Plato the myth maker
By: Luc Brisson ; translated, edited, and with an introduction by Gerard Naddaf.
Contributors: Naddaf, Gerard, 1950-
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Chicago, Ill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
Subjects: Plato.; Myth.
Description: We think of myth as a fictional story, and Plato was the first to use the term muthos in that sense. But Plato also used muthos to describe the practice of making and telling stories, the oral transmission of all that a community keeps in its collective memory. In the first part of Plato the Myth Maker, Luc Brisson reconstructs Plato's multifaceted and not uncritical description of muthos in light of the latter's famous Atlantis story.

The second part of the book contrasts this sense of myth, as Plato does, with another form of speech that he believed was far superior: the logos of philosophy. Appearing for the first time in English, Plato the Myth Maker is a solid and important contribution to the history of myth, based on the privileged testimony of one of its most influential critics and supporters.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-168) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Translator's Introduction; title: A Note on the Translation; title: List of Abbreviations; title: Preface to the Second Edition; title: Preface to the First Edition; title: Introduction; title: PART I: PLATO'S TESTIMONY: The Communication of the Memorable; title: 1. Information; title: 2. Means of Transmission; title: 3. Fabrication; title: 4. Narration; title: 5. Reception; title: 6. Imitation; title: 7. Persuasion; title: PART II: PLATO'S CRITIQUE: The Discourse of and for the Other; title: 8. Myth as Discourse; title: 9. The Opposition between Myth and Falsifiable Discourse; title: 10. The Opposition between Myth and Argumentative Discourse; title: 11. The Utility of Myth; title: 12. The Repudiation of Allegorical Interpretation; title: 13. Plato's Derivative Use of the Term "Muthos"; title: Conclusion; title: Appendixes; title: Bibliography; title: Index of Passages Cited or Mentioned; title: Index of Greek Terms; title: General Index