Eschatological Motif “Saved on the Log / Stone”: Structure and Mythological Roots

Abstract

The popular motif “People saved at the end of the time find room on a single log / stone” occupies among the Eurasian eschatological topoi a special place determined by the methods of structural-typological and historical-cultural analysis. The polygenre material allows us to support the hypothesis of the principle similarity between the traditional eschatological and etiological motives based on idea of the cyclic nature of cosmic and social processes. The revealed isomorphism of the plots about salvation on a tree (stone) / emergence from a tree (stone) help us to reconstruct the fundamental semantics of the complex – confidence in the resumption of biological and social life even by minimal resources. At the same time the eschatology of the “axial” period interprets the formula “Survivors will fit on one log / stone” as a tragic statement of the irreversible extinction of human civilization.