Essays on Ancient Symbolism and Mythology, published in 1930 - the penultimate book of the famous Losevsky octateuch of the 20s - is being republished for the first time. The meager circulation of the first edition and, of course, the sharp changes in his life and scientific destiny that followed the arrest of A.F. Losev in the same year, 1930, made this book practically inaccessible to the reader. Meanwhile, this book is key in many ways: after “Essays...” the late Losev will undoubtedly be read differently. Topics well known from Losev's later works are presented here in a new tonality and in a new semantic context for the reader. Without deviating at all from the strict logical-discursive method characteristic of other works of the Octateuch, in “Essays...” Losev is not just axonologically more frank, he is passionate and biased here. The penetrating power of this passion is such that thanks to it, Losev’s position, unchanged throughout his life, emerges. This position, which perhaps the reader of later works doubted, but which every reader of the “Essays...” cannot help but be convinced of, is based primarily on Losev’s religious views. Theology is the new semantic context in which all the usual Losev themes are framed here. And here, as a contrast - and also for the first time, if you don’t count “Dialectics of Myth” - the reader will hear the voice of Losev - a “political scientist” (to use modern terminology). Of course, theology and sociology do not exhaust the content of “Essays...”, and not in all sections included in the book they are the subject of research, but since no other Losev book provides such a direct reason for discussing these two aspects [... ]As for the central theme of “Essays...” - platonism, then, firstly, it is immanently present in Losev’s very theological position, largely shaping it.

"Platonism through the looking glass of the 20th century, or down the stairs , leading upward" by L. A. Gogotishvili

Source of the electronic version: A.F. Losev - [Op. in 9 volumes, vol. 2] Essays on ancient symbolism and mythologyPublishing house "Mysl"Moscow 1993