Marcel Detienne (1935–2019)

This book is a reckoning, it exudes frustration on almost every page. The French-Belgian hellenistic expert Marcel Detienne has apparently fought his entire life to defend the true comparative perspective. And that brought him into constant conflict with both (structuralist) anthropologists and classical and modern (Annales) historians. He calls his opponents by name, and that does very much add to the bitterness of this book. And that’s a pity, because it deflects the attention of what show more Detienne hints at as a far better approach: a rather anarchistic comparison of all possible forms of culture, through space and time, an interdisciplinary conversation in all openness, searching for true comparables, ending in a multi-perspectivism that always yields surprising new insights. Instead he loaths the scourge of the earlier nationalistic historiography, and the current national 'identity' obsession (including the ‘realms of memory cult’ of Pierre Nora).

An extremely sensitive point of Detienne, as a hellenist, also appears to be the obsessive Western admiration for the ancient Greeks: an admiration that he obviously shares, but which according to him turned into a seclusion and monopolisation of Greek civilization; it are always 'our Greeks', as a standard of everything, as the starting point of the real history (read our own Western culture, the norm of everything). And it's refreshing that somebody knocks over that holy house once again and points to more realistic estimations. No easy reading, this booklet, because it demands some prior knowledge of anthropology and etnography and Detienne regularly loses himself in his resentment. show less

This book has interesting information but is oddly organized. The first part tells of how the poets saw the gods: as having daily lives of feasting, traveling, interacting with mortals, discussing with one another. The philosophers disagreed, seeing any action as incompatible with the bliss that definitional for their concept of divinity. We also contrast the relatively stable personalities and attributes of the Olympians in mythology with the fragmented identities in which Aphrodite can be show more worshipped in one place as a goddess of sex and in another as a war goddess. Book also describes Greek ideas of citizenship, founding of cities (with the establishment of altars and patron gods an important part), and the festivals of Dionysus. show less

Che uso fanno gli dèi del tempo?
Per rispondere a questa domanda occorre prima di tutto definire un dio, quindi immaginare l’esperienza che egli ha del tempo, e infine descrivere il suo rapporto col mondo. Per definire un dio la filosofia greca si divideva fra chi sosteneva che un dio esiste in quanto agisce o fra chi concepiva gli dèi beati nella pienezza della loro immobile perfezione.
Partendo da queste premesse, adeguatamente argomentate, questo saggio a quattro mani esplora la vita show more quotidiana degli dèi greci in un confronto continuo col quotidiano dell’altro, degli uomini, affidandosi alle parole dei poeti, in primo luogo Omero, e dei filosofi antichi.
La prima parte, a cura di Giulia Sissa, è più scorrevole e trascinante col suo andamento narrativo e avventuroso, i continui richiami all’Iliade contribuiscono a creare questo effetto; la seconda parte, di competenza di Marcel Detienne, di tono più accademico, è meno movimentata ma non per questo meno interessante.

Da far precedere o affiancare alla lettura o rilettura, in particolare, dell’Iliade. show less

La "metis", l'astuzia, la sagacia, l'intelligenza pratica, questo il tema di un'indagine ampia e profonda nell'universo culturale dei Greci, nel loro pensiero, attraverso le testimonianze ricchissime offerte da testi letterari e filosofici. Il testo è frutto di uno studio condotto nell'arco di oltre un decennio da due grandissimi studiosi