Jean-Pierre Vernant

Grèce ancienne et étude comparée des religions / Ancient Greece and the Comparative Study of Religions

Until quite recently the major polytheistic religious systems have been approached from essentially two different angles: as relics of primitive mentality or as the prefiguration of type of monotheism similar to Judaeo-Christianism. The study of these religions per se has been limited to philological and historical analysis. The changes in the field of religious studies during the last thirty years have affected the sociology anthro pology and history of religions and make it possible to state new terms the problems of the comparative method as applied to the ancient religions. This article treats the Greek example and in the three areas of the ritual (sacrifice), myths, and figurative system of symbols attempts to define the contents of cooperative research programme which specialists could undertake with the purpose of establishing for the written civilizations of the past, a differential typology of religious systems.