Jean Bousquet (9 May 1912,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

– 1 April 1996, aged 83) was a 20th-century 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 ...

Biography

In 1931, Jean Bousquet was received "cacique" (first) at the admission competition of the

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, in the same class than his future friend

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( , ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously was Prime Minister of France of President Charles de Gaulle from 1962 to 196 ...

. Also received in first position at the

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 ...

in humanities, Jean Bousquet was admitted in 1936 to the

French School at Athens The French School at Athens (french: École française d’Athènes, EfA; el, Γαλλική Σχολή Αθηνών ''Gallikí Scholí Athinón'') is one of the seventeen foreign archaeological institutes operating in Athens, Greece. History ...

. First a professor in a Bordeaux high school in 1942, he then served from 1946 at the Chair of ancient Greek in the

University of Rennes The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, before ...

. An

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

epigrapher Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

, Jean Bousquet was one of the leading specialists of the Hellenic sanctuary of

Delphi Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle ...

where he led several excavation missions, and of the site on the island of

Delos The island of Delos (; el, Δήλος ; Attic: , Doric: ), near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. The excavations in the island are ...

. In this capacity, he undertook the publication of accounts of the Delphic

Amphictyonic League In Archaic Greece, an amphictyony ( grc-gre, ἀμφικτυονία, a "league of neighbors"), or amphictyonic league, was an ancient religious association of tribes formed before the rise of the Greek ''poleis''. The six Dorian cities of coasta ...

, a set of papers which allowed to assess the balance of power in the classical Greek world. In 1971, he was appointed Director of the

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

by Georges Pompidou in replacement of another Greek scholar, Robert Flacelière. His discretion and efficacity served him in coping with student unrest following May '68 and a distressing incident involving the death in 1980 of the wife of the renowned Marxist thinker,

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser ...

. Jean Bousquet was a regular member of the congregation at the Ecole Normale's parish church, Saint Etienne du Mont. Jean Bousquet was renowned for his witty puns (canulars) regularly posted on his official noticeboard. In 1981, at the end of his term in office, he returned to teaching and was elected a Greek language and civilization professor at the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; french: Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris IV) was a public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Universit ...

, a position he held until his retirement.

Works

*1946: ''Le sanctuaire de Delphes et les fouilles françaises'' *1952: ''Fouilles de Delphes : le trésor de Cyrène à Delphes'' *1972: ''L'Art grec'' (with ), series. "L'art et les grandes civilisations" *1977: ''Armée romaine et provinces'' *1988: ''Études sur les comptes de Delphes'' *1989: ''Corpus des inscriptions de Delphes. Volume II, Les comptes du quatrième et du troisième siècle''.

Sources

* Nicolas Weill, ''Jean Bousquet, helléniste et ancien directeur de la Rue-d'Ulm'', ''

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 ...

'', 5 April 1996

External links

''Le cippe des Labyades'', article by Jean BOusquet
on Persée

on Cairn {{DEFAULTSORT:Bousquet, Jean French archaeologists French hellenists French epigraphers French philologists École Normale Supérieure alumni University of Rennes faculty Rennes 2 University faculty 1912 births Writers from Bordeaux 1996 deaths 20th-century archaeologists 20th-century philologists

Biography

Works

See also

Sources

External links