Description
Book SynopsisThe human race is all too pre-disposed to think in terms of us and them. Europeans have always laid claim to the Ancient Greeks they are our Greeks, our ancestors but their legacy reaches further than we could ever imagine. Their influence stretches from the Japanese to the Cossacks, from Ancient Rome to Indonesia.
Trade Review"Ruthlessly, wittily, almost disarmingly, Detienne sets about discovering mythical emperors in all their nakedness, slaughtering sacred nationalistic cows and dethroning alleged democratic ancestors."
Paul Cartledge, Times Higher Education Supplement
"Through his brilliant studies of Greek myth, religion and thought, Marcel Detienne has revolutionized our understanding of Greco-Roman antiquity. In this important new book the reader is treated to an exhilarating overview of Detienne's current thinking on the problems to which his extraordinarily fertile career has been devoted. It is a breathtaking intellectual Odyssey."
Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, Needham Research Institute
Table of ContentsPreface
Foreword
1. Doing anthropology with the Greeks
2. From myth to mythology: ranging from native Americans to ancient Greeks
3. Transcribing mythologies. From Japan and New Caledonia to the pontiffs of Rome
4. The wide-open mouth of Truth
5. ‘Digging in’ in the times between Oedipus of Thebes and modern national identities
6. Comparabilities viewed from the vantage point of politics
Afterword
Notes
Index
