Jean-Pierre Vernant

Un historien qui, le temps d'un livre, se fait conteur... Voilà qui n'est pas banal. Certes, Jean-Pierre Vernant a toujours côtoyé de près les légendes grecques mais son approche était avant tout celle d'un chercheur. Il les disséquait, les analysait, les interprétait. Il y avait cependant une dimension du mythe qu'il …

For the Greeks, the sharing of cooked meats was the fundamental communal act, so that to become vegetarian was a way of refusing society. It follows that the roasting or cooking of meat was a political act, as the division of portions asserted a social order. And the only proper manner of preparing meat for …

Jean-Pierre Vernant has profoundly transformed our perceptions of ancient Greece. Published in 1991, this collection of nineteen essays probes deeply into themes of enduring interest--death, the body, the soul, the individual, and relations between mortals and immortals; the mask, the mirror, the image, and the …