The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece

By Marcel Detienne

Book Overview

The Masters of Truth in Archaic Greece traces the odyssey of "truth," Aletheia, from mythoreligious to philosophical thought in archaic Greece. Marcel Detienne's starting point is a simple observation: In archaic Greece, three figures -- the diviner, the bard, and the king -- all share the privilege of dispensing truth by virtue of the religious power of divine memory, which provides them with knowledge, both oracular and inspired, of the present, past, and future. Beginning with this definition of the prerational meaning of truth, Detienne proceeds to elaborate the complex conceptual and historical contexts from which emerges the philosophical notion of truth still influencing Western philosophy today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0942299868
• ISBN13: 9780942299861
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Zone Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Poetry, Philosophy, and Rhetoric--from myth to reason

As a person with interests in rhetoric and philosophy, I found this book intriguing. It examines a shift from myth to reason in Ancient philosophy and explains how the idea of truth changes from a divinely inspired, poetically- informed truth to a truth based in rational thought and reason. For anyone interested in the role of language in ancient thought, this book offers a multitude of references and insights to poetry, oratory, rhetoric, and the power of speech and voice. Aletheia plays a significant role throughout the book and is identified as an important element in the transition from myth to reason or from religious thought to philosophical thought. In tracing these transitions, Detienne covers concepts such as: the ambiguity of speech; a process of secularization as described in distinctions between mythico-religious speech and diologue speech, and; the distinctions between Aletheia and Apate. Packed with a rich selection of resources and classical references, this book offers an intricate tour of classical definitions of truth and toward the end of the text identifies Simonides, Plato, and Parmenides as significant factors in the shift that occurs from myth to reason.