ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Book of Job, which is historical; it is a story that has a place and a date. A certain number of invariables also endow the story with a special mythical autonomy: quite obviously, whatever oriental influences may have had a bearing on its evolution; it is first and foremost a western biblical myth associated with Hebrew monotheism. Book of Job is indeed a story with mythical power, and its wretched hero is a mythical hero: poor as Job on his midden. This is the same pacience that they find in the mediaeval mystery plays: The air is full of people cries, waiting for Godot. So it is not surprising to witness the resurgence of a figure that is so painfully expressive of the poverty of people existence. The start of mystery plays phenomenon must lie in the twelfth-century Walloon adaptation of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job.
