Contenu du sommaire : Comptes rendus

The invention of the myth of ages in Archaic Greece The two great successive myths in Hesiod's Works and Days - the myth of Prometheus and the myth of Ages - are usually seen as two old myths of the same nature. However, it is possible to show that the myth of Ages is actually a kind of critical reassessment of the myth of Prometheus, just as in the Bible, the first narrative of "Genesis" must be placed in relation to the second one, which is more archaic. Thanks to this comparative proceeding, the creative and critical nature of mythical thought will appear as a fairly general anthropological fact, long minimized by the structuralist approach.

Collective memory and temporalities in touch : Somare and Herodotus What is the influence of the contacts between two cultures on the form and content of the historical memory within the tradition of both communities ? Such is the question underlying an enquiry in dialogical and comparative anthropology focused on two particular cases : first, in the autobiographical narrative by the first native leader of Papua - New Guinea the mixing of the temporality of a tribal tradition with the chronology orientating the time in Western culture ; second, in the "Enquiry" of Herodotus, the confrontation between the heroic past of the Greeks and the historiographical time-notion of the Egyptians. Because of the narrative devices used in each case, both procedures of representing the time rely on « historiopoiesis ».

Kings Tarquinius of Rome and Indo-European Ideology : (I) Tarquinius the Elder and fire-god Vulcan According to Roman tradition, King Tarquinius the Elder defeated the Sabines by throwing burning wood into the river and, after the battle, made an offering to the fire-god Vulcan for this victory. This strange account seems to be an application of the « fire in water » theme of Indo-European ideology and to support G. Dumézil 's analysis of Vulcan as related to the Indo-European second function. This episode would take place as second function component in a sequence of three wars and three triumphs ascribed to this king.