Greeks in the Underworld. From Homer to Epicurus.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 19167 |
| Format | 13.5 x 21 |
| Détails | 336 p., paperback |
| Publication | Paris, 2015 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
We often imagine the underworld of the ancient Greeks as an immutable place without history. Wrong! The representation of this other world has constantly evolved over the centuries. Danielle Jouanna traces the progressive invention of the infernal universe here—a universe omnipresent in the imagination of poets and philosophers and in the daily lives of the Greeks. Nothing is fixed for eternity in this afterlife: neither the criteria for guiding the dead, nor their judges—if there were any—nor the journeys the soul must make before reaching its final destination, nor the “life it will lead there.” As many increasingly complex representations as meditations on death, from Homer and the tragic poets to Plato, including the followers of Orphism and mystery cults. But is the soul truly immortal? Doesn't it disappear at the same time as the body? Or, if it survives, is it doomed to an indefinite cycle of reincarnations—in what form, indeed? The temptation of skepticism appeared as early as the 6th century BC, culminating with Epicurus. However, stubborn and constantly resurgent, the belief in the survival of the soul always resisted the temptation of doubt. Danielle Jouanna, a university professor, devoted her teaching and research to Greek antiquity. She passed on her passion to her students in preparatory classes (khâgne and hypokhâgne) in Strasbourg, then in Versailles. Author of numerous school and university textbooks, she has also published notable works such as Aspasia of Miletus, Meuse of Pericles (2006 Diane Potier-Boès Prize from the Académie Française) and Europe was born in Greece (2009).
We often imagine the underworld of the ancient Greeks as an immutable place without history. Wrong! The representation of this other world has constantly evolved over the centuries. Danielle Jouanna traces the progressive invention of the infernal universe here—a universe omnipresent in the imagination of poets and philosophers and in the daily lives of the Greeks. Nothing is fixed for eternity in this afterlife: neither the criteria for guiding the dead, nor their judges—if there were any—nor the journeys the soul must make before reaching its final destination, nor the “life it will lead there.” As many increasingly complex representations as meditations on death, from Homer and the tragic poets to Plato, including the followers of Orphism and mystery cults. But is the soul truly immortal? Doesn't it disappear at the same time as the body? Or, if it survives, is it doomed to an indefinite cycle of reincarnations—in what form, indeed? The temptation of skepticism appeared as early as the 6th century BC, culminating with Epicurus. However, stubborn and constantly resurgent, the belief in the survival of the soul always resisted the temptation of doubt. Danielle Jouanna, a university professor, devoted her teaching and research to Greek antiquity. She passed on her passion to her students in preparatory classes (khâgne and hypokhâgne) in Strasbourg, then in Versailles. Author of numerous school and university textbooks, she has also published notable works such as Aspasia of Miletus, Meuse of Pericles (2006 Diane Potier-Boès Prize from the Académie Française) and Europe was born in Greece (2009).