Back to Results
Cover image of The Black Hunter
Cover image of The Black Hunter
Share this Title:

The Black Hunter

Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World

Pierre Vidal-Naquet
translated by Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, with a foreword by Bernard Knox

Publication Date
Binding Type

"No one can fail to admire the brilliance of the connections Vidal-Naquet suggests... Audacity has been characteristic of Vidal-Naquet's career from the start; it marked his activities as a historian engagé in the political struggle; it is visible at work in every page of this book."—Bernard Knox, from the Foreword

The black hunter travels through the mountains and forests of Greek mythology, living on the frontier of the city-state, of adulthood, of class, of ethics, of sexuality. Taking its title from this figure, The Black Hunter approaches the Greek world from its margins and charts the...

"No one can fail to admire the brilliance of the connections Vidal-Naquet suggests... Audacity has been characteristic of Vidal-Naquet's career from the start; it marked his activities as a historian engagé in the political struggle; it is visible at work in every page of this book."—Bernard Knox, from the Foreword

The black hunter travels through the mountains and forests of Greek mythology, living on the frontier of the city-state, of adulthood, of class, of ethics, of sexuality. Taking its title from this figure, The Black Hunter approaches the Greek world from its margins and charts the elaborate system of oppositions that pervaded Greek culture and society: cultivated and wild, citizen and foreigner, real and imaginary, god and man. Organizing his discussions around four principle themes—space and time; youth and warriors; women, slaves, and artisans; and the city of vision and of reality—Pierre Vidal-Naquet focuses on the congruence of the textual and the actual, on the patterns that link literary, philosophical, and historical works with such social activities as war, slavery, education, and commemoration. The Black Hunter probes the interplay of world view, language, and social practice "to bring into dialogue that which does not naturally communicate according to the usual criteria of historical judgement."

Reviews

Reviews

Excellent... Vidal-Naquet's book is a gem. It will stimulate further thoughts, discussions and writings on the Greek politeia and politikon. It should be read by all those who are involved in classical and comparative studies. It puts into circulation a structuralist reading which is provocative and simultaneously rings true.

A brilliant demonstration of structural analysis and its usefulness in illuminating well-known texts and providing fresh insights... What strikes the reader of this book is its daring, innovative interpretations. This is not a book that merely collects new information or synthesizes old views. It bursts into the heart of important themes and floods them with bright light.

One of the liveliest intellects in the field... There is a wealth of learning in this book; specialists... will wish to consult individual articles while the general reader will not only learn but enjoy its contents and tenor.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
392
ISBN
9780801859519
Illustration Description
2 b&w photos
Table of Contents

Forword, by Bernad Knox
Preface
By Way of Introduction: A Civilization of Political Discourse
Part I. Space and Time
Chapter 1. Land and Sacrifice in the Odyssey: A Study of Religious and Mythical

Forword, by Bernad Knox
Preface
By Way of Introduction: A Civilization of Political Discourse
Part I. Space and Time
Chapter 1. Land and Sacrifice in the Odyssey: A Study of Religious and Mythical Meanings
Chapter 2. Divine Time and Human Time
Chapter 3. Epaminondas the Pythagorean, or the Tactical Problem of Right and Left
Part II. The Young, the Warriors
Chapter 4. The Tradition of the Athenian Hoplite
Chapter 5. The Black Hunter and the Origin of the Athenian Ephebia
Chapter 6. Recipes for Greek Adolescence
Part III. Women, Slaves, and Artisans
Chapter 7. Were Greek Slaves a Class?
Chapter 8. Reflections on gReek Historical Writing about Slavery
Chapter 9. The Immortal Slave-Women of Athena Ilias
Chapter 10. Slavery and the Rule of Women in Tradition, Myth, and Utopia
Chapter 11. A Study in Ambiguity: Artisans in the Platonic City
Part IV. The City, Vision, and Reality
Chapter 12. Greek Rationality and the City
Chapter 13. Athens and Atlantis: Structure and Meaning of a Platonic Myth
Chapter 14. Plato's Myth of the Statesman, the Ambiguities of the Golden Age and of History
Chapter 15. An Enigma at Delphi
Bibliography
Index

Author Bios
Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Featured Contributor

Pierre Vidal-Naquet

Pierre Vidal-Naquet is director of the Centre de Recherches comparées sur les Sociétés Anciennes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Among his many publications are Clisthène l' Athénien, with Pierre Lévêque, and Mythe et Tragédie, with Jean-Pierre Vernant.
Featured Contributor

Andrew Szegedy-Maszak

Andrew Szegedy-Maszak is professor of classics at Wesleyan University and the author of The "Nomoi" of Theophrastus.