Prendre les dieux grecs au sérieux : Marcel Detienne au miroir de Walter Otto

W.F. Otto’s work, published in Bonn in 1929 and entitled Die Götter Griechenlands. Das Bild des Göttlichen im Spiegel griechischen Geistes, was published in French in 1981 with a preface by M. Detienne, entitled “Au commencement était le corps des dieux”. This article focuses on the paradoxical intellectual relationship between these two authors and their respective thoughts on Greek polytheism. The mirror interplay between two men and two works, characterized by proximity and distance, allows us to question the historiography of the Greek gods in the 20th century.