The Greeks and Us

by Marcel Detienne

The 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. In this path-breaking new volume, the great French historian Marcel Detienne focuses on Eurocentric approaches which have trumpeted the Greeks and their democratic practices as our ancestors and the superiority of the Western tradition to which they gave rise. He argues that such approaches can be seen as narrow-minded and often covertly nationalistic. Detienne advocates what he calls comparative anthropology which sets out to illuminate the comparisons and contrasts between the beliefs, practices and institutions of different ancient and modern societies. Detienne aims to put the Greeks in perspective among other civilisations and also to look afresh at questions of political structure, literacy, nationhood, intellect and mythology. The work of Marcel Detienne has made an enormous impact on our thinking about the Greeks in areas such as rationality, literacy and mythology, and in this new volume he challenges once again our conception of the Greeks and their impact on the modern world.

Genres: History, Anthropology

184 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2005

About the author

Marcel Detienne was a Belgian historian and specialist in the study of Ancient Greece.

Reviews

[Mauricio González Abrigo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leyendo este libro estuve en presencia de un autor pretencioso; de esos que ponen mucho esfuerzo en escribir con estilo personal, con marca particular, casi en difícil, y por ende hacen muy complicado, al menos para un iniciado como yo, captar a cabalidad lo que realmente quiso comunicar. De tanto perseverar en la forma, el autor escondió de mi el fondo de su trabajo. Lamento el tanto engreimiento contenido en el estilo del autor.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detienne is blasting away at his own horn and because this is a translation it is hard to tell when he's being snooty. Feels like most of the time. Still, there are always interesting ideas to ponder, like a myth becomes a myth once it is written down; and the Greeks having no cosmogony (sic: how about Hesiod?) have secular, political history.