''Plato the Myth Maker'' () is a book by the Canadian historian and anthropologist

Luc Brisson Luc Brisson (born 10 March 1946 in Saint-Esprit, Quebec) is a Canadian (and from 1986 also French) historian of philosophy and anthropologist of antiquity. He is emeritus director of research at the CNRS in France. Life Brisson was born in a smal ...

, published in 1982. An English translation was published in 1998.

Background

What would become ''Plato the Myth Maker'' began as a collaboration between

and

Marcel Detienne Marcel Detienne (; October 11, 1935, Liège, Belgium – March 21, 2019, Nemours, France''Marcel Detienne''
at

. Eventually it became clear that their respective views of

myth Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

differed too much, and they wrote separate books.

Summary

The story of

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

is the starting point for a

lexicographical Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretical lex ...

study of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's conception of ''muthos'', or myth. Plato was the first to use this word to refer to a fictional story. The second half of the book concerns ''

logos ''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inducti ...

'', which Plato used in contrast with ''muthos'' and regarded as the superior of the two.

Reception

Pierre Ellinger wrote in ''

L'Homme ''L'Homme. Revue française d'anthropologie'', is a French anthropological journal established in 1961 by Émile Benveniste, Pierre Gourou, and Claude Lévi-Strauss at the École pratique des hautes études, as a French counterpart to ''Man'' ...

'' that ''Plato the Myth Maker'' benefits greatly from its methodology which draws from

communication theory Communication theory is a proposed description of communication phenomena, the relationships among them, a storyline describing these relationships, and an argument for these three elements. Communication theory provides a way of talking about a ...

. Ellinger wrote that the book is valuable both because it traces the history of the concept of myth, and because it manages to outline the role of the myth in ancient Greece. In ''

The Review of Politics ''The Review of Politics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the fields of politics, philosophy, and history. It was founded in 1939 and is published by Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university ...

'', Edward Andrew called it "a remarkably fine book, always thought-provoking even when it remains captive to the mythology of scientific scholarship".

References

Notes

Sources