Römischer, italienischer oder deutscher Humanismus? Zum Verhältnis zwischen Mythos und individuellem Leben bei Walter F. Otto und Ernesto Grassi in der Nachkriegszeit

This chapter focuses on the relationship between the classical philologist Walter Friedrich Otto (1874-1958) and the philosopher Ernesto Grassi (1902-1991) in the post-war period. Although after World War II Otto and Grassi were not as close as they used to be in the 1940s, they went on cooperating on a variety of topics until the late 1950s. Otto's views on humanism depend on his theory of Greek myth, whereas for Grassi myth is key to understanding the individuum as a living reality, which is counterposed to the illusory of technology. In his later writings, Grassi will abandon this view, and confine his interest for ancient myth to his studies on metaphor.