13 Ó dor, onde me irei? Quem sabe se ainda Não é mais profundo Do que o pensamento O enigma do mundo!"39 36. Human thinking on mortality has, in fact, accompanied humankind in all ages and cultures. In the old Paleolithic times, there was a cult to the memory, and in ancient Egypt the living and their dead remained close together40. In ancient Greece, a new sensitivity towards post mortem destiny arose41. It need only be recalled, as two examples among many, namely, Plato's contribution, in securing the continuity of human experience through the immortality and transmigration of the soul, as well as Budha's contribution of detaching human suffering from in his view what originates it, the desires42. The myth of the "eternal return" (or repetition), so widespread in ancient societies (as in Greece), conferring upon time a cyclic structure, purported to annul (or even abolish) the irreversibility of the passing of time, to contain or withhold its virulence, and to foster regeneration43. 37. In modern times, however, human beings became ineluctably integrated into history and to the idea of "progress", implying the "definitive abandonment of the paradise of the archetypes and of the repetition"44, proper of ancient cultures and religions. In the Western world, there came to prevail, in the XXth century, an attitude of clearly avoiding to refer to death; there came to prevail a "great silence" about death45. Contemporary Western societies came to "prohibit" the consideration of death at the same time that they fostered hedonism and material well-being46. . F. Pessoa, Fausto - Tragédia Subjectiva (1st. integral edition), Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Nova Fronteira, 2003 (reprint), pp. 30, 154 and 184. 39 . J.L. de León Azcárate, La Muerte y Su Imaginario en la Historia de las Religiones, Bilbao, Universidad de Deusto, 2000, pp. 24-25, 37, 50-51 and 75. 40 . Ibid., pp. 123 and 130. 41 . J.P. Carse, Muerte y Existencia - Una Historia Conceptual de la Mortalidad Humana, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1987, pp. 85 and 167. 42 . M. Eliade, El Mito del Eterno Retorno, Madrid/Buenos Aires, Alianza Ed./Emecé Ed., 2004, pp. 90-91. 43 . Ibid., p. 156. 44 . Ph. Ariès, Morir en Occidente desde la Edad Media hasta Nuestros Días, Buenos Aires, A. Hidalgo Ed., 2000 (reed.), pp. 196-199, and cf. pp. 213 and 238. 45 . Ibid., p. 251. 46