The Survival of the Pagan Gods - Jean Seznec

Title: The Survival of the Pagan Gods: The Mythological Tradition and Its Place in Renaissance Humanism and Art

Author: Jean Seznec

Translator: Barbara F. Sessions

Publisher: Harper & Row, Harper Torchbooks / The Bollingen Library

Format: Illustrated paperback

First published: 1940 in French; first English edition 1953

This edition: First Harper Torchbook edition, 1961

ISBN: No ISBN stated

Category: Myth, Folklore & Legend; Art, Image & Symbol; History, Politics & Society

Condition: Second-hand. Acceptable ex-library reading copy with substantial rubbing, creasing and edge wear to the covers and spine, library stamps and handwritten markings to the title page, tape and adhesive residue to the front endpapers, staining and old tape marks, and age-toning throughout. The binding remains intact and the illustrated text is complete from what can be seen. Please see photos for the exact copy available.

Jean Seznec’s influential study traces the survival and transformation of classical gods through the Middle Ages and into Renaissance art, literature and humanist thought. Rather than disappearing with the rise of Christianity, the figures of ancient mythology continued in altered forms, symbols and allegories before re-emerging in the work of artists and writers such as Botticelli, Raphael, Ronsard and Ben Jonson.

Illustrated throughout, this scholarly classic is particularly relevant to readers interested in mythology, paganism, iconography, Renaissance studies and the transmission of ancient ideas through Western art and culture.

About the Author: Jean Seznec was a French historian of art and literature whose work focused on the survival of classical traditions in European culture. He taught at Harvard University and later held the Marshal Foch Professorship of French Literature at the University of Oxford.