Mythos’ and ‘Logos’ as forms of figurative discourse. A critical reading of Claude Calame’s semiotic approach.

In this article, we develop a critical reading of the dissolution of the polarity between myth and logos proposed by the Swiss scholar Claude Calame. Firstly, we examine his general approach addressing two main problems: Are myth and logos
opposites? and Is there a progress from myth to reason? In the second place, we carry out a critical reading of Calame’s proposal by studying Platos use of myth In the main we contend that Calame’s approach, bound to semiotics and contexts of enunciation, has greatly enhanced our sensibility towards the indigenous uses (and confusions) of these concepts in classical Greece, but that it has also reduced our understanding of the rational categories and the intellectual achievements of the Greeks.