Marcel Detienne (October 11, 1935 in
Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
, Belgium – March 21, 2019 in
Nemours, France)
was a
Belgian historian and specialist in the study of
ancient Greece. He was a professor at
Johns Hopkins University, where he held the
Basil L. Gildersleeve chair in
Classics
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
.
Along with
Jean-Pierre Vernant
Jean-Pierre Vernant (; January 4, 1914 РJanuary 9, 2007) was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude L̩vi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and ...
and
Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Detienne has sought to apply an
anthropological approach, informed by the
structuralism
In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
of
Claude Lévi-Strauss, to
classical and
archaic Greece
Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from circa 800 BC to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical period. In the archaic period, Greeks settled across the ...
.
Biography
Detienne received his ''Doctorat en sciences religieuses'' at the ''
École des Hautes Études'' in 1960, and his ''Doctorat en philosophie et lettres'' from the
University of Liège in 1965.
Detienne was at one time a ''directeur d'études'' at the ''
École pratique des hautes études'', where he taught until 1998. He was also a founder of the ''Centre de recherches comparées sur les sociétés anciennes'' in Paris. Detienne began teaching in the Department of Classics at
Johns Hopkins University in 1992.
Bibliography
*''Homère, Hésiode et Pythagore: poésie et philosophie dans le pythagorisme ancien'' (1962)
*''Crise agraire et attitude religieuse chez Hésiode'' (1963)
*''De la pensée religieuse à la pensée philosophique'' (1963)
*''Les Maîtres de vérité dans la Grèce archaïque'' (1967; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece'' (1996)
*''Les Jardins d'Adonis'' (1972; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''The Gardens of Adonis'', 1977; 2nd ed. 1994)
*''Les ruses de l'intelligence: la métis des Grecs'' (with
Jean-Pierre Vernant
Jean-Pierre Vernant (; January 4, 1914 РJanuary 9, 2007) was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude L̩vi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and ...
, 1974; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society'', 1978)
*''Dionysos mis à mort'' (1977; trans. Mireille & Leonard Muellener, ''Dionysos Slain'', 1979)
*''La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec'' (with Jean-Pierre Vernant et al., 1979; trans. Paula Wissing, ''The Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks'', 1989)
*''L'invention de la mythologie'' (1981; trans. Margaret Cook, ''The Creation of Mythology'', 1986)
*''Dionysos à ciel ouvert'' (1986; trans.
Arthur Goldhammer, ''Dionysos at Large'', 1989)
*''Les Savoirs de l’écriture en Grèce ancienne'' (with Georgio Camassa, 1988)
*''L' écriture d'Orphée'' (1989; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural Context'', 2003)
*''La vie quotidienne des dieux grecs'' (with
Giulia Sissa Giulia Sissa (born 16 June 1954) is an Italian classical scholar and historian of philosophy. She is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Classics at UCLA. The majority of her works deal specifically with the role of women in the Ancient ...
, 1989; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''The Daily Life of the Greek Gods'', 2000)
*''Apollon le couteau à la main'' (1998)
*''Comparer l'incomparable'' (2002; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''Comparing the Incomparable'', 2008)
*''Comment être autochtone: du pur Athénien au Français raciné'' (2003)
*''Qui veut prendre la parole?'' (2003)
*''Les Grecs et nous'' (2005; trans. Janet Lloyd, ''The Greeks and Us: A Comparative Anthropology of Ancient Greece'', 2007)
As editor or co-editor:
*''Transcrire les mythologies: tradition, écriture, historicité'' (1994)
*''Destin de Meurtriers'' (1996)
Further reading
References
[''Marcel Detienne''](_blank)
at École pratique des hautes études, March 22, 2019.
External links
''Marcel Detienne, le déconstructeur'' interview by François Gauvin Marcel in ''
Le Point
''Le Point'' () is a French weekly political and news magazine published in Paris.
History and profile
''Le Point'' was founded in September 1972 by a group of journalists who had, one year earlier, left the editorial team of '' L'Express'', w ...
'', February 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Detienne, Marcel
1935 births
2019 deaths
20th-century Belgian historians
Historians of antiquity
Johns Hopkins University faculty
University of Liège alumni
University of Paris alumni
University of Paris faculty
Rhetoricians
Scholars of Greek mythology and religion
Belgian expatriates in France
Belgian expatriates in the United States
21st-century Belgian historians