The Owl's Legacy: Logomachy, or the Dialect of the Tribe
Icarus Films • 26m
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“The adventures of language may be the most meaningful thing in world history.” -- Nikos Svoronos
The word “logos” stands at the start of Greek philosophy. A word that defies simple translation, it lies at the root of terms including logic, dialogue, and dialectic. The Greek word for literature is “logotechnia” -- the technique of logos.
LOGOMACHY explores logos in its many forms, from Socratic dialogue and its implications when it comes to both education and power, to the five different forms the Greek language, to language as a battle in search for truth. The episode includes a discussion of Plato's Cratylus dialogue on the relationship between words and objects, and points to the next installment in the series, on a space beyond language: the realm of music.
Up Next in Icarus Films
-
The Owl's Legacy: Mathematics, or the...
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“Historians say Utopia doesn’t exist. It does! It’s the geometric space where everything is proven.” --Michel Serres
There is a narrative about ancient Greece and math: That the Greeks invented mathematics as we know it, that men such a...
-
The Owl's Legacy: Misogyny, or the Sn...
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“Greek love, Greek eroticism, is a paradigm for us. But it’s something about which we are very hypocritical.” --John Winkler
Classicist Giulia Sissa takes center stage in this episode, which explores desire in ancient Greece (primarily ...
-
The Owl's Legacy: Music, or Inner Space
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“The word was music before all else” -- Angelique Ionatos
What defines music? Soldiers marching in tandem create rhythms; Orthodox priests don’t simply speak when performing the liturgy, they chant and sometimes sing; the hammer banging...