Séminaire Phusis and Phuta in Early Greece

Phusis and Phuta in Early Greece

Organisation :

Alessandro Buccheri (Labex HASTEC – Centre Jean Pépin), Arnaud Macé (Université de Franche-Comté, Logiques de l’Agir EA 2274) and Leon Wash (University of Chicago)

This projects aims at gathering and sharing ongoing research on plants and natural thought in early Greece, from Homer to the Vth century BC. It is based on a regular online seminar and yearly conferences.

Our main interests are:

  • Understanding the early representation of plants and vegetal processes in early greek thought and literature, with an emphasis on the linguistic analysis of the vegetal lexicon (e.g. φύω, θάλλω, ἀνθέω, βλαστάνω, ῥιζόω and their cognates and derivatives), throughout all sources of the period, whether poetic, philosophical or technical.
  • Examining the use of plants as analogical or metaphorical models for various areas of experience and thought (such as cosmogony and cosmology, politics and society, the body, kinship, ethics, etc.), thus assessing how much botanical and agricultural practices might have nourished the development of early greek thought.

Project page on the University of Chicago website

Schedule : every third monday 9 AM Chicago / 4 PM Besançon-Paris

Programme 2018-2019 [en cours]

October 15th

November 19th

Karin Mackowiak, Université de Franche-Comté

December 17th

Jenny Strauss Clay, University of Virginia

January 14th

February 18th

Claudia Zatta

March 18th

April 15th

May 20th