Bernard Sergent (; born 23 February 1946) is a French

ancient historian Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

and

comparative mythologist Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...

. He is researcher of the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

and president of the Société de mythologie française.

Publications

He has written a seminal work on Greek mythology entitled ''Homosexuality in Greek Myth'', translated into English two years later by

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James Bal ...

. In 1986, he followed up with a study covering early homosexuality in Europe, under the title of ''L'homosexualité initiatique dans l'Europe ancienne'' (Payot 1986), which has yet to be translated into English. The two studies have been published together, with a postface, as ''Homosexualité et initiation chez les peuples indo-européens''. In ''Genèse de L'Inde'', he attacks the recent anti-invasionist reconstructions of early Indian history. Instead he defends the traditional hypothesis that the Indo-Aryans came into India in the 2nd millennium BC. According to Sergent, the Dravidian languages originated in Africa before reaching South Asia. The book ''Les Indo-Européens - Histoire, langues, mythes'' is a general introduction to the Indo-European language family. Sergent associates the Indo-European language family with certain archaeological cultures in Southern Russian Steppes or Deshti Kipchak, and he reconstructs an Indo-European religion (relying on the method of

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French Philology, philologist, Linguistics, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and comparative mythology, mythology. He was a profe ...

). In the monograph, ''Les trois fonctions indo-européennes en Grèce ancienne'', vol. 1: ''De Mycènes aux Tragique'', Sergent examines the employment of the Dumézilian tripartite system in Greek epic, lyric and dramatic poetry. In a second volume, which has not been published yet, he will continue this examination with Greek philosophy and religion. His recent work, ''Celtes et Grecs'', is dedicated to comparative Greek and

Celtic mythology Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples.Cunliffe, Barry, (1997) ''The Ancient Celts''. Oxford, Oxford University Press , pp. 183 (religion), 202, 204–8. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a ...

. In volume 1, ''Le livre de héros'' (Payot 1999 ), the Irish hero Cuchulainn is compared with the Greek heroes Achilleus,

Bellerophon Bellerophon (; Ancient Greek: Βελλεροφῶν) or Bellerophontes (), born as Hipponous, was a hero of Greek mythology. He was "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of Heracles", and his ...

and

Melanthius Melanthius ( grc, Μελάνθιος) was an ancient Greek painter of the 4th century BC. He belonged to the school of Sicyon Sicyon (; el, Σικυών; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyon was an ancient Greek city state situated in t ...

and the Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge with the Greek Iliad, which, according to Sergent, presuppose an Indo-European "pre-Iliad". In volume 2, ''Le livre des dieux'', Sergent argues that the Celtic and Greek pantheons derive from a common Indo-European inheritance.

Works

* ''L'homosexualité initiatique dans l'Europe ancienne'', Payot 1986 * ''Les Indo-Européens'' Payot, 1995 * ''Genèse de l'Inde'' (Genesis of India), Payot, Paris 1997 * ''De Mycènes aux Tragique'', Économica 1998 * ''Celtes et Grecs'', Payot, 1999 * ''La guerre à la culture: aspects des attaques contre l'intelligence dans la période jospino-raffininesque'', L'Harmattan, 2005, * ''Les Dragons. Mythes, rites et légendes'', 2018, Fouesnant-Embanner, 2018

Books with English translations

* ''Homosexuality in Greek Myth,'' tr. Arthur Goldhammer, pref.

Georges Dumezil Georges may refer to: Places *Georges River, New South Wales, Australia *Georges Quay (Dublin) *Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania Other uses *Georges (name) * ''Georges'' (novel), a novel by Alexandre Dumas * "Georges" (song), a 1977 ...

. Beacon Press, Boston, 1986. *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergent, Bernard 1946 births Living people 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians French archaeologists Indo-Europeanists Scholars of Greek mythology and religion Comparative mythologists French male writers Winners of the Prix Broquette-Gonin (literature)