Les Recherches de Greimas sur la mythologie lithuanienne

ENLithuanians know at least two facets of Greimas: Greimas the semiotician, founder of the Paris school of semiotics, and Greimas the mythologist, researcher of the ancient Lithuanian religions. In fact, these two facets of his research are inseparable. Greimas’ studies of the Lithuanian mythology are published in two volumes: Apie dievus ir žmones (Of Gods and Men, 1979) and Tautos atminties beieškant (In Search of National Memory, 1990). The first volume aims at reconstructing the old customs and rites of a closed and archaic peasant community. This approach was used by Claude Levi-Strauss when he described the so-called primitive communities. Some of the studies in the second volume and some of the analyses of myths reveal the Lithuanian community’s religion prior to the arrival of Christianity. Georges Dumézil employed a similar approach in his studies of Indo-European communities. Although Lithuanian scholars consider Greimas an unquestionable authority, they do not always take into account the semiotic basis of his methodology. Outside Lithuania, Greimas’ studies of mythology have not yet received the recognition they deserve. [From the publication]