Abstract
The historiographical journey begun last week continues with Christian Meier's work on The Birth of Politics (1995, or. all. 1980) and his reflection on " the emergence of an autonomous intelligence among the Greeks ". One question emerges from this work: what becomes of the problematic of politics and law - and therefore of the norm and authority - if we take the point of view of Greek polytheism as it comes to be known and the representations of the world that characterize it, rather than the fairly standardized vision of the irrationality of all religion that reason and science would be led to overcome ? François de Polignac's thesis on La Naissance de la cité grecque (1995² [1984]) opened the way in this direction. He placed religion back at the heart of reflection on the archaic city through the analysis of sacralized spaces and rituals documented by archaeology, focusing attention more on social practices and representations than on representations of the world. This year's lectures will therefore focus on the divine recipients of these rituals and the representations underlying the relationships established with them, through an analysis of the Greek lexicon of sacrality and norm. The theoretical and methodological background to this approach is evoked, with the work of Jean Rudhardt on the Greek side and, on the broader Begriffsgeschichte level, that of Reinhardt Kosseleck.
