Claude Calame
Encyclopedia
Claude Calame is a Swiss writer on Greek mythology
and the structure
of mythic narrative from the perspective of a Hellenist
trained in semiotics
and ethnology
as well as philology
. He is a professor of Greek language
and literature at the University of Lausanne
and Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
, in Paris.
Among his works, several have been translated into English.
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
and the structure
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
of mythic narrative from the perspective of a Hellenist
Hellenism (Academia)
Academics who study ancient or modern Greece may be referred to as Hellenists, and thus the study of Greece may be referred to as Hellenism. This should not be confused with the use of Hellenism to mean the spread of Greek culture, nor to describe the neoclassic Hellenism movement....
trained in semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
and ethnology
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
as well as philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
. He is a professor of Greek language
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and literature at the University of Lausanne
University of Lausanne
The University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. Today about 12,000 students and 2200 researchers study and work at the university...
and Director of Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
The École des hautes études en sciences sociales is a leading French institution for research and higher education, a Grand Établissement. Its mission is research and research training in the social sciences, including the relationship these latter maintain with the natural and life sciences...
, in Paris.
Among his works, several have been translated into English.
- Les Chœurs de jeunes filles en Grèce archaïque, 2 vols. (Rome:L'Ateneo and Bizzarri), 1977. Tr. as Choruses of Ancient Women in Greece: their morphology, religious roles and social functions (Lanham, MD:Rowman and Littlefield), 1996. In Spartan feminine liturgies Calame detected initiative scenariosInitiationInitiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...
in rites of passage interpreted as survivals of archaic "tribal' initiations. - The Craft of Poetic Speech in Ancient Greece (Cornell), 1995.
- I greci e l'eros (Rome), 1992; tr. as L'Éros dans la Grèce antique, (Paris:Belin), 1996 and The Poetics of Eros in Ancient Greece (Princeton), 1999.
- Thésée et l'imaginaire athénien, (Lausanne:Payot "Sciences humaines"),1991, 2nd ed. 1996, examines the emergence of a complex new interpretation of archaic traditional materials in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE: "his analysis brings to light how ritual and institutional elaboration accompany the emergence of a national heroic mythology" observed Philippe Borgeaud in an extended review of the revised edition .
- Mythe et histoire dans l'antiquité grecque: la création symbolique d'une colonie (Lausanne:Payot), 1996. Tr. as Myth and history in ancient Greece: the symbolic creation of a colony, 2003
- Poétique des mythes en Grèce antique, (Paris:Hachette), 2000 Tr. as Greek Mythology : Poetics, Pragmatics and Fiction, 2009
- Philippe Borgeaud, Claude Calame and André Hurst, "L’Orphisme et ses écritures. Nouvelles recherches", Revue de l'histoire des religions 4/2002
- Masks of Authority: Fiction and Pragmatics in Ancient Greek Poetics, (Cornell, "Myth and Poetics Series"), 2005, collects articles first published between 1986 and 1997.