ISBN: 978-2-87457-108-4
14,50 €
REF. RANT16_AG

À la lumière des structures africaines. « ἴλη (îlè) et ἀγέλη (agélè), groupes ou classes d’âge dans les textes grecs d’Homère à Plutarque ? »

 = Paper = 


by Djibril AGNE, in Res Antiquae 16, 2019.

In this study, age structures in traditional African education are used in the illumination of the senses of ἀγέλη and ἴλη in Sparta.

To this end, the examination of the diachronic and semantic evolution of ἀγέλη and ἴλη in Greek literature from Homer to Plutarch on the one hand, and ethnological and anthropological research on age structures in traditional black Africa, on the other hand, are the sources of this article. This method highlights the organization of ages in both education systems and the terminology related to their structures.

It is on this basis that the meanings of ἀγέλη and ἴλη are identified in the light of the terms designating a “group” and an “age class” in Africa. As such, the Dogon educational system, among others in Africa, serves as a reference for the illumination of ἀγέλη and ἴλη with the words gaaru-gaaru and gigiri. Thus, by comparing the forms and contents of the “entities” that these terms refer to in the two educational spaces, their respective meanings can be clarified.


Keywords: Education, Age Group, Age Class, Ἀγέλη, Ἴλη, Parallelism, Sparta, Africa, Cyclical Regime, Linear Regime
-------------------------------------------------------------