How Philosophers Saved Myths : Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology

by Brisson, Luc

• ISBN13: 9780226075372
• ISBN10: 0226075370
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In this concise but wide-ranging study, Luc Brisson describes how the myths of Greece and Rome were transmitted from antiquity to the Renaissance. He argues that philosophy was responsible for saving myth from historical annihilation. Although philosophy was initially critical of myth, mythology was progressively reincorporated into philosophy through allegory. Brisson reveals how philosophers employed allegory and how it enabled myth to take on a number of different interpretive systems throughout the centuries: moral, physical, psychological, political, and even metaphysical. "This wonderful book confirms Brisson's status as one of the major authorities in the field of classical antiquity. Overall, and with this excellent translation, the book is invaluable."Choice "A compressed overview with moments of great insight. . . . Its strengths lie in the details Brisson is able to work into this brief treatment."Peter Struck,Journal of Religion

Author Biography

Luc Brisson is director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France. He is the author of several books, including Plato the Mythmaker, published in English by the University of Chicago Press. Catherine Tihanyi, a research associate at Western Washington University, has translated a number of books for the University of Chicago Press, including Adam Biro’s Two Jews on a Train.

Table of Contents

Translator's Note

Preface to the French Edition

Introduction

MuthosAndPhilosophia

Plato's Attitude toward Myth

Aristotle and the Beginnings Of Allegorical Exegesis

Stoics, Epicureans, and the New Academy

Pythagoreanism and Platonism

The Neoplatonic School of Athens

Byzantium and the Pagan Myths

The Western Middle Ages

The Renaissance

Conclusion

Index of Greek Terms

General Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.