Abstract

Gernet was a classical scholar who worked closely with Durkheim, Granet, and other members of the Ann~e sociologique school. Study of his treatment of Greek myth, religion, and social institutions shows him to have been a pioneer in the structuralist approach to semantics and the study of myth as a form of language. In his work on law, he applied Durkheim's idea of the creative power generated by mass religious assemblies to the mass juries and political assemblies of ancient Greece. Reacting to social crisis by the establishment of organized justice, Greek society developed consciousness of its structure and powers, and the capacity for abstract reasoning about institutions and policy