Judeo-Hellenistic authors regularly denounce Greek myth as something shameful and incompatible with Judaism. However, this apparently univocal negative impression of Greek myth in Judeo-Hellenistic literature is not without its nuances. Firstly, ancient Jewish authors regularly used motifs drawn from Greek mythology. Secondly, the criticisms that Judeo-Hellenistic authors level at Greek myth are in fact part of a tradition of Greek philosophy of myth. Flavius Josephus, for example, explicitly refers to Plato's rejection of the poets, and the eviction of Homer "lest he obscure the correct conception of God with myths". Josephus thus uses Plato as proof of Jewish "orthodoxy". As for Jewish myth, it is almost never declared as such by Judeo-Hellenistic authors. Yet for an author like Philo, it was clear that Jewish myth was not simply a paradox in itself. The parallels between Jewish and Greek stories (about giants or the flood, for example) were all too obvious.
17:00 - 18:00
Guest lecturer
Jewish mythology, Greek mythology
René Bloch
17:00 - 18:00
