Can plants be men? Vegetal phusis and autochtony in archaic and classical Greece

Abstract

International audience ; 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. Schedule : every third monday 9 AM Chicago / 4 PM Besançon-Paris