ALBERT CAMUS, PROMETEO, LA GRECIA, IL PENSIERO MERIDIANO. UMANESIMO O CLASSICISMO?

This contribution aims to retrace Greece – its myths and its thought – in Camus’ work. The first motive for Camus’ return to Greece can be found in the figure of Prometheus, the hero linked to the theme of progress and utopia, at the centre of modernity. Moving from his teacher’s – J. Grenier – rejection of Prometheus, Camus first discovers Sisyphus and then Helen, the triad underlying the Camusian myth of Mediterranean measure, and rebellion as measure. Greece and North Africa are idealized as the world of full Humanism, as the antidote to oppose the convulsions of the blind History plaguing Europe. Through the background of Camus’ coming to Greece, philosophical tensions and ideological divergences appear – the same ten- sions stirring the intellectual community in post-World War II Paris and crucially resulting in the end of the complicated friendship between Camus and Sartre.