''Plato the Myth Maker'' (french: Platon, les mots et les mythes, lit, Plato, the words and the myths) is a book by the Canadian historian and anthropologist

Luc Brisson Luc Brisson (born 10 March 1946 in Saint-Esprit, Quebec) is a Canadian (and from 1986 also French) historian of philosophy and anthropologist of antiquity. He is emeritus director of research at the CNRS in France, and is considered by some of ...

, published in 1982. An English translation was published in 1998.

Background

What would become ''Plato the Myth Maker'' began as a collaboration between

and

Marcel Detienne Marcel Detienne (October 11, 1935 in Liège, Belgium – March 21, 2019 in Nemours, France) was a Belgian historian and specialist in the study of ancient Greece. He was a professor at Johns Hopkins University, where he held the Basil L. Gildersl ...

. Eventually it became clear that their respective views of

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

differed too much, and they wrote separate books.

Summary

The story of

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...

is the starting point for a

lexicographical Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...

study of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

's conception of ''muthos'', or myth. Plato was the first to use this word to refer to a fictional story. The second half of the book concerns ''

logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, wikt:λόγος, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive ...

'', which Plato used in contrast with ''muthos'' and regarded as the superior of the two.

Reception

Pierre Ellinger wrote in '' L'Homme'' that ''Plato the Myth Maker'' benefits greatly from its methodology which draws from

communication theory Communication theory is a proposed description of communication phenomena, the relationships among them, a storyline describing these relationships, and an argument for these three elements. Communication theory provides a way of talking about a ...

. Ellinger wrote that the book is valuable both because it traces the history of the concept of myth, and because it manages to outline the role of the myth in ancient Greece. In ''

The Review of Politics ''The Review of Politics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the fields of politics, philosophy, and history. It was founded in 1939 and is published by Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the universit ...

'', Edward Andrew called it "a remarkably fine book, always thought-provoking even when it remains captive to the mythology of scientific scholarship".

References

Notes

Sources