Jean-Pierre Vernant

Jean-Pierre Vernant (French: [vɛʁnɑ̃ ]; January 4, 1914 –

Jean-Pierre Vernant
January 9, 2007) 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.

Vernant at his last conference,

Contents October 23, 2006 (Aubervilliers)

Biography Born January 4, 1914

Provins, France
Influence
Died January 9, 2007
Criticism
(aged 93)
Awards Sèvres, France
Awards and prizes
Scientific career
Doctor Honoris Causa
Other awards Fields Anthropologist,
historian
Select publications
Influences Claude Lévi-Strauss
References
External links

Biography
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 Forces of the Interior (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.[1] 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.

After his death, his name was given to a French highschool in Sèvres, le "Lycée Jean-Pierre Vernant".

Influence
The structuralist approach pioneered by Vernant has been influential on a wide range of classical
scholars. More specifically, Vernant's reading of the myth of Prometheus was an important influence on
philosopher Bernard Stiegler's book, Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus.

Criticism
Vernant's approach has been heavily criticized, particularly among Italian philologists, even by those of
Marxist tendencies. He has been accused of a fundamentally ahistorical approach, allegedly going as far
as to manipulate his sources by describing them in categories which do not apply (polysemy and
ambiguity).[2]

Awards

Awards and prizes

Médaille d'or du CNRS, 1984
Premio di Storia, San Marino, 1991
Award for Humanistic Studies, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1993
Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur
Compagnon de la Libération
Croix de Guerre
Grand Officier dans l'Ordre national du Mérite
Commandeur de l'Ordre de l'Honneur de la République Hellénique
Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Doctor Honoris Causa

University of Chicago
University of Bristol
Masaryk University of Brno
University of Naples
University of Oxford
University of Crete (2002)
New Bulgarian University (2004)

Other awards
 Associate member of the Académie royale de Belgique
Foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy
Honorary Member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Membre de l'Academia Europaea

Select publications
Les origines de la pensée grecque (Paris), 1962 (= Origins of Greek Thought, 1982)
Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs: Etudes de psychologie historique (Paris), 1965 (= Myth
and Thought among the Greeks, 1983)
With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne, 2 vols. (Paris), 1972, 1986
(= Tragedy and Myth in Ancient Greece, 1981; Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece, 1988)
Mythe et société en Grèce ancienne (Paris), 1974 (= Myth and Society in Ancient Greece,
1978)
Divination et rationalité, 1974
With Marcel Detienne: Les ruses de l'intelligence: La mètis des Grecs (Paris), 1974 (=
Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society, 1977)
Religion grecque, religions antiques (Paris), 1976
Religion, histoires, raisons (Paris), 1979
With Marcel Detienne: La cuisine de sacrifice en pays grec (Paris), 1979 (= Cuisine of
Sacrifice among the Greeks, 1989)
With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Travail et esclavage en Grèce ancienne (Brussels), 1988
L'individu, la mort, l'amour: soi-même et l'autre en Grèce ancienne (Paris), 1989
Mythe et religion en Grèce ancienne (Paris), 1990
Figures, idoles, masques (Paris), 1990
With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: La Grèce ancienne, 3 vols. (Paris), 1990–92
Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays (Princeton), 1991
With Pierre Vidal-Naquet: Œdipe et ses mythes (Brussels), 1994
Entre mythe et politique (Paris), 1996
With Jean Bottéro and Clarisse Herrenschmidt: (in French) L'orient ancien et nous (Paris),
1996. (in English) Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning, and Religion in Mesopotamia,
Elam, and Greece (https://books.google.com/books?id=_qm-Zx9_h_UC), translated by
Teresa Lavender Fagan. University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0226067155.
With Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux: Dans l'œil du miroir (Paris), 1997
L'univers, les dieux, les hommes: récits grecs des origines Paris, Le Seuil, 1999 (= The
Universe, The Gods, and Men: Ancient Greek Myths, 2001)
La traversée des frontières (Paris), 2004

References
1. "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110921020142/http://www.fflch.usp.br/df/sit
e/index.php?pg=hom_jpv.html). Archived from the original (http://www.fflch.usp.br/df/site/ind
ex.php?pg=hom_jpv.html) on 2011-09-21. Retrieved 2012-05-11. Official Webpage of the
Faculty of Philosophy (University of São Paulo) (in Portuguese)
2. Vincenzo Di Benedetto, La tragedia greca di Jean-Pierre Vernant, in: Belfagor 32 (1977), p.
461-468; see also Vincenzo Di Benedetto, L'ambiguo nella tragedia greca: una categoria
 fuorviante, in: Euripide "Medea", introd. di V. Di Benedetto, trad. di E. Cerbo, p. 62-75, Milan
1997.

External links
Independent obituary by (https://web.archive.org/web/20070205063620/http://news.indepen
dent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2144035.ece)Oswyn Murray
Page with biographical information, French language (http://www.evene.fr/celebre/biographi
e/jean-pierre-vernant-17228.php)
Citation for Oxford honorary degree (https://web.archive.org/web/20060926034625/http://w
ww.ox.ac.uk/publicaffairs/pubs/annualreview/ar99/hdegrees.shtml)
Council of Europe page (https://web.archive.org/web/20061201095052/http://www.coe.int/t/
e/cultural_co-operation/culture/completed_projects/frontiers/france.asp)
Links to online interviews and media presentations by Vernant (https://web.archive.org/web/
20070124130407/http://www.radiofrance.fr/chaines/france-culture2/dossiers/2007/vernant/li
ens.php)

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