Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece

by Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Janet Lloyd (Translator)

Jean Pierre-Vernant and Pierre Vidal-Naquet are leaders in a contemporary French classical scholarship that has produced a a stunning reconfiguration of Greek thought and literature. In this work, published here as a single volume, the authors present a disturbing and decidedly non-classical reading of Greek tragedy that insists on its radical discontinuity with our own outlook and with our social, aesthetic, and psychological categories. Originally published in French in two volumes, this new single-volume edition includes revised essays from volume one and is the first English translation of both volumes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Mythology, Classics, Greece, Criticism, Anthropology

527 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Jean-Pierre Vernant was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and society which would itself be influential among classical scholars. He was an honorary professor at the Collège de France.

Born in Provins, France, Vernant at first studied philosophy, receiving his agrégation in this field in 1937.

A member of the Young Communists (Jeunes Communistes), Vernant joined the French Resistance during World War II and was a member of Libération-sud (founded by Emmanuel d'Astier). He later commanded the French Interior Forces (FFI) in Haute-Garonne under the pseudonym of "Colonel Berthier." He was a Companion of the Liberation. After the war, he remained a member of the French Communist Party until 1969.

He entered the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1948 and, under the influence of Louis Gernet, turned to the study of ancient Greek anthropology. Ten years later, he became director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). In 1971 he was professor in the University of São Paulo. This visit was also an act of protest that he made with François Châtelet against the brazilian military government (dictatorship).

He was a member of the French sponsorship committee for the Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. He supported the funding organisation Non-Violence XXI.

He was awarded the CNRS gold medal in 1984. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Crete.

Vernant died a few days after his 93rd birthday in Sèvres.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays are very well done and a good read for anyone with an interest in Greek myth and Tragedy. The essays take the approach that the tragedies of Oedipus and Aeschylus must be understood in the context of their cultural development. I am particularly attracted to this type of interpretation, since I am not a big believer in a timeless literary truth. What Vernant and Naquet show is that these texts are not so much timeless as timely--a reflection of the emergence of the Greek city state and the particular moral and political dilemmas this cultural transformation poses.

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agree with the authors' approach to analysis (tragic works must be interpreted in their own particular context), although it was presented as quite the hot take. I guess it was pretty revolutionary when the articles were published in the 80s? The academic writing was certainly not transparent (and they're also FRENCH good grief the syntactic superfluousness) but I usually really liked the ideas presented. I generally enjoyed Vernant's articles more than Vidal-Naquet's though, I thought they were much more focused and insightful.

Complaints: Endnotes instead of footnotes and an absolutely egregious number of commas.

[Matt McCormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and well written Vernant has a way of explaining Classical Greek that takes the reader deep within the texts. I appreciated the frequent use of the Classical Greek language and his explanations on how word choice so effects the tragedies.

In Myth and Tragedy Vernant and Naquet expand on the works themselves to show their place in ancient Athens and how they speak to the culture of polis/frontier, youth/adulthood and religion/politics. Their passion comes through in each of the essays

[Dunya Al-bouzidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

إجمالًا الكتاب يحوي معلومات نافعة للغاية للمهتمين بالأساطير ومكانتها في المسرح التراجيدي الإغريقي قديمًا، بيّد أنه ثمة مبالغة تعقيدية رديئة في الأسلوب.

[Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

These essays are rightly celebrated.

Union rules force me as a Freudian to dock one star for the sort of dazzlingly obtuse (or just constitutively blind maybe?) essay on "Oedipus without the complex" (and co-essayist Vidal-Naquet seems to sign up for enthusiastically missing the psychoanalytic point also towards the end of the volume)...but the essays especially just before and just after-- and then closing the collection with more on Oedipus and terrific stuff on Dionysis) -- are really, really brilliant.

It's ironic, because I only discovered Vernant chasing down a footnote in a book by psychoanalyst (and hero), Julia Kristeva. Anyway, that low point is really more of a diatribe against (I think forgotten staw-man) Anzieu than Freud himself for poor hellenic scholarship, but it comes so early in the collection and is just Such a drop in quality from the sublime chapter on the Greeks and Will, that I almost put "Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece" aside to fester until my mood was up or my expectations were down, but I'm glad I persisted: the rest is great.

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What is this being that tragedy describes as a deinos, an incomprehensible and baffling monster, both an agent and one acted upon, guilty and innocent, lucid and blind, whose industrious mind can dominate the whole of nature yet who is incapable of governing himself?"

Some essays are stronger + more compelling than others but the best are really great. My favorites: "The Historical Moment of Tragedy in Greece," "Tensions and Ambiguities in Greek Tragedy," "Oedipus Without the Complex," and "The Masked Dionysus of Euripides' Bacchae." (They're all Vernant's essays rather than Vidal-Naquet's, lol.)

[santi · Rating 4 out of 5]

mis capitulos favoritos fueron los que cuentan como las ambiguedades mas grandes que tienen las tragedias tienen que ver con el lenguaje, y que los conceptos que tenemos hoy en dia son la mitad de polisemicos que en el griego antiguo, por lo que una oracion, una frase, hasta una palabra, podia significar un mundo, obvio sin tener en cuenta lo distintas que son la cultura antigua y la nuestra, las cosas que ahora ni podemos imaginar no tener, ellos no tenian y se la rebuscaban igual. y expresaban sus sentimientos e inquietudes igual. la evolucion fue un error porque nos hizo menos cool, cuyo claro peak fue en el siglo quinto aC 😘

[Pulpist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book analyzes Greek tragedies in the context of Greek society. It tries to dissect the ethos of Greek society at the time when the tragedies were written. In taking us back in time, it helps us to understand a world completely different from ours in terms of government, beliefs, values, morality and religion. The chapter "Oedipus without the complex" is particularly pertinent to show to us how wrong is our modern view of ancient Greece. This is a magistral work that I would recommend to anyone who wants to acquire a deeper understanding of Greek tragedies.

[Metaphora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Los autores analizan literaria y sociológicamente obras trágicas clásicas y nos dan su visión particular.

Buena referencia para estudiosos e investigadores de la historia antigua pero además, un texto digno para quienes se interesan por saber las estructuras de los mitos.

Existe un volumen II (que espero encontrar pronto).

[poslyn rosen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever want an interesting or off-kilter look into the world of tragedy, a mindset that sees love as a cruel creature of the night, life as doomed yet beautiful, this is the book to read. Saved me in philosophy of Mythology.