Myth and Society in Ancient Greece

by Jean-Pierre Vernant, Janet Lloyd (Translator)

Overview

In this groundbreaking study, Jean-Pierre Vernant delineates a compelling new vision of ancient Greece. Myth and Society in Ancient Greece takes us far from the calm and familiar images of Polykleitos and the Parthenon to reveal a fundamentally other culture — one of slavery, of masks and death, of scapegoats, of ritual hunting, and of ecstasies.

Vernant’s provocative discussions of various institutions and practices (including war, marriage, and sacrifice) detail the complex intersection of the religious, social, and political structures of ancient Greece. The book concludes with Vernant’s authoritative genealogy of the study of myth from Antiquity to structuralism and beyond. “Myth,” he writes, “brings into operation a form of logic which we may describe, unlike the logic of noncontradiction of the philosophers, as a logic of the ambiguous and the equivocal.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780942299175
Publisher:	Zone Books
Publication date:	10/17/1990
Series:	Zone Books
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late Jean-Pierre Vernant was Professor of Comparative Study of Religions at the Collège de France in Paris.


Janet Lloyd is a translator and writer living in England.

What People are Saying About This

Endorsement

This scholarly collection of studies follows Vernant's Myth and Thought and Myth and Tragedy, offering further insights into Greek social structure, concepts of slave production and economic growth, and the efforts of myths to define and shape social choices. This is no casual opinion piece: Vernant refers to research from ancient texts, forms concepts of Marxist class struggles, city-state interactions and social reforms from the twin influences of myth and history, and examines the structure of Greek religion and myths as it pertained to historic events...a fascinating, penetrating study.

—Diane C. Donovan, The Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher

This scholarly collection of studies follows Vernant's Myth and Thought and Myth and Tragedy, offering further insights into Greek social structure, concepts of slave production and economic growth, and the efforts of myths to define and shape social choices. This is no casual opinion piece: Vernant refers to research from ancient texts, forms concepts of Marxist class struggles, city-state interactions and social reforms from the twin influences of myth and history, and examines the structure of Greek religion and myths as it pertained to historic events...a fascinating, penetrating study.

—Diane C. Donovan, The Midwest Book Review

The Midwest Book Review - Diane C. Donovan

This scholarly collection of studies follows Vernant's Myth and Thought and Myth and Tragedy, offering further insights into Greek social structure, concepts of slave production and economic growth, and the efforts of myths to define and shape social choices. This is no casual opinion piece: Vernant refers to research from ancient texts, forms concepts of Marxist class struggles, city-state interactions and social reforms from the twin influences of myth and history, and examines the structure of Greek religion and myths as it pertained to historic events...a fascinating, penetrating study.

Editorial Reviews

"This scholarly collection of studies follows Vernant's Myth and Thought and Myth and Tragedy, offering further insights into Greek social structure, concepts of slave production and economic growth, and the efforts of myths to define and shape social choices. This is no casual opinion piece: Vernant refers to research from ancient texts, forms concepts of Marxist class struggles, city-state interactions and social reforms from the twin influences of myth and history, and examines the structure of Greek religion and myths as it pertained to historic events... a fascinating, penetrating study."—Diane C. Donovan, "The Midwest Book Review"

& quot; This scholarly collection of studies follows Vernant's Myth and Thought and Myth and Tragedy, offering further insights into Greek social structure, concepts of slave production and economic growth, and the efforts of myths to define and shape social choices. This is no casual opinion piece: Vernant refers to research from ancient texts, forms concepts of Marxist class struggles, city-state interactions and social reforms from the twin influences of myth and history, and examines the structure of Greek religion and myths as it pertained to historic events... a fascinating, penetrating study.& quot; — Diane C. Donovan, The Midwest Book Review

" This scholarly collection of studies follows Vernant's Myth and Thought and Myth and Tragedy, offering further insights into Greek social structure, concepts of slave production and economic growth, and the efforts of myths to define and shape social choices. This is no casual opinion piece: Vernant refers to research from ancient texts, forms concepts of Marxist class struggles, city-state interactions and social reforms from the twin influences of myth and history, and examines the structure of Greek religion and myths as it pertained to historic events... a fascinating, penetrating study." — Diane C. Donovan, "The Midwest Book Review"

— Diane C. Donovan, "The Midwest Book Review"

From the Publisher