Originally Posted by jadis

Of Foucault's academic mentors, all of whom were major figures in their own right, Dumezil is probably my favorite so far. Fascinating exposés of Roman religious ideology placed in the broader context of what he reconstructs as the Indo-European civilization. Difficult to follow at times because he could read over 30 languages and was very adventurous with etymology (not to mention various pantheons of deities and details of that sort) but worth it overall.