Jean-Pierre Vernant
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| Jean-Pierre Vernant | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 4, 1914 Provins, France |
| Occupation | anthropologist, historian |
Jean-Pierre Vernant (born January 4, 1914 in Provins, France), is a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece and particularly Greek mythology. He is an honorary professor at the Collège de France.
[edit] Biography
He pursued studies in philosophy at first, and received his agrégation in this field in 1937.
As a member of the Young Communists (jeunes communistes) he joined the French Resistance in World War II and was a member of the Southern Liberation network (Libération-Sud) founded by Emmanuel d'Astier. After that he commanded the French Interior Forces (FFI) in Haute-Garonne under the pseudonym of "Colonel Berthier". He is a Companion of the Liberation.
After the war he remained in the French Communist Party. He is 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 has supported the funding organisation Non-Violence XXI since its creation in 2001.
He entered the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS, "national centre for scientific research") in 1948, and under the influence of Louis Gernet he 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, "school for advanced studies in the social sciences"). He has often written on both what is in common and what is different between the ancient Greeks and the modern Western world, notably in regard to the practice of democracy.
He was awarded the CNRS gold medal in 1984. In 2002 he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Crete.
His reading of the myth of Prometheus was an important influence on the philosopher Bernard Stiegler.
[edit] Select publications
- Les origines de la pensée grecque (Paris), 1962 (= Origins of Greek Thought, 1982)
- Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs: Etudes de psychologie historique (Paris), 1965 (= Myth and Thought among the Greeks, 1983)
- With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne, 2 vols. (Paris), 1972, 1986 (= Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece, 1981; Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece, 1988)
- Mythe et société en Grèce ancienne (Paris), 1974 (= Myth and Society in Ancient Greece, 1978)
- Divination et rationalité, 1974
- With Marcel Détienne: Les ruses de l'intelligence: La mètis des Grecs (Paris), 1974 (= Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society, 1977)
- Religion grecque, religions antiques (Paris), 1976
- Religion, histoires, raisons (Paris), 1979
- With Marcel Détienne: La cuisine de sacrifice en pays grec (Paris), 1979 (= Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, 1989)
- With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Travail et esclavage en Grèce ancienne (Brussels), 1988
- L'individu, la mort, l'amour: soi-même et l'autre en Grèce ancienne (Paris), 1989
- Mythe et religion en Grèce ancienne (Paris), 1990
- Figures, idoles, masques (Paris), 1990
- With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: La Grèce ancienne, 3 vols. (Paris), 1990-92
- Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays (Princeton), 1991
- With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Œdipe et ses mythes (Brussels), 1994
- Entre mythe et politique (Paris), 1996
- With Jean Bottéro et Clarisse Herrenschmidt: L'orient ancien et nous (Paris), 1996 (= Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning, and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Greece, 2000)
- With Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux: Dans l'œil du miroir (Paris), 1997
- L'univers, les dieux, les hommes: récits grecs des origines Paris, Le Seuil, 1999
- La traversée des frontières (Paris), 2004
