Myth, Religion and Society Structuralist essays

322 Pages·1982·15.48 MB·English

by  R. L. Gordon (ed.)

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Myth, religion and society
Structuralist essays by
M. Detienne, L. Gcrnct, J.-P. Vcmant and
P. Vidal-Naquct
Edited by
R.L. GORDON
Srn1°or Lrctu~r in Ille
School of Modem Lanp.p, and Europen History,
llnir~rsity of Eat An,tia
With an introduction by
R.G.A. BUXTOK
Lrctur,r in Classie, in thr
Vniunsity of Bristol
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Myth, rcli,ion and society.
I. Mytholo1Y, Grcc:k
I. Gordon, Richard L II. Detienne, Marcel
292'.l'.308 BL790 80-4078!1
ISBN O 521 22780 I hard coven
ISBN O 521 29640 4 paperback
Contents
Sources and acknowledgements page vii
Introduction, by R.G.A. Buxton ix
I: Myth and divinity
l. The union with Mctis and the sovereignty of heaven
LJ.·P. Vcmant) I,
2. The 'Sea-Crow' (M. Detienne) 16 t
11: The human condition 43
f' 3. The myth of Prometheus in Hesiod Q.-P. Vcrnant) 43
4. Sacrificial and alimentary codes in Hesiod's myth
of Prometheus u.-P. Vcrnant) 57,
5. Land and sacrifice in the Odyssey: a study of religious
and mythical meanings (P. Vidal-Naquct) 80r
_. 6. The myth of 'Honeyed Orpheus' (M. Detienne) 95 /
III: Myth and social order 111
7. 'Value' in Greek myth (L. Gcrnet) 111
8. The Black Hunter and the origin of the Athenian
,ph,b,io. (P. Vidal-Naquct) 147
9. Recipes for Greek adolescence (P. Vidal-Naquct) 163
IV: Disorder and deviance 18 7
10. Slavcrv and the Rule of Women in tradition, myth
and ulopia (P. Vidal-Naquet) 187
11. Athens and Atlantis: structure and meaning of a
Platonic myth (P. Vidal-Naquet) 201 /
12. Betwc:cn Beasts and Gods (M. Detienne) 2151
Abbreviations used 229
Notes 231
Works cited 272
Index 291

Sources and acknowledgements
The following are the sources of the essays in this collection. The Editor
and Publishers wish to thank the publishers mentioned for their per·
mission to publish these essays. The translations have been made by the
Editor or adapted by him from those listed.
1L'Union avcc MCtis ct la royautC du cid', in M. Detienne andj.-P.
Vcmant, Les nues de l'intellitence: la mitis des grecs (Flammaricn,
Paris, 1974), pp. 104-24 [= Me/ang<s ... H. Ch. Puech (Paris,
1974), pp. 101-16]. Published in English as Cunning intelligence in
Gree• culture and society (Harvester Press, Hassocks, Sussex;
Humanities Press Inc, New York, 1978), pp. 107-30, translated by
Janet Lloyd.
2 'La Corneille de mer', in Les ru.ses de l'intelligence, pp. 201-41
[= 'Le Navin d'Athena', RHR 178 (1970), 133-77 considerably
altered). Cunning intelligence, pp. 215-58.
3 'Le Mythc promcthCcn chcz HCsiodc', in J .-P. Vcmant, Mythe et
sociiti en Gr~ce ancienne (Maspcro, Paris, 1974), pp. 177-94
{= II mito greco: atti del convegno intemazionale (Urbino 1973),
edd. B. Gentili and G. Paioni (Rome 1977), pp. 99-106]. Published
in English as Myth and society in ancient Greece (Harvester Press,
Swsexj Humanities Press Inc, New York, 1980), pp. 168-85, trans
lated by Janet Lloyd.
4 'Sacrifice ct alimentation humainc a propos du PromethC:e
d'Hisiode', Annali deUa Scuola Normale di Pisa 7 (1977), 905-40,
reprinted as pp. 37-71 of •A la table des hommes' in Detienne and
Vcmant ct al. La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec (Gallimard, Paris,
1979), pp. 37-132.
'Valcurs rcligicuscs ct mythiques de la terrc ct du sacrifice dans
l'Odyss«', Annales ESC 25 (1970), 1278-97 [= Problimes de la
TffY'e en Grice ancienne, ed. M.1. Finley (Mouton, The Hague,
J 973), pp. 269-92]. (With alterations and corrections here.)
6 'Orphce au miel', QUCC 13 (1971), 7-23 [= Fafre de l'hi,tofre,
edd.J. Le Goff and P. Nora (Gallimard, Paris, 1973), 3, pp. 56-75].
7 'La Notion mythiquc de la valeur en Gl'Cce', in Louis Gemet,
Antleropologie de la Grice antique (essays collected by J .-P.
Vrmant) (Maspcro, Paris, 1968), pp. 93-137 (reprinted without
vii
Sources Cftd acbowledfnw-•
significant alteration from Jountal dr psychologi, -t I ( 1948),
415-621.
8 'IA-Chasseur noir et l'origint: de l'cphCbie athinicnne', Annales ESC
23 (1968), 947-64, which appeared in the same year id 'The Black
Hunter and the origin or the Athenian Ephebeia', PCPhS 194 (n.s.
14) (1968), -19-64 (translated by Janet Lloyd). (With ex.tensive
alterations and corrections here.)
9 'Le Cru, l'cnrant grcc et le cuit', in Faire de l'histoirr, pp. 137-68.
(With lltcrations and additions hett.)
10· 'Esclawge ct gynCC::ocratic dans la tradition, le mythc ct l'utopie', in
8«hwchn sur les structures sociales dtlJls l'Antiquiti cltUsiqwe,
introduced by C. Nicolet (Colloqucs nationaux du CN RS, ed. CNRS,
Puis, 1970), pp. 63-80. (With additions and corrections here.)
11· 'Ma.met ct l'Atlantidc', REG 78 (1964), 420-44. (With addidpns
·: 1 -.ftortections here.)
tt· '96uc Bites ct Dicux', in Nou1Jelle rrvue de psycM...tyu 6 (191i2),
, ,~ ··"lfl-t6 (special iuuc 'De5tins du cmnibalisllle') (reprint.-, widl
·· ~~ alk rmatiiso nas m asa r'Rt o(GngacH-r. imlaa rtdC,t eP adrei ss, e1s 9p7a7r)e,n ptsp'., i1n5 M5-. 6O0c.Jtf fPflunbe ,
lf.taecl 'in English as Dionysos slain Uohns Hopkins, lmtimorc,
"1,979), pp. 35-67, translated by Mireille '9.uellner and Leonard
lolucUncr.
Introduction, by R.G.A. Buxton
Writing in the Bvlletin of the Council of University Classical Depart
ments for 1977, M.L. West addressed himself to the question of how, if
at all, the subject or Greek myth should be taught to undergraduates.
While accepting that students ought to be aware of 'the stories them
selves', he expressed scepticism about the introduction of more theor
etical mattcn:
When it comes to interpretation of myths, the problems are much harder. Before
we can think about teachina anythin1, we mu1t belinie we know 1omethin1, and
probably moat univcnity teachcn feel a profound lack of confidence in this aru
•.. interpretation of myths is not a field in which soundnc11 aboundl . , , The sort
of pa<batc we oua}lt to Ix aimin1 to produce, in my view, UI not one who knows
what the Greek myths arc all about (for none of us claim1 to know that), nor one
who hu m.uten"d 1ome 1listenin1 Method ...
These remarks by one of the most gifted philologists of the present
day would, I imagine, be received with approval by most classical
scholars. And indeed it is hard to refrain from a certain sympathy with
such a brisk refusal to be taken in. The history of the study of myth·
ology has been dominated by good ideas carried to absurd lengths; and
one may be pardoned for thinking that Euhemerus, say, or Max Mi.illcr,
would have benefited from more frequent promptings by the voice of
Empiricism. But it is unrealistic to expect of a theory, or even of a
~fethod, that it explain everything; enough, surely, if it permits us to
perceive new connections or, in the case of history, to cut fresh diag
onals through the past. The essays collected by Dr Gordon in this
volume offrr, from their different but related perspectives, hope that
Professor West's methodological reservations may be unduly defeatist.
What these studies have in common may, for better or worse, be
summarized in the contentious word 'structuralism'. Unfortunately, to
say that one is a structuralist is about as informative as to say that one
is a democrat. The range of uses to which the term has been put in
linguistics, anthropology and literary criticism - to name only three
areas - is such ills practically to rule out any workable definition cover
ing all the .tvailable cases. Yet in relation to the four authors here
rcprn<"ntcd the definitional problem is not insuperable. All arc working
\\ithin the samc intellectual tradition; aU sec as at least part of their
tiASk the recovery of the implicit categories - the structures - in terms
of which 'Greek mentality' was articulated. In the case of Vemant,
ix
R.G.A. Buxton
Vidal-Naquct and Uetic-nnc, who att all very much alive and active
today, their own pusitiun tiir-G-ui, the slructunlist movement i1 some
thing which they thcmsch-es confront from time to time. In the case of
l.ouis Gemet (1882-1962) we att dealing rather with one who is in
certain respects a pl'C'Cunor or the structuralist1, and in whotc rich and
many-sided output wc can find the seeds or much that is occupying
scholars at present.
Jean-Pierre Vemant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet and Marcel Detienne all
teach or have taught at the tcole Pnatique des Hautcs ttudes in Puis.1
To say that they form a 'school', with the magisterial Vnnant at its
head, would not be entirely misleading: Vemant and Vidal-Naquct haft
producedajointvolumconGreck lr111Cdy,1 while Vemant and Detienne
have collaborated on a book (from which the fint lwo pieces in this
collcclion arc drawn) about cunning intelligence in Greek thought1 and,
with othen, on a study or sacrifice~ moreover, the rootnotn: in their
worlu bear rrequcnt witneu to the rt:spcct which they have for one
another. None lhc less there arc si111ificant di£fcrences between them,
both in approach and in their areas of spec.ial intcrn:t.
Detienne works principally on mythology. In•!"~ G•rdns of
A~on~,1 .an analysis of a number of Grttk myths and rituals in-Valving
spices, he made an important contribution to our understanding of how
Greeks perceived the distinction between propa (wifely) and improp«
(cxccssiffly seductive) conduct by women, and how that perception
rccdvcd symbolic exprt:ssion through myth and ritual. Characteristic of
l>e1icnne's approach here and elsewhere - charac1cris1ic, too, of
Detienne'• model in the book, the anthropologist Claude U...i-Sttams -
is the attention paid to 'empirical categories· a~ ,lcploycd in mythical
narTativcs and ritual transactions: ht' shows repeatedly how contrasts
between, say, types of animal or plant constitute one of the funda·
mental vehicles for the logic of myth. So in 'The myth of "Honeyed
Orpheus"' (pp. 95-109 below) he draws our attention to the !'Ole o(
honey in various traditional talcs. Much of Dcticnnc's work is concerned
to iUuminalc the system of rcligiow thought of the Greckpolu (city),
but he has also done complementary analyses of marginal typct of
religious activity which define themselves by con1rut lo tht polis. A
classic instance is the essay (pp. 215-28 below) in which heexuninct
the different modes of dcvian~ cxcmpli£ied by Pythagoreans, Orphla,
Cynics and foUowcn of Dionysus, and in which, as usual, he pays dOR
attention to the n>Ie of empirical categories - here those rt:laring tQ the
pttparatinn and consumption 0£ food - in the sclf-dr-finitic,n of thC9C
groups.
Vidal-Naquct is a historian of fonnidablc ranKf. His contribution1 in
this collrction cover the world <•f "Homeric' society, rites d( statut.·
Introduction
transition between adolescence and adulthood, ideological reflections
of the rotes of women and slaves in Greece, and a discussion of a 'philo
sophical' myth in Plato, Elsewhere he has written on Greek tragedy, the
Jewish historian Josephus, and a wide variety of problems in Greek
social history, as well as on several contemporary historical issues.6 He
writes in a more condensed way than Detienne, is more divcne, and is
certainly less nsy to classify. 1£ one were to isolate one thread which
runs through his essays reprinted below it would be an interest in the
relationship between social practices and institutions, on the one hand,
and their ideological counterparts in myth and literature, on the other;
perhaps the clearest example is the paper on the 'Black Hunter' (pp.
147-62 below), in which a myth and an institution arc brilliantly
confronted,
Likc Vidal-Naquct, Vcmant has tended to prefer the article to the
book as his vehicle. His aim in thc splendid Les Origines de la pensie
grecque and Mythe et pensie chez les Grecs., - to recovcr the way in
which the Greeks' mental univene was articulated, above all in relation
to matten of religion - has been continued in his later writings. The
two papen on Hesiod (pp. 43-56 and 5 7-79 below) arc typical or his
approach. Hesiod's talcs about Prometheus and Pandora tum on the
crucial distinction between men and gods: men must work and put up
with misfortune; the gods arc free of such trouble. Vemant explores the
implications of the distinction by examining Hesiod's accounts in detail.
Central to the analysis is sacrifice, the ritual which re-enacts, by the
separation of the parts of the victim which it entails, the separation of
men and gods. Hesiod, as Vcmant presents him, is much concerned with
boundaries; and that makes him a prime witness for the structuralists.
Having glanced at the three scholars individually wc must return to
'structures'. Vemant's approach to Greek myth ofrcrs a convenient
place to begin.
One common way of studying the Greek pantheon has been to select
a divinity and trace his or her ancestry back to its 'origins' in natural
phenomena, ritual, geographical or historical fact, the unconscious, or
somewhere else.• This enterprise, like etymology, is a perfectly respect
able branch of human enquiry. But,just as etymology needs to be com·
plcmentcd by research into the interrelationships of words within a
language at a given time, so, argues Vemant, no single member of the
pantheon can be properly understood in isolation from thc rest: we
must broaden our outlook and take in the pattcm or interrelationships
between the deities. Only then shall wc be in a position to sec how the
conceptual univcnc of the Greeks was divided up, and how differen
tiations with respect to time, space, sow:rcignty, etc., were implicit in
the way in which they conceived or their gods.
xi