Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
By Dominique Venner
Part 1
http://www.counter-currents.com/2010/09/homer-the-european-bible-part-1/
Notes
[1] Franois Jullien, interview with Thierry Marchaisse, Penser dun dehors (la Chine).
Entretiens dExtrme-Occident, November 2000, p. 47. Philosopher and sinologist Franois
Julien is professor at the University of Paris-7. He is member of the Academic Institute of France
and director of the Institute of Contemporary Thought. In order to discover the authentic nature
of European thought, he compared it with something completely different, that of China, which
had developed in an autonomous way, without any connection with the Indo-European
languages.
[2] Jacqueline de Romilly, Homre (Que Sais-je?) (Paris: PUF, 1985).
[3] The BNF exposition Homre. Sur les traces dUlysse [Homer: On the Trail of Ulysses] was
accompanied by an excellent catalog published by Seuil, realized by its three organizers, Olivier
Estiez, Mathilde Jamain, and Patrick Morantin.
[4] No French translation is really satisfactory. To soak up the Iliad, one should refer to the
translation of Paul Mazon (Gallimard, Folio Traditional), to which the Foreword of P.
Vidal-Naquet adds nothing. For the Odyssey, one should especially refer to the poetic translation
of Philippe Jaccottet (La Dcouverte, 1982, Poche 2004). The Bouquin collection, Homre.
LIliade et lOdysse [Homer: the Iliad and the Odyssey], translated by Louis Bardollet, includes
a useful critical apparatus. One can also profit from the essay by Jacqueline de Romilly, Hector
(Editions de Fallois, Livre de Poche, 1997). One should also consult Marcel Conche, Essais sur
Homre (PUF, 1999). Finally, see Dominique Venner, Histoire et tradition des Europens
[History and Traditions of Europe] (Le Rocher, 2004), chs. 46.
[5] The neologism Borean has a broader sense than Indo-European, which is a linguistic
category. It refers to the Greek myth of Hyperborean origins.
The founding poems also conceal the first expression of historical thought. At the beginning of
The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides refers to the Iliad to paint in broad strokes the ancient
history of the Greeks, thus recognizing that Homer laid the foundations. But this merit was
seldom recognized by others. Inspired by the gods and poetry, which are all the same, Homer
bequeathed to us the hidden source of our tradition, the Greek expression of all the whole
Indo-European heritage, Celtic, Slavic, or Scandinavian, with a clarity and formal perfection
without equivalent. This is why Georges Dumzil read the whole Iliad every year.
Part 2
http://www.counter-currents.com/2010/09/homer-the-european-bible-part-2/
Part 3
http://www.counter-currents.com/2010/09/homer-the-european-bible-part-3/
Note
[1] One thinks of the famous interpretations of the tidal waves that destroyed Lisbon in 1755,
inspired by what the Bible says of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed, it is said, because of the
immorality of their inhabitants . . .