| Editor-in-chief | Philipp Wolff-Windegg |
|---|---|
| Editors | Mircea Eliade Ernst Jünger |
| Categories | cultural magazine |
| Frequency | bi-monthly |
| Circulation | 3000 (1959), 1200 (1971) |
| Publisher | Ernst Klett Verlag [de] |
| Founder | Ernst Klett [de] |
| First issue | 1959 |
| Final issue | 1971 |
| Country | West Germany |
| Based in | Stuttgart |
| Language | German |
Antaios was a German cultural magazine published from 1959 to 1971 byErnst Klett Verlag [de] and edited byMircea Eliade andErnst Jünger. It had aconservative orientation and promotedperennial philosophy and the study ofarchetypes. The magazine drew inspiration from theEranos circle and the German cultural magazineMerkur. It had a circulation of around 3000 copies in its early existence and around 1200 by the time it was discontinued.
The bi-monthly magazineAntaios was initiated by the publisherErnst Klett [de], who wanted to involve the scholars of theEranos circle, which held regular conferences mainly focused on religious studies, in aconservative cultural magazine. Role models forAntaios were the Eranos yearbooks, the cultural magazineMerkur andMircea Eliade's journalZalmoxis [ro]. Eliade, an Eranos regular, was recruited by Klett as an editor.Ernst Jünger had been impressed byZalmoxis and accepted to edit the magazine with Eliade; other people who had been approached but rejected the position includedAldous Huxley,Joseph Campbell andKarl Jaspers. Klett's nephew Philipp Wolff-Windegg was appointed as editor-in-chief.[1] Although Eliade's and Jünger's names were closely associated with the magazine, their involvement as editors was very limited, and it was Wolff-Windegg who handled the selection of writers and articles.[2]
The first six issues were published with the subtitleZeitschrift für eine freie Welt (lit. 'Magazine for a free world').[3] In the early existence of the magazine, the circulation was around 3000; toward the end it was around 1200.[1] Due to the failure to increase the readership and Klett's acquisition ofMerkur in 1968,Antaios was discontinued in 1971.[4]
Each issue is around 100 pages long and mainly consists of essays and articles on cultural history. There is no narrative prose butliterary sketches sometimes appear. Characteristic is the priority ofperennial philosophy andarchetypes over historical-sociological perspectives. Many of the texts discuss the West's place in the world, which typically is portrayed as increasingly weak.[1] Some of the content can be classified asesotericism.[2]
Through Eliade, the outlook of the archaic man is a recurring theme, and Jünger and his brotherFriedrich Georg Jünger made a focus point of technology and its issues.[5] It was a stated goal to serve "tradition", which was said to exist in "myth, symbol and poetry [Dichtung]", although the term itself was not further specified; it is unclear if it was related to the initiatory "Tradition" ofJulius Evola,[5] who was published in the magazine twice.[4] Contributors from the Eranos circle includedErnst Benz [de],Hans Kayser [de],Laurens van der Post andKathleen Raine.[1] Other contributors includedWill Erich Peuckert,Marcel Jouhandeau andErnesto de Martino.[4] According to the scholar Ulrich van Loyen, the absence of Jewish contributors can be attributed to Klett.[1]
