Pierre Chuvin (18 July 1943 – 26 December 2016) was a French

hellenist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient ...

and historian. He was specialized on

ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

and

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...

, as well as modern Central Asia and the Turkic-speaking world.

Biography

He studied at the Université de Clermont-Ferrand under Francis Vian and the

École nationale des langues orientales vivantes Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

, where he learned modern Greek and Turkish, and did an ''

agrégation In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...

'' on classical literature. In 1983 he presented his doctoral thesis on the ancient Greek epic ''

Dionysiaca The ''Dionysiaca'' {{IPAc-en, ˌ, d, aɪ, ., ə, ., n, ᵻ, ˈ, z, aɪ, ., ə, ., k, ə ( grc-gre, Διονυσιακά, ''Dionysiaká'') is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest survi ...

'' by

Nonnus Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebai ...

. He was a professor at the

Blaise Pascal University Blaise Pascal University (french: Université Blaise-Pascal), also known as Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand II or just Clermont-Ferrand II, was a public university with its main campus on in Clermont-Ferrand, France, with satellite l ...

until 1998 and after that at the

Paris Nanterre University Paris Nanterre University (French: ''Université Paris Nanterre''), formerly Paris-X and commonly referred to as Nanterre, is a public research university based in Nanterre, Paris, France. It is one of the most prestigious French universities, ma ...

. He created and led the Institut français d'études sur l'Asie centrale in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

, Uzbekistan, and founded the journal '' Les Cahiers de l'Asie centrale''. From 2003 to 2008 he was the director of the Institut français d'études anatoliennes in Istanbul. He wrote more than 70 articles for the magazine ''

L'Histoire ''L'Histoire'' is a monthly mainstream French magazine dedicated to historical studies, recognized by peers as the most important historical popular magazine (as opposed to specific university journals or less scientific popular historical mag ...

''.

Legacy

In April 2020, the American band

the Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the ...

released an album entitled ''

Songs for Pierre Chuvin ''Songs for Pierre Chuvin'' is the eighteenth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 10, 2020. It is the first album since 2002's ''All Hail West Texas'' to feature only the band's frontman, John Darnielle, as well as the first sinc ...

'', inspired by Chuvin's 1990 book ''A Chronicle of the Last Pagans''.

Selected publications

*''Mythologie et géographie dionysiaques : recherches sur l'œuvre de Nonnos de Panopolis'', Clermont-Ferrand, Adosa, 1992 (''doctorat d'État'' thesis). Prix Saintour de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1994. *''L'Islam au péril des femmes. Une Anglaise en Turquie au XVIIIe siècle (lettres de Lady Montagu''), translation and presentation with Anne-Marie Moulin, Maspéro/La Découverte, 1981. *''Chronique des derniers païens. La disparition du paganisme dans l'Empire romain, du règne de Constantin à celui de Justinien'', éd. Les Belles Lettres, 1990 *''Mythologie grecque. Du premier homme à l'apothéose d'Héraclès'', éd. Fayard, 1992. Prix François Millepierres de l'Académie française, 1993. *''L'Asie centrale. L'indépendance, le pétrole et l'islam'', with

Pierre Gentelle Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' éditions / Marabout, 1998 *''Les Arts de l’Asie centrale'', éd. Citadelles-Mazenod, 1999 (editor) *''Samarcande Boukhara Khiva'', éd., Flammarion, 2001, with photographs by Gérard Degeorge. *''Turquie'', éd. Larousse, 2003 (collaboration) *''Des Géants à Dionysos. Mélanges de religion et poésie grecques en l'honneur du professeur Francis Vian'', 2003 *''Pitres et pantins. Transformations du masque comique : de l'Antiquité au théâtre d'ombres'', co-edited with Sophie Basch, PUPS, 2007. *''Histoire de l'Asie centrale contemporaine'', with René Létolle and Sébastien Peyrouse, Fayard, 2008. *''L'Orientalisme, les orientalistes et l'Empire ottoman, de la fin du XVIIe siècle à la fin du XXe siècle'', co-edited with Sophie Basch, Nora Sens, Michel Espagne and

Jean Leclant Jean Leclant (8 August 1920 – 16 September 2011) was a renowned Egyptologist who was an Honorary Professor at the College of France, Permanent Secretary of the Academy of Inscriptions and Letters of the Institut de France, and Honorary Se ...

, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres/De Boccard, 2011.

English editions

*''

A Chronicle of the Last Pagans ''A Chronicle of the Last Pagans'' is a 1990 popular history book on pagan retreat in the Roman Empire, written by historian Pierre Chuvin and published by Harvard University Press. Legacy The book inspired the 2020 lo-fi album ''Songs for ...

'', Harvard University Press, 1990. *''Samarkand, Bukara, Khiva'', Thames & Hudson, 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chuvin, Pierre 1943 births 2016 deaths French hellenists Scholars of Greek mythology and religion French orientalists 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians Blaise Pascal University faculty People from Allier