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Mortals and Immortals
Jean-Pierre Vernant has profoundly transformed our perceptions of ancient Greece. Published in 1991, this collection of nineteen essays probes deeply into themes of enduring interest--death, the body, the soul, the individual, and relations between mortals and immortals; the mask, the mirror, the image, and the imagination; the self and the other, and, more broadly, the concept of otherness itself, or "alterity."
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Jean-Pierre Vernant
94 books131 followersJean-Pierre Vernant was a French historian and anthropologist, specialist in ancient Greece. Influenced by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vernant developed a structuralist approach to Greek myth, tragedy, and society which would itself be influential among classical scholars. He was an honorary professor at the Collège de France.
Born in Provins, France, Vernant at first studied philosophy, receiving his agrégation in this field in 1937.
A member of the Young Communists (Jeunes Communistes), Vernant joined the French Resistance during World War II and was a member of Libération-sud (founded by Emmanuel d'Astier). He later commanded the French Interior Forces (FFI) in Haute-Garonne under the pseudonym of "Colonel Berthier." He was a Companion of the Liberation. After the war, he remained a member of the French Communist Party until 1969.
He entered the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1948 and, under the influence of Louis Gernet, turned to the study of ancient Greek anthropology. Ten years later, he became director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). In 1971 he was professor in the University of São Paulo. This visit was also an act of protest that he made with François Châtelet against the brazilian military government (dictatorship).
He was a member of the French sponsorship committee for the Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. He supported the funding organisation Non-Violence XXI.
He was awarded the CNRS gold medal in 1984. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Crete.
Vernant died a few days after his 93rd birthday in Sèvres.
Born in Provins, France, Vernant at first studied philosophy, receiving his agrégation in this field in 1937.
A member of the Young Communists (Jeunes Communistes), Vernant joined the French Resistance during World War II and was a member of Libération-sud (founded by Emmanuel d'Astier). He later commanded the French Interior Forces (FFI) in Haute-Garonne under the pseudonym of "Colonel Berthier." He was a Companion of the Liberation. After the war, he remained a member of the French Communist Party until 1969.
He entered the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1948 and, under the influence of Louis Gernet, turned to the study of ancient Greek anthropology. Ten years later, he became director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). In 1971 he was professor in the University of São Paulo. This visit was also an act of protest that he made with François Châtelet against the brazilian military government (dictatorship).
He was a member of the French sponsorship committee for the Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World. He supported the funding organisation Non-Violence XXI.
He was awarded the CNRS gold medal in 1984. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate at the University of Crete.
Vernant died a few days after his 93rd birthday in Sèvres.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 28, 2026
Rereading for Notes Completed. This is one of my favorite books. Vernant wrote about Greek thought which I am very interested in and I love this work. I must have read this book five or six times since I bought it. I will never part with it. I could reread it again. I have another new one to read. Excited. Laughing.
This is a beautiful collection of essays written by Jean Pierre Vernant who works in Comparative Religions. I read this for the "borderlands" aka the so-called primitive, ambiguous situations that all human beings find themselves in over time. Because what we are dealing with here is death, fear of death, what death means to certain societies. Social anxieties are complex but consistent.
Vernant explores all this by looking at Greek culture and myth.
His section on divinity was stunning, but I became infatuated with the essay he wrote on "Feminine Figures of Death in Greece" which was so good I had to stop and go research a few parallels in other cultures. How fascinating. Of course, I spent a lot of time just comparing his essay and meaning to other essays, for example on feminine myths in Ireland, England, and even Russia. Death and love seem closely related. Death and sex. Death and women. And I suppose Freud aptly put it, "What wants to live, wants to die." So we have some psychology going on here. It was all insightful stuff when one reads the essays from beginning to end and sees the overall image.
It is the image that Vernant is really interested in, I think. How the invisible can be presented. This is philosophy here and theory but I was fascinated at how people with little writing experience created images and developed myth. That is always fascinating stuff.
I loved this book. Vernant is wildly talented and able to get across complex ideas in simple forms, which is always best. I liked this book so much that I do feel it has influenced me in ways that will spill over into my reading, writing, and thinking. It's also a book that I will keep on my writing table.
Highly recommended if you like folklore.
This is a beautiful collection of essays written by Jean Pierre Vernant who works in Comparative Religions. I read this for the "borderlands" aka the so-called primitive, ambiguous situations that all human beings find themselves in over time. Because what we are dealing with here is death, fear of death, what death means to certain societies. Social anxieties are complex but consistent.
Vernant explores all this by looking at Greek culture and myth.
His section on divinity was stunning, but I became infatuated with the essay he wrote on "Feminine Figures of Death in Greece" which was so good I had to stop and go research a few parallels in other cultures. How fascinating. Of course, I spent a lot of time just comparing his essay and meaning to other essays, for example on feminine myths in Ireland, England, and even Russia. Death and love seem closely related. Death and sex. Death and women. And I suppose Freud aptly put it, "What wants to live, wants to die." So we have some psychology going on here. It was all insightful stuff when one reads the essays from beginning to end and sees the overall image.
It is the image that Vernant is really interested in, I think. How the invisible can be presented. This is philosophy here and theory but I was fascinated at how people with little writing experience created images and developed myth. That is always fascinating stuff.
I loved this book. Vernant is wildly talented and able to get across complex ideas in simple forms, which is always best. I liked this book so much that I do feel it has influenced me in ways that will spill over into my reading, writing, and thinking. It's also a book that I will keep on my writing table.
Highly recommended if you like folklore.
June 25, 2023
My mid-rating is only reflective of the fact that a number of the articles were written for the author's peers in the academic community, so had marginal value for me personally. That said, the remaining were interesting and though provoking. I appreciated the argument that the gods were created in an image of what we lacked rather than of ourselves. Especially instructive was the in-depth analysis of Artemis as a goddess of the margins, ushering from the state of the wild into the state of mature completeness - a goddess with the power of integration.
His consistent inclusion of the Greek vocabulary was appreciated.
I made a note of his statement in Chapter 11 : " Rather, because the distance makes us see more clearly that if every human group, every society, every culture thinks and lives what it imagines to be THE civilization whose identity must be maintained and permeance assured in the face of irruptions from the outside and pressures from within, each group is also confronted with the problem of alterity in the variety of its forms. From death, the absolute Other, to changes that, in flux of generations, are continually produced in the social body, the community also makes a place for the necessary contacts and exchanges with the "stranger", which no Greek city can do without. ..... if the Same remains enclosed on itself, thought is not possible - and let us add, neither is civilization."
His consistent inclusion of the Greek vocabulary was appreciated.
I made a note of his statement in Chapter 11 : " Rather, because the distance makes us see more clearly that if every human group, every society, every culture thinks and lives what it imagines to be THE civilization whose identity must be maintained and permeance assured in the face of irruptions from the outside and pressures from within, each group is also confronted with the problem of alterity in the variety of its forms. From death, the absolute Other, to changes that, in flux of generations, are continually produced in the social body, the community also makes a place for the necessary contacts and exchanges with the "stranger", which no Greek city can do without. ..... if the Same remains enclosed on itself, thought is not possible - and let us add, neither is civilization."
May 1, 2011
A very good book to read on this interesting topic.
September 8, 2014
Really liked the first two sections.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews