THE CONTRIBUTION OF JEAN PIERRE VERNANT IN THE READING OF THE TWO GREAT FOUNDING MYTHS: THE MYTH OF AGES AND THE MYTH OF PROMETHEUS Cover Image

L’APPORT DE JEAN PIERRE VERNANT DANS LA RELECTURE DES DEUX MYTHES FONDATEURS GRECS: LE MYTHE DES AGES ET LE MYTHE DE PROMETHEE
THE CONTRIBUTION OF JEAN PIERRE VERNANT IN THE READING OF THE TWO GREAT FOUNDING MYTHS: THE MYTH OF AGES AND THE MYTH OF PROMETHEUS

Author(s): Emilia Ndiaye, Magdalena Indrieş
Subject(s): Anthropology, French Literature, Philology
Published by: Editura Arhipelag XXI
Keywords: reread; myth; structure; age; Prometheus; Pandora; human condition; ambiguity;

Summary/Abstract: Analysing the rapport between mythos and logos, Jean Pierre Vernant emphasises the singularity of the mythical thoughtfulness, considered as a veritable language with its proper codes and grammar. In the interpretation of the two founder Greek myths: the myth of the ages and the myth of Prometheus, he advances another method based on a philological strict analysis of the text. In the case of the first myth, he concludes that it is not only an aetiological myth, explaining the misery of the human being, but also a myth about our ambiguous existence. Establishing many parallels between the accounts of Prometheus and of Pandora, in Days and Works and the Theogony of Hesiod, Jean Pierre Vernant enriches the significance of the myth. The rapport between the reality and the appearance is problematic, it chimes with an ambivalent structure. Human comprehension has its limits and the dissatisfaction is inherent to the human condition.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 860-869
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: French
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