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

Paul Veyne (Author), Paula Wissing (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0226854345 | ISBN-13: 978-0226854342 | Edition: 1

"[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

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 169 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (June 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226854345
• ISBN-13: 978-0226854342
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A kind of book that'll make you THINK!, October 10, 2005

By 

KyrC (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?: An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination (Paperback)

There are 2 kinds of books: those that provide you with knowledge, and those that provide you with a method of understanding. Most of books belong to the first category; but they’re useless if you don’t know how to understand them. Books of the second type are rare and priceless: once you’ve read one of them different perspectives, closed before, open before you. Few of us have seriously thought what hides behind the common concepts of our time: truth, causality, science, knowledge, etc. We use these words mechanically, without thinking, without understanding that these notions are historical, not eternal.

Books like that of Paul Veyne make a “revision” of foundations of our thinking, providing us with another scheme of thinking, radically different from the common-sense one. And, as P.Veyne says, “two schemes are better than one”.

Behind the seemingly narrow and specialised title “Did Greeks believe in their myths?” really hides a philosophical essay on the nature of our world-view. What is truth, and is it possible that there’re many “truths”, not just one? Did the concept of truth in modern sense exist in ancient times? When did modern history begin and what’re its methods? What is myth, and isn’t our science (Einstein, Freud, etc.) also based on its own myth? What is the sociology of truth, and its social distribution? What is faith, and its relation to power? How should we read ancient cosmogonies? Is myth a way of thinking, or a kind of knowledge, or something else? When did the notion of “historical time” appear, and are other concepts of time possible?

All these questions are brilliantly addressed in this little book, and are masterfully answered. Buy this book and read it attentively: it’s worth your time!:)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to break out of the fish bowl, March 29, 2000

By 

David Kosalka (Chicago, IL - United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?: An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination (Paperback)

Paul Veyne in this work attempts to look at the different conceptions of truth that have existed in different times. Not always has the standard for truth been verifyability. In the end, in a remarkably poignant chapter, he explains how our own notions of truth may explain our inability to break out of the fishbowl of modern life, inhibiting our conceptual imaginations, our ability concieve new structures and visions for our life. The analysis is very Nietzschean and should be read by anyone who attempts to write history as it clarifies just what is at stake with the prefered methodology.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Were the Greek gods just mythical?, December 17, 2006

By 

Steve Reina (Troy Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?: Essay on the Constitutive Imagination (Paperback)

Two millenia ago and counting Xenophanes observed that people tended to worship dieties culturally similar to themselves.

And so, people of India worshiped Indian born deities; people of Egypt worshiped Egyptian deities and Greeks worshiped Greek deities.

According to Xenophanes, the process demonstrated the inherently mythical nature of faith.

In Veyne's brilliant the point is made that perhaps another view is possible: that truth has a relativistic quality.

And also: that perhaps Xenophanes was being unduly dismissive.

In other words, we need not endow our myths we mutually exclusive truth. So your truth and my truth can be different but still...well...true.

Viewed this way there's a certain political correctness to Veyne's approach. If in creating our cultural deity we recognize the divine in ourselves, maybe after all, that's not such a bad thing.