Le Monde comme le voyaient les Grecs
by Danielle Jouanna
Comment les Grecs concevaient-ils le monde ? L’ouvrage de Danielle Jouanna montre combien les reponses ont differe de la periode archaique a la periode hellenistique, et suivant que l’on se place du point de vue des savants ou des gens du commun.
How did Ancient Greeks conceive of the Earth, and the world in general? We can postulate fairly confidently that from Homer’s time to the dawn of our own, the most widespread representation was that of a pancake capped by a celestial hemisphere, and probably with a symmetrical hemisphere beneath it. Was there anything above this ideal sphere? Few pondered that question. As for the Earth itself, people more or less knew that it consisted of three continents, but preferred to conceive of it – for political as well as satisfyingly logical reasons – as harmoniously shared by only two continents: Europe and Asia. Was this image supported by scholars? Although Aristotle wrote in the 4th century BC that “the earth must necessarily be spherical,” and the idea that one might reach India by navigating westward from Gibraltar did not seem incredible to him, “philosophers” did not all agree with this view. Some Greek and Roman geographers born after Aristotle believed, for example, that only a small space of the northern hemisphere was inhabitable, which is why they drew odd world maps. The analysis provided in this book allows readers to explore two parallel Greek representations of the world: that of scholars, rather easy to trace through their writings (attested to from the early 4th century BC, and prolific during the Hellenistic age), and that of the people – less studied, but which can nonetheless be clearly read between the lines in literary, and sometimes in figurative, works.
- By (author) Danielle Jouanna
"Embrasser l'ensemble des evolutions [de la conception du monde par les Grecs] demande talent, connaissances, clarte d'exposition. L'auteur n'en manque pas.Depuis le milieu du XXe siecle, plusieurs ouvrages ou articles savants se sont interesses a la geographie des anciens, mais aucun de ces ouvrages ne s'est reellement interesse a la vision du monde que pouvait avoir un homme du peuple de cette epoque : l'essai de Danielle Jouanna trouve toute sa place et sa justification.Les Grecs ont eu conscience tres tot d'appartenir a un continent distinct de l'Asie et qui se confondait pour eux avec ce qu'ils appelaient l'Europe. Cette affirmation de Danielle Jouanna, dans un livre d'une extreme erudition, n'est pas sans importance a l'heure ou la question de l'identite des civilisations fait rage.Les representations de la Terre et de l'univers dans le monde grec antique ont bien entendu beaucoup evolue entre le temps d'Homere et l'age classique. Mais il est surtout interessant, et c'est l'originalite de cette etude de Danielle Jouanna, de confronter la vision des savants a celle du peuple, plus naive et perceptible a travers les temoignages litteraires."
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