In “The Gospel According to Mark”’ the author rewrites the myth of the return to the origin and, as is often the case with Jorge Luis Borges, constructs his tale drawing on a literary model, here the Bible. At one point in the text, the narrator refers to the climax of St. Mark’s account of the life of Christ—the Passion—as one of the two stories that men have repeated down through time. In fact, many structural and thematic elements found in “The Gospel According to Mark”’ especially those associated with the ranch, are of an archetypal nature: the eternal way of life at La Colorada; Baltasar’s dreams about the Flood; the representation of the ranch as an island; the fanaticism and superstitions that the Gutres have in their blood; their identification with a primitive race of human beings; the circle of men strumming the guitar. Through these primordial references, Borges evokes the dark, forgotten beginnings of existence.

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