Jean Terrasson [SEP] native language
Jean Terrasson
Jean Terrasson (31 January 1670 – 15 September 1750), often referred to as the Abbé Terrasson, was a French priest, author and member of the Académie française. The erudite Antoine Terrasson was his nephew.
Life.
Jean Terrasson, born in Lyon, was elected a member of the Académie française in 1707. His 1715 "Dissertation on Homer's Iliad" took the side of the 'moderns' in the quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. In 1721 he became Professor of Greek
and reworked in fiction and in esoteric belief systems in modern times, and they thus form an important part of the Western perception of ancient Egyptian religion. People reusing these motifs often assume that mystery rites were practiced in Egypt long before Hellenistic times.
An influential example is the 1731 novel "Life of Sethos" by Jean Terrasson. Terrasson claimed he had translated this book from an ancient Greek work of fiction that was based on real events. The book was actually his own invention, inspired by ancient Greek sources that assumed