Man as a Symbol in the Memories of Mircea Eliade

In this study I would like to make an exposition of religious symbolism, as it is seen by the Romanian scholar, underlining the anthropological aspects of the problem, to the extent that his autobiographical writings allow us. Hermeneutics, as the science of norms that allow us to discover and interpret the authentic meaning, and the symbol, with its double “existential and cognitive” function which is present in every area of life or thought, justifies in a certain way the Eliadian homo symbolicus. Man as a symbol is the title of a book designed by Mircea Eliade, but he never managed to write and publish it; even the book entitled Anthropocosmos, in which he wanted to present “the profound meaning and structural solidarity of all those symbols, rites, beliefs, in relation to the labyrinth, the mandala, the foundation of the city, etc.,” was not published.