Greek oracles

by Robert Flacelière and ROBERT. FLACELIERE

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Unknown Binding
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0007DZ5T6
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: W.W. Norton
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent presentation.

I totally agree with the excellent review by 'Platonism'.This booklet is a short but thorough analysis of one of the central nerves of the Ancient World: oracles.Robert Flacelière also wrote another book on the Greek 'L'amour dans la Grèce antique', wherein he clearly explains that homosexuality in Greece had cultural roots : the buttocks were for them the most sexually attractive part of the human body.For people interested in the oracle topic, I can also highly recommend a book by Philipp Vandenberg 'Mystery of the Oracles'.

Ancient Greeks, reason and religion

Ancient Greeks invented philosophy as we know it and repeatedly insisted on the primacy of reason; at the same time, religious, mostly irrational beliefs were widely spread in the Greek world -- how did the Greeks react to these? This is the main question Robert Flaceliere tries to answer in this small book, and does so admirably. The first two sections distinguish inductive divination (based on empirical signs which are to be interpreted) and deductive or `inspired' divination. This early part of the book can be considered as a catalogue of beliefs concerning the religious significance of birds, thunder, immolated victims, involuntary physical movements and the like. The last two chapters are especially intriguing: Flaceliere emphasizes the link between politics and inspired religion in ancient Greece, showing how one tended to corrupt the other and thus helped to induce distrust in the minds of many Greeks; the relationship between Greek philosophy and divination is then approached, as the reflexions of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and the Epicureans about religion are briefly alluded to. In the last few pages, Flaceliere writes about Plutarch, a figure he knows extremely well, and underlines the evolution of his theories about divination in the three works Plutarch wrote about oracles (works translated in French by Flaceliere himself for `Les Belles Lettres', with very interesting commentary and notes) -- these works should be next on the `to read' list of those who just got through this short but excellent book.