Did the Greeks believe in their myths? : an essay on the constitutive imagination / Paul Veyne ; translated by Paula Wissing.

By:

Veyne, Paul, 1930-2022 [author]

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Original language: French Publication details: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1988.Description: xii, 161 pages ; 23 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

0226854337
0226854345

Uniform titles:

Grecs ont-ils cru à leurs mythes? English

Subject(s):

Mythology, Greek

DDC classification:

292.13

Contents:

1. When historical truth was tradition and vulgate -- 2. The plurality and analogy of true worlds -- 3. The social distribution of knowledge and the modalities of belief -- 4. Social diversity of beliefs and mental balkanization -- 5. Behind this sociology and implicit program of truth -- 6. Restoring etiological truth to myth -- 7. Myth and rhetorical truth -- 8. Pausanias entrapped -- 9. Forger's truth, philologist's truth -- 10. The need to choose between culture and belief in a truth.

Summary: Did the Greeks believe in their mythology? This question implies other difficult ones concerning the meaning of belief. While knowing that Theseus never slew the Minotaur, the Greeks were still capable of believing in the existence of Theseus, of crafting a genealogy for him and assigning him a place in history. This apparently contradictory process, the application of reason to myth, prompts Paul Veyne's meditation on the nature of "truth." Beginning with the example of the Greeks' attitude toward their myths, Veyne argues that truth is not found, but created, as in history. His discussion reveals the historical quality of the imagination and its role in the constitution of a cultural tradition." -- Back cover.

List(s) this item appears in: Anne Stewart's Collection

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 5 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book - 7-day loan	CYA Library Main Collection	292.13 VEY (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		00000011528

Total holds: 0

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Previous	292.13 ROS Gods and heroes of the Greeks :	292.13 SER Greek mythology /	292.13 TYR Athenian myths and institutions :	292.13 VEY Did the Greeks believe in their myths? : an essay on the constitutive imagination /	292.13019 CAL The origin of the gods :	292.130223 OLA Mythological atlas of Greece /	292.13082 LEF Women in Greek myth /	Next

Translation of: Les Grecs ont-ils cru à leurs mythes?

Includes index.

Bibliography: pages 131-153.

Did the Greeks believe in their mythology? This question implies other difficult ones concerning the meaning of belief. While knowing that Theseus never slew the Minotaur, the Greeks were still capable of believing in the existence of Theseus, of crafting a genealogy for him and assigning him a place in history. This apparently contradictory process, the application of reason to myth, prompts Paul Veyne's meditation on the nature of "truth." Beginning with the example of the Greeks' attitude toward their myths, Veyne argues that truth is not found, but created, as in history. His discussion reveals the historical quality of the imagination and its role in the constitution of a cultural tradition." -- Back cover.