This study explains how the myths of Greece and Rome were transmitted from antiquity to the Renaissance. Luc Brisson argues that philosophy was ironically responsible for saving myth from historical annihilation. Although philosophy was initially critical of myth because it could not be declared true or false and because it was inferior to argumentation, mythology was progressively reincorporated into philosophy through allegorical exegesis. Brisson shows to what degree allegory was employed among philosophers and how it enabled myth to take on a number of different interpretive systems throughout the centuries: moral, physical, psychological, political, and even metaphysical. How Philosophers Saved Myths also describes how, during the first years of the modern era, allegory followed a more religious path, which was to assume a larger role in Neoplatonism. Ultimately, Brisson explains how this embrace of myth was carried forward by Byzantine thinkers and artists throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance; after the triumph of Chistianity, Brisson argues, myths no longer had to agree with just history and philosophy but the dogmas of the Church as well.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
ISBN-13
9780226075358
eBay Product ID (ePID)
95514777
Product Key Features
Author
Luc Brisson
Publication Name
How Philosophers Saved Myths: Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
Mythology
Publication Year
2004
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
224 Pages
Dimensions
Item Height
240mm
Item Width
163mm
Item Weight
456g
Additional Product Features
Title_Author
Luc Brisson
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States
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