-like
creature of the ice age [51]; paleoanthropology had already confirmed a
close relationship between us and the Neanderthals, although more
recent genetic discoveries seem to disprove it. In addition to several
elements, among which the discussed "Lubiana flute" [52], together
with, for example, symbolic-funerary ritualism, would testify to the
possible existence of a high cultural and even musical sensitivity of
the man of the culture of Le Moustier.
This certainly does not imply any idea of evolution or phylogene-
sis, since very ancient remains of Cro-Magnon man (?f. archaic
feed) according to many stratigraphies seem to have preceded the
coming of Sapiens Neanderthalensis. As for the plan of the
"successive alterations of lunar or titanic type" of the originary tradition
- mainly related in Evola to Wirth's thesis, the latter having fallen into
the error of confusing the "bachofenian" civilization of the mother or of
the earth with the original hyperborean cycle - it would be necessary
to point out that the "bachofenian" civilization of the mother or of the
earth is not the same as the original hyperborean cycle, but the
"bachofenian" civilization of the mother or of the earth.
Mario Giannitrapani 100

The fact that such a "process of degeneration (or fall)" seems to refer
specifically to the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world of the
neo-lithic era.
In this regard, it is also necessary to remember that although most of
the most significant cultural expressions such as ceramics, rock art,
idolatrous plastic art, etc., may lead us to think of communities
marked by the cult of one or more divinities with clearly feminine
characteristics, it is also true that in these Neolithic cultures the
prominent role of women is evident and not entirely secondary, may
lead us to think of communities marked by the cult of one or more
divinities with clearly feminine characters; it is also true that in these
Neolithic cultures it is evident and not entirely secondary the prominent
role played by iconographies of an undoubtedly solar, uranic, active and
strongly virile character, being perhaps a confirmation of "those
memories of the arctic cycle that are confused with those of the
Atlantic cycle" [53].
Also Rivolta contro il mondo moderno [54] collects Evola prece-
dent studies of accentuated prehistoric interest, either on the waxes, as a
symbol far removed from the "presumed fetishism" of the cult of
stones, understood profanely by modern researchers, or on the idea of
center and stability (polar symbolism) that refers to the assumptions of
a sacred geography.
It is this profound meaning that is always alluded to in the
mentions of "stone as an expression of the hardness, spiritual firmness,
virility, strength and at the same time iron, held by those saved from the
waters". In the second part of the work we find the most interesting
chapters to understand more clearly what the north refers to: "the north
as the situation of an island, mainland or mountain, as a motif that
simultaneously treasures a spiritual and a real symbol", which means that
there is a reciprocal combination by which "history and suprahistory
were two non-separate parts, overlapping one over the other".
It is the same author who specifies, on the basis of tradition, "an
epoch of high prehistory" that would correspond, therefore, to the true
age of being, a real region located in the north, exactly where "today
the arctic pole of the earth is situated". It is interesting to note an
allusion by Evola to the hypothesis of an origin not boreal but austral,
taken from an article by R. Quinton [55], which would allude to the
traditions referred to Le- muria [56] that, "connecting with such a
remote cycle", seem to have had an extraordinary fortune in the
continuous discoveries of human paleontology that were being made in
101 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

East Africa, which seem to provide the "undoubted" scientific

certainty of the southern origin of man (Ea5t and West Side Store).
And to the south would correspond this "Lemuria, of which certain
black and southern populations can be considered as the last crepuscular
remains". We should also point out the interesting arguments referring
to the svastika, conceived as a characteristic hyperborean-polar symbol,
centered on the fixed point and not on the rotary movement; together
with other forms of the prehistoric cross [57] and the well-known
symbol of the circle with central point represented in many dolmens or
cromlech; for all these elements would testify to Evo- la's attention to
the spiritual interpretations that Guénon [58] had formulated on these
ancient symbols.
As a symbol of the "original stage of the Nordic tradition", the
Apollonian-hyperborean swan is also indicated, which, curiously, we
find today in stylized forms represented in some neo-Lithic ceramics
and, perhaps more significantly, in some iconography of the Serra
d'Alto culture in central-southern Italy.
Returning to the subject of the Nordic-Atlantic cycle, relating it to
an "emigration of the boreal race" and, therefore, one of the first
expansions from "north to south and from west to east", reference was
made to a lost land, the famous Atlantis of Plato, Diodorus and many
others. But the connection between this cycle and the Cro-Magnon men
[59] may not be so clear, presenting some problems.
Indeed, by underlining "the affinity of their civilization (Cro-Mag-
non) with the hyperborean", what implicitly results is that the
extraordinary manifestations preserved (still under investigation) of the
then defined as "French-Cantabrian civilization of the Madeleines",
should be related to the Atlantic Tradition, which the author instead
explicitly relates to characteristics of essentially Neolithic cultures,
chronologically later. Thus, Evola writes: "Throughout the wake of the
Atlantean colonizers we find almost exclusively female idols and, in the
cult, more priestesses than priests, or, not infrequently, effeminate
saints", also related to that cult or even more archaic diffusion of the
famous and characteristic "venus" of the Upper Paleolithic; and the
author even seems to have them in mind when speaking of the
"Madeleines".
Mario Giannitrapani 102

of "that goddess of the southern world (...), reduced almost to the

pure, demeteric form that she already presented in the Brassempouy
caves (...)", but often considering these statuettes as antagonistically
belonging to the "coarsely naturalistic cycle of the coarse prehistoric fe-
menine idols" as opposed to that purer feminine principle of the
demeteric type opposed to the Afroditic one.
Then, perhaps the Cro-Magnon civilization also corresponded to a
successive phase, identifying in the primitive golden cycle only a
presumed race of which no remains of any kind would be preserved
[60], it not being useful then to look for the golden beginnings in the not
very noble (biologically) pre-sap'ens species of Europe (Habilis, Erectus).
Evola also put in "relation the appearance of the Neolithic ha- cha
peoples with the expansion of the most prevalent Indo-European
peoples in Europe" [61], although he presents them in opposition to
"de- metric, pacific, communitarian and priestly" forms that
sometimes, or rather rarely, replaced those mentioned above, thus
affirming once again his conception of the antagonistic dialectic in
Europe [62].
tre solar and lunar or telluric civilizations of Bachofenian matrix.
The author's intelligence was precisely in interpreting some not
entirely exhaustive data of official science, rectifying them with the
help of traditional science [62]. So, only a higher synthesis of a spiritual
order of this kind allowed a metaphysical reading of the origins; where
one tends not so much to extract doubts or twisted theories, but rather
to individualize certainties, quite different from those that seem to bring
tranquility and security to modern man, convinced of having
understood his most ancient history, contemplating it as a mechanical
sequential succession of hunter-gatherers (Paleolithic), farmer-herders
(Neolithic) and nomadic pastoralists (Enneolithic).
These hermeneutic parameters have in fact become for
archaeology, rather than essential criteria, calm and comfortable
classifications and subdivisions based on an evident and relaxed
economistic reading of the origins, once the scandal of the ape-like
origin, which still conditions and facilitates the understanding of the al-
ba of the times, has passed.
With this volume, therefore, and thanks to the research of Alberto
Lombardo and Alessandro Giuli, the his- toriographic research on that
"Hyperborean Mystery", which is voluntarily ignored, is launched.
103 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

63] by the official historiography or labeled as "meta-scientific" or

"deviant" [64], with which, on the contrary, certain academic
disciplines should be confronted, although we must warn that: "The
idea of the hyperborean tradition does not belong to the domain of
archeo- logy, nor of anthropology, nor of contemporary racism; it only
belongs to esotericism" [65].

Mario Giannitrapani

Notes
[1] E. Campanile, "La Religione degli Indoeuropei", in VV. AA., Storia delle Re-
ligioni. Le Religioni antiche, by G Filoramo, Laterza, Roma-Bart, 1994, vol. I,
p. 569.
[2] Cfr. G. Spedini, "L'evoluzione del concetto biologico di razza", in tivista de
Antmpologia, LXVIII, 1990, pp. 37-50.
[3] Cfr. VV.AA., Alle origini dell'antropologia italiana, by F. Fedele and A.
Baldi, Liguori, Naples, 1988, pp. 37-99.
[4] Cf. G Sergi, "Dolicocephaly", in Enciclopedia Italiana, ad vocem, XIII,
1932, p. 101.
[5] P. Broca, in Buletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, 2, 1861, pp.
508 ff.
[6] Thesis presented in 1864 by D'Omalius D'Halloy at the Société d'Anthro-
pologie de Paris.
[7] Cf. H.F.K. Günther, Die Nordische Rasse bei den Indogermanen Asiens,
Munich, 1934; for a complete critical study of Günther, cf. J. Evola, "Re-
ligiositá Indoeuropea," in ll Conciliatore, August 15, 1970, pp. 311-314
[included in the present compilation, under the title Indo-European Religiosity,
n. of the t.].
[8] Cfr. C. Renfrew, Archeologia e Linguaggio. ll puzzle delle origini indo-
eum- pee, Laterza, Roma-Bart, 1989, pp. 3-11.
[9] In the Italian paleoethnological literature, one of the latest correlations
established between archaeological cultures and linguistic data has been that
between Eneolithic civilizations (in particular that of Laterza) and Indo-
European language villages. In this regard, cf. F. Biancofiore, "Contributi alla
conoscenza delle relazioni paleostoriche tra l'Ita1ia sud-orientale e i Paesi
Balca- nici occidentali", in Archivio Storico Pugliese, XLIII, 1990, pp. 27-31.
It is also worth quoting E. Castaldi, Anonimi del Mediterraneo e dell'Egeo nella
pri-
Mario Giannitrapani 104

ma etá dei metalli, Urbino, 1996, in particular pp. 194-211, and A. Romual- di,
Gli Indoeuropei, Ar, Padua, 1978.
[10] A. de Benoist, "Bibliographie chronologique des Etudes ludo-Européens
1930-1997", in n. 49 of Nouvelle Ecole dedicated entirely to the Indo-
Europeans, Paris, 1997. Cf. also VV.AA., Miscellanea Indo-Europea, by E.
Polomé, n. 33, Washington; VV.AA., Antichi Popoli Indoeuropei. Dall'u- nitá
alla diversificazione, by 0. Bucci, Goliardica, Rome, 1992, in par- ticular pp.
11-117. More concrete is K. Haoui, "Les Indo-Européens; une Bibliographie
Française de la question", in Travaux de Laboratoire d'Anthropo- logie et de
Préhistoire des Pays de la Méditerranée Occidentale, 1988, pp. 185-210.
[11] For an overview of the subject at the time of the early 1970s, cf. the
anthology of writings by Kossinna, Hirt, Kuhn, Sulimirski, Po- korny,
Trubetzkoy, Bosch Gimpera, Gimbutas et alii, in VV.AA., Die Urheimat der
Indogermanen. Herausgegeben von Antón Scherer, Darmstadt, 1968. Cf. also,
E. Crevatin, Ricerche di Antichitá Indoeuropee con saggi di P. Cas- sola Guida
e G. Stacul, Trieste, 1979, in particular pp. 9-11 and 44-45.
[12] G Kossinna, "Die indoeuropaische Frage archaelogisch beantwortet", in.
Zeitschrift fíir Ethnologie, 34, 1902, pp. 161-222.
[13] V. Gordon Childe, The Aryans: a study of Indo-European Origins, London,
1926.
[14] P. Bosch-Gimpera, El Problema Indoeuropeo, Mexico City, 1960.
[15] M. Gimbutas, "The First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralism into
Copper Age Europe," in Journal of Indo-European Studies, 5, 1977, pp. 277-
338.
[16] J. Makkay, "The Linear Pottery and the Early Indo-Europeans", in VV.AA.,
Proto-lndoeuropean. the Archaeology of a Linguistic Problem.' Studies in Honor
of Marija Gimbutas, Washington, 1987.
[17] J. Mellaart, "Anatolia and the ludo-Europeans," in Journal of Indo-
European Studies, 9, 1981, pp. 135-149.
[18] A.G. and S. Sherrat, "The Archaeology of Indo-European: an Alternative
View," in Antiquity, 62, 1988, pp. 584-595.
[19] M. and K.V. Zvelebil, "Agricultural Transition and Indo-European
Dispersals," in Antiquity, 62, 1988, pp. 574-583.
[20] C. Renfrew, Archeologia e Linguaggio, cit. 1989, pp. 89-114 and 297-325.
[21] B. Sergent, Les Indo-Européens, Histoire, langues, mythes, Paris, 1995,
pp. 394-434.
[22] R. Dufrenne, "La Vallée des Merveilles et les Mythologies Indo-Européens",
in Studi Comuni, XVII, Capo di Ponte, 1997, in particular pp. 11-16 and 199-....
202. Long considered to be of Iberian origin, the so-called Campaniform Vase
culture is now considered by an increasing number of scholars to be of Central
European origin.
105 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

[23] A.J. Ammerman and L.L. Cavalli Sforza, La transizione neolitica e la

geneti- ca di popolazioni in Europa, Boringhieri, Turin, 1986.
[24] C. Renfrew, Archeologia e Linguaggio, cit. 1989, pp. 298-299.
[25] T.V. Gamkrelidze and V.V. Ivanov, "The ancient Near Est and the Indo-
Euro- pean Problem," in Soviet Studies in History, 22, 1983, pp. 3-52.
[26] H. Kuhn, "Herkunft und Heimat der Indogermanen", in Proceedings of the
First International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (London,
1932), Oxford, 1934, pp. 237-242. 237-242; G Shwantes, Die Indogermanen in
der Ges- chichte Schleswig Holsteins, Neumunster, 1958; cf. Seger, 1936, and T.
Sulimirski who, in 1971, advanced the hypothesis of tracing Proto-Indo-
European back to Mesolithic; cf. also L. Kilian, Zum Ursprung der
Indogermanen. Forschungen aus Lin- guistic, Prahistorie und Anthropologie,
Bonn, 1988, in particular pp. 29-59, 71-92 and 121-137; and A. de Benoist,
Bibliographie..., cit. 1997, p. 96.
[27] J.B. Kruskal, I. Dyen Black, The Vocabulary and Method of
Reconstructing Language Trees.' Innovations and Large Scale Applications,
Edinburgh, 1971, pp. 361-380. Statistical analysis has shown estimates in the
region of
6,000 years, seriously inferior to the real ones, cf. L.L. Cavalli Sforza, Geni,
Po- poli e Lingue, Adelphi, Milan, 1996, p. 217.
[28] Cfr. 0. Bucci, Indoeuropei: il percorso della doctrina, pp. 13-42, and "Air-
yana Vaejah. La dimora originaria degli arii e la formazione storica del
principio dell'armonia cosmica", in VV. AA., Antichi Popoli cit. 1992, pp. 45-
117. The author tends to identify in the Arctic glacial zone the original seat of
the Aryans, basing himself more on the rediscovery of Indo-Iranian literary
sources and criticizing those who, ignoring the latter, have been fascinated by
the Indo-Iranian myth, which, in the light of the research carried out, "shows
more and more its inconsistency" (cf. p. 73).
[29] B.G Tilak, La dimora artica nei Veda, Ecig, Genova, 1986, in particular
pp. 21-64 and 283-333; and Orione, a proposito dell'antichitá dei Veda, Ecig,
Gé- nova, 1991, in particular pp. 155-182 and 223-262.
[30] G de Santillana, H. von Dechennd, ll Mulino di Amleto, Adelphi, Milan,
1989 (ed. consulted 1997), pp. 51-70 and 117-130.
[31] Cf. the 26,000-year precessional helio-geothermal calendar in the detailed
study by J.C. Dragán, St. Airinei, Geoclimate and History, Na- gard, Rome
1989, in particular pp. 178-192 and 226-246.
[32] M. Giannitrapani, "Paletnologia dell Antichitá Indo-Europee", in
Quaderni del Veliero-Kultur, 2/3-4, Rome, 1998, pp. 246-260 and 84-106; and
"Retrodatazio- ni glottologiche ed ipotesi paleolitica", in VV.AA. Colloquio
della Indogerma- nische Gesellschaft, Anatolico e Indoeuropeo (Pavia, 22/25-
10-1998), 1998.
[33] Current studies aim to verify the thesis of our African orignen (cf. V.
Formicota and M. Giannecchini, "Evolutionary Trenes of Stature in Upper
Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe", in Journal of Human Evolution, 36, 1999),
Mario Giannitrapani 106

The authors explain that the stature and somatic proportions of the Upper
Paleolithic men are typical of people from tropical environments, a theory
which, therefore, seems to reconcile very well with the hypothesis of a circum-
Arctic preglacial origin.
[34] R.G Klein, ll Cammino dell'Uomo - Antropologia culturale e biologica,
Za- nichelli, Bologna, 1995, pp. 304-311.
[35] J.-J. Hublin, "Gli ultimi neandertaliani", in VV.AA., Le origini dell'Umani-
tá - Le Science quaderni, Milan, 2000, pp. 89-95.
[36] This does not imply that we have to accept this without further ado, or at
least generic sentences, such as that "the civilization of Cro-Magnon Man (...)
was essentially patriarchal, this being a characteristic feature of all types of
nomadic hunters (...) therefore, women appear as a marginal figure", in R. del
Ponte, £iguri, Ecig, Genoa, 1999, p. 43; in fact, recent studies tend to gather
most of the hunter-gatherer groups in bands or clans with an egalitarian
structure where there are no formally recognized leaders. 43; indeed, recent
studies tend to gather the majority of hunter-gatherer groups in bands or clans
of egalitarian structure where there are no formally recognized leaders, as well
as no economic or social status differences among their members, and the role
played by women is not secondary, being more autonomous and free than in
later sedentary communities. The beginning of the hierarchy (ranking) through
different lineages, will appear in a more accentuated way only later (chiefdom).
Also in today's nomadic-pastoralist cultures with a triarchal tendency (although
there are also those with a matriarchal tendency), a certain parity between men
and women is more evident than it seems at first sight (cf. VV.AA, L'altra
umanitá, Florence, 1983, p. 59).
[37] "Traditional man did not have the same experience of time as modern
man: he had a supratemporal sense of temporality (. . .). Tradition begins
where, with the attainment of a su- praindividual and non-human point of view,
it is possible to place oneself above all that (. . .)" (J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit., p.
59).
[38] For a more updated bibliography on the origins, see 1. Tattersall, ñ
Cammino dell'Uomo, Garzanti, Milan, 1998.
[39] Cf., for example, the increasingly advanced techniques of molecular
biology applied to the anthropological sciences of antiquity, R.R. Sokal, N.L.
Oden and B.A. Thompson, "Origins of the Indo-Europeans: Genetic Evidence",
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A, 89, 1992, pp.
7.669- 7.673; VV.AA., ll DNA nello studio dei resti umani antichi, by F. Rollo,
Palermo, 1999.
[40] Cf. J. Evola, ll Mito del Sangue, 1937 (ed. consulted 1995), p. 159.
[41] Cf. J. Evola, Sintesi di dottrina della razza, pp. 67-68, (ed. consulted
1995): "Nor can the investigation of fossil skulls bring us much, either because
a race is not characterized only by the skull (. . .), either because
107 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

There is reason to affirm that for some of these races no fossils may have been
preserved up to our time. In any case, his maxim is valid: "But all this can never
be regarded as the last step.
[42] The island of Thule has sometimes been identified with the Shetlands,
with Norway and also with Iceland; for ancient sources cf. Antonius Diogenes,
Incredibilum de Thule insula (Photius, Bibliotheca)', Aristeas of Proconnesus,
Ari- maspea (in particular, Herodotus, 4, 13-15, Colli); Pythias of Marseilles
(in particu- lar, Frr. 6 6c, 6g, 7a, 11b, 13a, Mette); Hecataeus of Abdera, Sugli
Iperborei, Italian ver- sion (in particular, 264 F 7 (5a), Jacoby).
[43] See notes 63 and 64.
[44] Evola, Senso della test nordico-aria.
[45] J. Evola, "Panorama razziale dell'Italia preromana", in La Tradizione di Ro-
ma, (ed. consulted 1977), p. 16; an explicit ideological and instrumental use is
still evident, cfr. "...in the sense of a pure reference for a first discrimination
(...)", in Sintesi, cit., p. 177.
[46] Cf. Sintesi, cit. (Le migrazioni nordico occidentali). Later it will be one of
Evola's main concerns "to define what is Indo-European in essentially
morphological and general terms, without limited ethno-racial references", - cf.
also Religiosità Indoeumpea, cit.
[47] "Those Asian civilizations for us do not imply anything original and much
less anything pure", cfr. infra, J. Evola, La razza e le origini.
[48] "Not Eastern, but Western and Nordic-Western is the origin of the most
civilized of the white races", cf. ibidem. The first Europeans of Cro-Magnon,
among other things, came from areas with a more temperate climate;
presumably they should also have, by virtue of current studies, a darker
coloration than is seen in current informative reconstructions.
[49] On the hypothesis that the pseudonym corresponds to Evola, which
judging by the content would seem likely (Ur Group, Introduzione alla Magia,
Ed. Mediterranee, Rome, 1972, vol. II, pp. 362-371).
[50] The term "animalistic", (L'uomo animalco delle caverne, cfr. infra, J.
Evola, "II Mistero dell'Artide preistorica: Thule" [collected in the present
commentary], often seems to denote an inconvenient and negative reality,
automatically establishing an evaluative dichotomy between man-superior and
animal-inferior, often being a source of misunderstandings when one looks back
to archaic cultures, where the limits - as we well know thanks to the study, for
example, of the shamanic experience - between man and animal are susceptible
to ambivalent interpretations.
[51] Only recently, after having long considered Homo sapiens
Neanderthalensis as a close "relative" of ours, new research based on fossil
DNA carried out by geneticists, seems to
Mario Giannitrapani 108

to have redefined and resolved the question in a much less direct kinship,
turning out to be a sort of "distant cousin" (sic).
[52] P. Paisano, "II Flauto di Neandertal", in Le Scienze, 349, 1997, pp. 108-
109.
[53] J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit.
[54] J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit.
[55] R. Quinton, "Les deux poles, foyers d'origine", in Revue de métaph. et de
mor., 1933, 1, cit. in Rivolta..., cit. p. 235.
[56] Disappeared continent considered by E. Haeckel (1884) as the cradle of
mankind.
[57] J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit.
[58] Cf. R. Guénon, Simboli della Scienza Sacra, Adelphi, Milan, 1994, and La
Grande Triade, Adelphi, Milan, 1997 [of both there are translations in Spanish:
R. Guénon, Símbolos Fundamentales de la Ciencia Sagrada, Paidós Ibérica,
Barcelona, 1996; and R. Guénon, La Gran Triada, Paidós Ibérica, 2004 (n. of the
t.)].
[59] Evola points out that they could be "biologically superior and highly
civilized" (cf. infra, J. Evola, "Preistoria mediterranea" [collected in this
compilation]), but this type of definition can be misleading. In fact, by
associating civilization - understood in a way that is quite different from any
contemporary ana- logy - with biology, one establishes the premises of a
standard of measurement that could prove to be quite ambiguous in certain
cases. On the other hand, it was the same author who maintained that "the
danger of a limitation of horizons due either to racism or to a unilateral and
tendentious use of ideas exclusively for the German people was quite evident":
see J. Evola, Religiositá Indo-Europea, cit.
[60] Cf. J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit.: "To maintain, as it is traditionally held, that in
the origins there was (...) a more-than-man, and that already the highest
prehistory has witnessed not a civilization, but a whole era of the dioceses" (cit.,
Cicero, De Leg., II, 11).
[61] J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit.
[62] J. Evola, Rivolta..., cit., p. 283: "Whoever, starting from a particular tra-
ditional civilization, knows how to study and reconstruct it, freeing it from its
historical and contingent aspects, must also place its generating and tempting
principles on the metaphysical plane, where they are, so to speak, in a pu- rous
state..." (p. 13).
[63] Indeed, J.-P. Demoule ("Sur les traces des ludo-Europeanistes", in Jour-
nal ofEuropean Archaeology, vol. 1, 1993, pp. 197-200), referring to France,
stigmatizes the ideological-instrumental use that still exists today in several
intellectuals, "directement melés aux movements de l'extreme droite politique
et in- tellectuelle" ["directly linked to movements of the extreme political and
intellectual right"], affirming that the only "scientific" publications on the
109 Epilogue. "Indo-European Protohistory."

The works on the subject are works of popularization that are not very different
from those of National Socialist Germany. In our opinion, however, this
situation should not prevent an objective evaluation just because of a certain
ideological tendency, because if the same criterion were applied to the entire
production of academics linked to European communist regimes and parties, a
good percentage of the world's scientific repertoire would have to be wiped off
the map.
[64] It is indeed unpleasant that Onorato Bucci, who has the merit of having
made one of the most interesting rediscoveries of the Indo-Iranian sources on
the Arctic dwelling, has later dedicated perhaps too hostile words, either on
Evola's fiivoffa..., which he presents as "a canonically meta-scientific text,
written under the rivers of Nazi Aryanism" (cfr. VV.AA., Antichi Popoli, cit,
pp. 115-117), whether in the monograph 27/28 of the journal Arthos, or in the
analysis of J. Remy, "Introduction e Origine polai- re de la tradition védique"
(in Arché, Milan 1979), considered "of dissident approach", stating that
"whoever becomes a champion of Tilak is the one who then professes doctrines
that for science and for historiographical analysis are far from the approaches of
Tilak himself". In short, the irritation is directed, among others, against the
Germanic doctrines, which for those who have made Tilak's theses 'the fruit of
magical, esoteric and symbolic research', thus the author forgets that, on the
one hand, Rivolta... was a text thought out and written by Tilak himself. was a
text thought and written before the advent of National Socialism and, on the
other hand, that the Indo-Iranians themselves of a few millennia ago, faced
with their subdivisions between magic and academic historiography, would
probably have shown a broad smile at the artificial separations made (this time)
by our deviant minds as modern Westerners.
[65] Arvo, Sulla tradizione iperborea, cit. p. 371.
 Bibliography

For the present bibliography we have taken as a basis the one

reproduced in the Italian original of the present volume, including some
of the translations into our language of the most relevant works, to
which we have added, in addition, some works in Spanish on the
subject, although of unequal value.
This bibliography is not intended to be exhaustive, but sufficient to
provide an overview of the subject, focusing on the specific field of the
Indo-Europeans and not on particular civilizations. A proportionally
larger space has been reserved for the work of Georges Dumé- zil,
because it is essential for anyone wishing to approach the subject of
Indo-European studies, and for that of Franz Altheim, because of his
influence on Julius Evola.
We ask the reader to excuse any possible gaps, and at the same time
we encourage him/her to help complete it by sending us information on
works and studies that could or should be included.

JAVIER GÓMEZ

Journals of Indo-European studies

Journal of Indo-European Studies.

Études indoeropéennes.

Monographic issues of magazines

Nouvelle Ecole, 21-22, 1972, monographic under the title Georges Dumézil et
les études indo-européenes.
Arthos, 27-28, 1983-1984, monographic under the title La Tradizione artica.
Origini, 1, 1988, monographic under the title Gli Indoeuropei.
111 Bibliography

Futuro Presente, 2, 1993, monographic under the title Georges Dumézil e

l'eredi- tà indo-europea.
Nouvelle Ecole, 47, 1995, monographic under the title Tradition.
Nouvelle Ecole, 49, 1997, monograph entitled Les Indoeuropéens, Elemente,
5, 1990, Spezialaugabe Wintersonnenwende.

Essays (books and magazines)

F. Altheim, Römische Religion sgeschichte, vols. 1, 2 and 3, de Gruyter,

Berlin- Leipzig, 193 l-1933.
F. Altheim, Terra Mater. Untersuchungen zur altitalischen Religionsgeschichte,
A. Töpelmann, Griessen, 1931.
F. Altheim, Epochen der römischen Geschichte, vols. l and 2, Klostermann,
Franc- fort, 1934-1935.
F. Altheim, Italia, in Studi e materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 10, 1934, pp.
125-155.
F. Altheim, Die Soldatenkaiser, Klostermann, Frankfurt, 1939; later in: Die
Krise der alten Welt im 3. Jahrhundert n. Zw. Und Ursachen, Ahnenerbe-
Stif- tung-Verlag, Berlin, 1943; and later in Niedergang der alten Welt.
Eine Untersuchung der Ursachen, vols. 1. 2., Klostermann, Frankfurt,
1952.
F. Altheim and E. Trautmann, Kom Ursprung der Runen, Klostermann,
Frankfurt, 1939.
F. Altheim and E. Trautmann, Italien und die dorische Wanderung, Pantheon,
Ams- terdam, 1940.
F. Altheim, Lex sacrata. Die Anfânge der plebeischen Organisation, Pantheon,
Amsterdam, 1940.
F. Altheim, Italien und Rom, vols. l and 2., Pantheon Akad. Verl. Anst.,
Amsterdam- Leipzig, 1940.
F. Altheim, Helios und Heliodor von Emesa, Pantheon, Amsterdam-Leipzig, 1942.
F. Altheim and E. Trautmann-Nehring, Kimbem und Runen. Unterschungen zur
Ursprungsfrage der Runen, Ahnenerbe-Stiftung-Verlag, Berlin, 1942.
F. Altheim, toni und der Hellenismus, Pantheon, Amsterdam-Leipzig, 1942.
F. Altheim, Goten und Finnen im 3. und 4. Jahrhundert, Ranke, Berlin, 1944.
F. Altheim, Weltgeschichte Asiens im griechischen Zeitalter, vols. 1 and 2,
Nieme- yer, Halle, 1947-1948.
F. Altheim, Literatur und Gesellschaft im ausgehenden Altertum, vols. 1 and 2, Nie-
meyer, Halle a. S., 1948-1950.
F. Altheim, Hunnische Runen, Niemeyer, Halle a. S., 1948.
F. Altheim, Awestische Textgeschichte, Niemeyer, Halle a. S., 1949.
F. Altheim, Sein und Werden in der Geschichte, Neomarius Verlag, Tübingen,
1950.
Bibliography 112

F. Altheim, Der Ursprung der Etrusker, Verlag fiir Kunst und Wissenschaft,
Ba- den-Baden, 1950.
F. Altheim u.a., Mythe, Mensch und Umwelt, Beitràge zur Religion,
Mythologie und Kulturgeschichte von Franz Altheim, H. Baumann u.a., hrsg.
v. A.E. Jen- sen, Meisenbach, Bamberg, 1950.
F. Altheim, Attila und die Hunen, Verlag fiir Kunst und Wissenschaft, Baden-
Ba- den, 1951.
F. Altheim, Ràmische Geschichte, vols. 1 and 2, Klostermann, Frankfurt, 1951.
F. Altheim, Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache. Von den Anfàngen bis zum
Be- ginn der Literatur, Klostermann, Frankfurt, 1951.
F. Altheim, Roman und Dekadenz, Niemeyer, Tübingen, 1951 (from Litera- tur
und Gessellschaft im ausgehenden Altertum). Italian translation: Romanzo e
decadenza, Settimo Sigillo, Rome, 1998.
F. Altheim, Aus Spàtantike und Christentum, Niemeyer, Tübingen, 1951.
F. Altheim, Asien und Rom. Neue Urkunden aus sasanidischer Friihzeit,
Nieme- yer, Tübingen, 1952.
F. Altheim, Alexander und Asien. Geschichte eines geistigen Erbes, Niemeyer,
Tübingen, 1953 (excerpted from Weltgeschichte Asiens im griechischen
Zeitalter).
F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Das erste Auftreten der Hunnen. Das Alter der Jesaja-
Ro- lle. Neue Urkunden aus Dura-Europos, Verlag fìir Kunst und
Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden, 1953.
F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Pophyrios und Empedokles, Niemeyer, Tubingia, 1954.
F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Eru asiatischer Staat. Feudalismus unter den
Sasaniden und ihren Nachbarn, Limes-Verlag, Wiesbaden, 1954.
F. Altheim, "L'apoca1ittica oggi", in Archivio di Filosofia, 2, 1954, pp. 77-92.
F. Altheim, "La fine del mondo antico come conclusione e nuovo inizio", in
Ar- chivio di Filosofia, 2, 1954, pp. 57-76.
F. Altheim, Gesicht von Abend und Morgen. Von der Antike zum Mittelalter, Fis-
cher Biicherei, Frankfurt-Hamburg, 1955.
F. Altheim, Reich gegen Mitternacht. Asiens Weg nach Europa, Rowohlt,
Ham- burgo, 1955.
F. Altheim, "Cesare," in Monarchia, 1, 1956, pp. 27-31.
F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Finanzgeschichte der Spàtantike, Klostermann, Frankfurt,
1957.
F. Altheim, Der unbesiegte Gott. Heidentum und Christentum, Rohwolt, Ham-
burg, 1957. Italian translation: Il dio inviato, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1960.
F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Supplementum aramaicarum. Aramäisches aus Iran,
Grimm, Verlag für Kunst und Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden, 1957.
F. Altheim, Utopie und Wirtschaft. Eine geschichtliche Betrachtung, Kloster-
mann, Frankfurt, 1957.
113 Bibliography

F. Altheim and H.W. Haussig, Die Hunen in Osteuropa. Ein Foscungsbericht,

Grimm, Verlag fiir Kunst und Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden, 1958.
F. Altheim and R. Stiel, Philologia sacra, Niemeyer, Tübingen, 1958.
A.J. Ammerman and L. Cavalli-Sforza, La transizione neolitica e la genetica di
po- polazioni in europa, Boringhieri, Turin, 1986.
E. Benveniste, Il vocabolario delle istituzioni indoeuropee, Einaudi, Turin, 1988.
R. Bloch, "Le Symbolisme cosmique et les monuments religieux dans l'Italie
an- cienne", in VV. AA, Le symbolisme cosmique des Monuments religieux,
ls.M.E.O., Rome, 1957, pägs. 17-29.
0. Bucci (ed.), Antichi popoli europei, Euroma, Rome, 1993.
L.F. Clauss, Die Nordische Seele, Munich-Berlin, 1940.
L.F. Clauss, Rasse und Seele, Munich-Berlin, 1940.
L. de Anna, Thule. Le%nti e le tradizioni, Il Cerchio, Rimini, 1998.
A. de Filippi, "La 'Patria Artica' degli Ariani", in Algiza, 10, 1998, pp. 17-18.
GA. de Gobineau, Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines, Paris, 1853-1855.
G de Santillana and H. von Dechend, Il mulino di Amleto. Saggio sul mito e la
strut-
tura del tempo, Adelphi, Milfin, 1983.
G Dumézil, Le festin d'immortalité.' Étude de mythologie comparée indoeuropé-
enne, Annales du Musée Guimet, Paris, 1924.
G Dumézil, "L'étude comparée der religions indo-européennes", in La Nouvelle
Revue Française, 29, 1941, pàgs. 385-399.
G Dumézil, "Le nom des 'Arya"', in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 124,
1941, pp. 36-59.
G Dumézil, "'Tripertita' fonctionnels chez divers peuples indo-européens", in
Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 131, 1946, pàgs. 53-72.
G Dumézil, "La tripartition indo-européenne", in Psyché, 2, 1947, pp. 1.348- 1.356.
G Dumézil, "Civilisation indo-européenne", in Cahiers du Sud, 34, 1951, pàgs.
221-239.
G Dumézil, "Triades de calamités et triades de délits à valeur trifonctionelle
chez les divers peuples indo-européens", in Latomus, 14, 1955, pp. 173-
185.
G Dumézil, "L'étude comparée des religions des peuples indo-européens", in
Paul-Braunes, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und
Literatur, Tübingen, 78, 1956, pp. 173-180.
G Dumézil, "Remarques sur les armes des dieux de 'troisième fonction' chez di-
vers peuples indo-européens", in Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni,
28, 1957, pp. 1-10.
G Dumézil, "Religion indo-européenne: Examen de quelques critiques récentes",
in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 15, 1957, pp. 8-30.
G Dumézil, "Métiers et classes fonctionnelles chez divers peuples indo-europé-
ens", in Annales économies, socités, civilisations, 13, 1958, pp. 716-724.
Bibliography 114

G. Dumézil, "L'idéo1ogie tripartie des Indo-Européens et la Bible, in Kratylos, 4,

1959, pp. 97-118.
G. Dumézil, "Religion et mythologie préhistoriques des Indo-Européens", in VV.
AA., Historie générale des Religions, Paris, 1960, pp. 375-382.
G. Dumézil, "L'idéologie tripartie des Indo-Européens, MM. Walter Piitscher
et Martin van den Bruwaene," in Latomus, 20, 1961, pp. 524-529.
G. Dumézil, "Mito e storia. Appunti di un comparatista," introduction to F.
Jesi, La Vera Terra. Antologia di storici e altri prosatori greci sul mito e la
storia, Paravia, Torino, 1973, pp. IX-XVI.
G Dumézil, "Giovinezza, eternità, alba. Linguistica comparata e mitologia
com- parata indoeuropea", in F. Braudel (dir.), storia e le altre scienze
sociali, Laterza, Bart-Roma, 1974.
G. Dumézil, Idee romane, Il Melangolo, Genoa, 1987.
G. Dumézil, Feste romane, Il Melangolo, Genova, 1989.
D. Evans, Agamennone e il tríplice modello indoeuropeo della morte, Centro
Stu- di La Runa, Chiavari, 1997.
F. d'Olivet, Histoire philosophique du genre humain, Paris, 1824.
H. Fugier, "Quarante ans de recherches sur lídéologie indo-européenne: la Mé-
thode de M. Georges Dumézil," in Revue d'Histoire et de philosophie reli-
geuses, 45, 1965, pp. 358-374.
L. Gerschel, "Couleur et teinture chez disvers peuples indo-européens", in Anna-
les économiques, sociétés, civilisations, 21, 1966, pp. 608-631.
Geticus, La Dacia iperborea, A11'insegna del Veltro, Parma, 1984.
J. Gonda, "Some observations on Dumézil's views of Indo-European Mytho-
logy," in Mnemosyne, ser. 4, 13, 1960, pp. 1-15.
R. Goossens, "Notes de mythologie comparée indo-européenne", in La
Nouvelle Clio, 1, 1949, pp. 4-22.
R. Guénon, Formes traditionnelles et cycles cosmiques, Gallimard, Paris, 1970.
Italian translation: Forme tradizionali e cicli cosmici, Ed. Mediterranee,
Rome, 1987.
H.F.K. Günther, Rassengeschichte des ellenischen und râmischen Volkes, Mu-
nich, 1929.
H.F.K. Günther, Frâmmigkeit nordischer Artung, Lena, 1934. Italian
translation: Re- ligiositá indoeuropea, Ar, Padua, 1970.
H.F.K. Günther, Humanitas, Ar, Padua, 1994.
J. Haudry, La Religion cosmique des Indo-eumpéens, Arché, Milan, 1987.
J. Haudry, "Débat sur les origines des Indo-Européens", in Éléments, 70, 1991,
pp. 56-59.
J. Haudry, Les Indo-Européens, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1981.
Italian translation: Gli Indoeuropei, Ar, Padua, 2001,
H. Hirt, Die Indogermanen, Strassburg, 1905.
115 Bibliography

Chr. Levalois, La Terra di Luce. Il Nord e l'Origine, Barbarossa, Saluzzo, 1988.

A. Lombardo, Celtismo e Romanità, Centro Studi La Runa, Chiavari, 1997.
A. Lombardo, "Mito, simbolo e leggenda in una saga nordica", in Algiza, 9, 1998,
pp. 23-27.
E.B. Lyle, Le tre funzioni de Dumézil e la struttura cosmica indoeuropea, Centro
Studi La Runa, Chiavari, 1998.
M. Menghi, L'utopia degli Iperborei, Iperborea, Milan, 1998.
Br. Parain, "Les dieux des Indo-Européens", in La Nouvelle Revue Française,
4, 1956, pfigs. 694-702.
V. Pisani, Le lingue indoeuropee, Paideia, Brescia, 1964.
J. Przyluski, "Les confréries des loups-garous dans les socités indo-européen-
nes", in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 121, 1940, pp. 128-145.
J. Puhvel, "Indo-European Prehistory and Myth," in Yearbook of the Estonian
Learned Society in America, 4, 1968, pàgs. 51-62.
J. Puhvel (ed.), Myth and Law Among the Indo-Europeans. Studies in
compara- tive Mythology, University of California Press, Berkeley-Los
Angeles-Lon- dres, 1970.
C. Renfrew, Archaeology and Language. The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins,
Jonathan Cape, London, 1987.
J.-Cl. Rivière, Georges Dumézil e gli studi indoeuropei. Una introduzione,
Setti- mo Sigillo, Roma, 1993.
A. Romualdi, Gli Indoeuropei. Origini e migrazioni, Ar, Padua, 1978.
A. Romualdi, Sul pmblema di una Tradizione europea, Ed. di Vie della
Tradizio- ne, Palermo, 1996.
C. Scott Littleton, The New Comparative Mythology.- An Anthropological
Assess- ment ofthe Theories of Georges Dumézil, University of California
Press, Ber- keley-Los Angeles, 1966.
C. Scott Littleton, "Toward a Genetic Model for the Analysis of Ideology: The
Indo-European Case," in Western Folklore, 26, 1967, pàgs. 37-47.
W. Sieglin, Die blondes Haare der indofermanischen Välker des Altertums,
Mu- nich, 1935.
P. Thieme, Studien zur indogermanischen Wortkunde und Religionsgeschichte,
Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berichte über Verhandlungen, Phi-
lologisch-historische Klasse 98.5, Berlin, 1952.
P. Thieme, Die Heimat der indogermanischen Gemeinsprache, Wiesbaden, 1954.
B.G Tilak, Orione. A proposito dell'antichité dei Ueda, Ecig, Genova, 1991.
B.G. Tilak, La dimora artica nei Veda, Ecig, Genova, 1994.
G Vacher de Lapouge, L'Aryen. Son Rôle social, Paris, 1899.
G Vacher de Lapouge, Definizione dell'Ariano, Centro Studi La Runa,
Chiavari, 1999.
Bibliography 116

L. Valli, Il rito della cremazione e lo spiritualismo della razza ariana, Petrella,

Naples-Genoa-Città di Castello, 1924 (Arno, Rome, 1997).
VV.AA., Germanen und Indogermanen. Festschrift fiir Hermann Mirth, Heil-
delberg, 1936.
VV.AA., Hommages à Georges Dumézil, Collection Latomus, Brussels, 1960.
VV.AA., Indo-European and Indo-Europeans, University of Pennsylvania Press,
Philadelphia, 1970.
VV.AA., L'uomo indoeuropeo e il sacro, Jaca Book, Milan, 1991.
VV.AA., Griechische Götter im altem Rom, A. Töpelmann, Giessen, 1930.
F. Vinci, Omero nel Baltico. Saggio sulla geografia omerica, Palombi, Roma, 1998.
S. Wikander, "Indo-European Escathology in Myth and Epic", in VV.AA., A
In- ternationaler Kongress ftir Religionsgeschichte, 11-17 September 1960
in Marburg/Lahn, Marburg, 1961, pp. 139-140.
H. Wirth, Homer und Babylon, Herder, Freiburg, 1921.
H. Wirth, Der Aufgang der Menschheit. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der
Re- ligion, Symbolik und Schrift der atlantisch-nordischen Rasse, Jena,
1928.
H. Wirth, Ura Linda. Una saga indoeumpea, Barbarossa, Milan, 1989.
A. Yoshida, "Piasos noyé. Cléité pendue et le moulin de Cyzique: Essai de
mytho- logie comparée," in Revue de l'Histoire des Religions, 168, 1965,
pp. 155- 164.

Translations and texts in Spanish

F. Altheim, Las culturas superiores de Asia central y oriental, Espasa-Calpe,

1991.
F. Altheim, El Dios invicto: paganismo y cristianismo, Eudeba, Buenos Aires,
1966.
F. Altheim, The Empire towards midnight: the road from Asia to Europe,
Eudeba, Buenos Aires, 1971.
F. Altheim, Hasta la batalla de Pydna (168 B.C.), Unión Tipográfica Edito- rial
Hispano Americana, Mexico, 1961.
F. Altheim, Historia de Roma, Uteha, Mexico, 1961.
F. Altheim, Yisión de la tarde y de la mañana: de la Antigüedad a la Edad Me-
dia, Eudeba, Buenos Aires, 1957.
J.J. Bachofen, El matriarcado: una investigación sobre ginecocracia en el mun-
do antiguo según su naturaleza religiosa y jurídica, Aka1, Madrid, 1987.
J.J. Bachofen, El derecho natural y derecho histórico, Centro de Estudios Cons-
titucionales, Madrid, 1978.
J.J. Bachofen, Mitología arcaica y derecho materno, Anthropos, Madrid, 1988.
V. Becarés et alii, Kalon theama, estudios de filologío clásica e indoeuropeo dedi-
cados A F. Romero Cruz, EćF Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca,
Salamanca, 1999.
117 Bibliography

E. Benveniste, Vocabulary of Indo-European Institutions (2 vol.), Taurus,

Madrid, 1983.
A. Bernabé, Mitología y religión del Oriente antiguo III: Indo-Europeos, Ausa,
Sa- badell, 1999.
J. Córdoba Zoilo, Los primeros Estados Indoeumpeos (t. 6), Historia 16 (Histo-
ria Viva), 1988.
Y. Bonnefoy (ed.), Diccionario de las mitologías y de las religiones de las
socie- dades tradicionales y del mundo antiguo, vol. 4, "Las mitologías de
Europa: los Indoeuropeos y los 'otros', el chamanismo asiático" (ed. by Vic-
toria Cirlot, Jaume Pòrtulas and Maite Solana), Destino, Barcelona, 1998.
G Dumézil, Los dioses soberanos de los Indo-Eumpeos, Herder, Barcelona,
1999. G Dumézil, El destino del guerrero: aspectos míticos de la función
guerrera en-
G Dumézil, Esbozos de mitología, FCE, Mexico, Mexico,
1989.
G Dumézil, Mito y epopeya: la ideología de las tres funciones en las epopeyas
de los pueblos indoeuropeos, Seix Barral, Barcelona, 1977.
G Dumézil Los dioses de los germanos: ensayo sobre la formación de la religión
escandinava, Siglo XXI, Mexico, 1973.
G Dumézil, Del mito a la novela. la saga de Hadingus y otros ensayos, FCE,
Mexico, 1973.
M. Eliade, Historia de las creencias y de las ideas religiosas (4 vols.), Eds. Cris-
tiandad, Madrid, 1978.
M. García Tejeiro, The Indo-Eumpean presents with nasal infix and their
evolution,
CSIC, Madrid, 1970.
H.F.K. Günther, Pueblo y estado, herencia y selección, Living, Buenos Aires,
1979.
H.F.K. Günther, Indo-European Religiosity, Janus Collection, 1997.
R.E. Luján Martínez, Los numerales indoeuropeos, Serv. de Publ. de la Univer-
sidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, 2000.
A. Martinet, From the steppes to the oceans: the Indo-Eumpean and the "Indo-
Eumpeans",
Gredos, Madrid, 1997.
C. Renfrew, Archaeology and language. the question of Indo-European origins,
Cńtica, Barcelona, 1990.
A. Romualdi, Los Indo-Europeos. Orígenes y migraciones, CEI, Madrid, 2002.
A. Romualdi, El problema de una tradición europea, Tierra y Pueblo, Valencia,
2003.
E. Roberts and B. Pastor, Diccionario etimológico indoeuropeo de la lengua
espa- ñola, Alianza, Madrid, 2001.
F. Roslyn, En torno a un mito. El euskera y el indoeumpeo, Lur Argitaletxea, San
Sebastian, 1980.
VVAA, El hombre indoeuropeo y lo sagrado, (2 t.), Trotta, Madrid, 1995.
Bibliography 118

VV.AA., Kalon theama, studies in classical and Indo-European philology

dedicated to.F. Romero Cruz, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, 1999.
F. Villar Liébana, Los Indoeuropeos y los orígenes de Eumpa: lenguaje e
histo- ria, Gredos, Madrid, 1995.
F. Villar Liébana, Lenguas y pueblos indoeuropeos, Istmo, Tres Cantos
(Madrid), 1972.
F. Villar Liébana, Indo-European and non-Indo-European in pre-Roman
Hispania: the populations and languages of Andalusia, Catalonia and
Aragon according to the information provided by toponymy, Eds.
Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, 2000.