Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?: An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination

"[Veyne's] present book has some kinship with his sprightly theoretical work Comment on ecrit l'histoire; and he declares that its aim was to provoke reflection on the way our conception of truth is built up and changes over the centuries. . . . The style is brilliant and exhilarating."--Jasper Griffin, Times Literary Supplement

ISBN-13: 9780226854342

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Publication Date: 06-15-1988

Pages: 169

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

Paul Veyne is a French archaeologist and historian and an honorary professor at the College de France. He is the author of several books in French as well as Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

Translator's Note
Preface
Introduction
1. When Historical Truth Was Tradition and Vulgate
2. The Plurality and Analogy of True Words
3. The Social Distribution of Knowledge and the Modalities of Belief
4. Social Diversity of Beliefs and Mental Balkanization
5. Behind This Sociology an Implicit Program of Truth
6. Restoring Etiological Truth to Myth
7. Myth and Rhetorical Truth
8. Pausanias Entrapped
9. Forger's Truth, Philologist's Truth
10. The Need to Choose between Culture and Belief in a Truth
Notes
Index Show More