French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Calame, Theseus and the Athenian Imaginary: Legend and Cult in Ancient Greece
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Theseus and the Athenian Imaginary
Legend and Cult in Ancient Greece
Claude CALAME
La Découverte, March 2018
ISBN : 9782707195272
Number of pages: 516
Myth and ritual are two core subjects of cultural and social anthropology, two concepts whose origins are often presumed to lie with the Ancients. While this is not actually the case, the Greeks proved to be true masters in creating and manipulating, on the one hand, the heroic narratives that we moderns identify as myths, and on the other, the cultic practices we call rituals. Yet in a polytheistic framework, what truly matters are the practical relationships between these products of a single symbolic process, driven by great poets and powerful city-states, whose manifestations—in both their historical and political dimensions—constitute a rich field of inquiry.
As early as the late 6th century BCE, at the dawn of what is presumed to be the age of democracy and reason, did not the Athenians appropriate the figure of the young Theseus to make him, disguised as a neo-initiate, the model of the future citizen? Accompanied by other "labors," the famous episode of the young hero's combat with the Minotaur was henceforth recentered on Athens. Presented as primordial, civilizing deeds, the young hero's actions not only allow for a reformulation of the meaning of the rituals offered to the city's tutelary deities, but they also legitimize a policy of economic and maritime expansion driven by a desire for cultural dominance. Thus, a new space takes shape—one rooted in historical reality yet shaped by the imaginary, marked by foundational heroic deeds and inhabited by ritual gestures that maintain relations with the gods.
Drawing on texts and images, the saga of Theseus offers us an exceptional terrain for both semio-narrative and anthropological inquiry, exploring a flourishing production of symbols aimed at practical ends.
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Formerly a professor of Greek language and literature at the University of Lausanne, Claude Calame is a director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His publications include Theseus and the Athenian Imaginary (Payot, 1996, 2nd ed.), Mythe et histoire dans l’Antiquité grecque (Payot, 1996), Poétique des mythes dans la Grèce antique (Hachette, 2000), L’Éros dans la Grèce antique (Belin, 2002, 2nd ed.), and Masques d’autorité (Les Belles Lettres, 2005).
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An article on this work can be read on nonfiction.fr:
In the study of ancient Greece, myth and ritual are frequently examined as foundational concepts within cultural and social anthropology. Ancient Greek culture developed complex ways of producing heroic narratives and cultic practices through the work of poets and city-states, operating within a polytheistic framework. Scholars of classical antiquity often investigate how these symbolic expressions functioned in historical and political contexts, reflecting the values, institutions, and collective identity of the polis during the late sixth century BCE and beyond.
Claude Calame examines how the Athenians appropriated the figure of Theseus to serve as a model for the future citizen, connecting the hero's labors and the combat with the Minotaur to rituals offered to tutelary deities and to policies of expansion. Drawing on texts and images, the study investigates the interactions between heroic myth and ritual gesture. Readers interested in classical Greek mythology, anthropology, and the historical dimensions of ancient political culture may find this work relevant.