Johan Tralau
Professor at Department of Government; Faculty
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 37 57
- Mobile phone:
- +46 73 622 44 02
- E-mail:
- Johan.Tralau@statsvet.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Östra Ågatan 19
753 22 Uppsala - Postal address:
- Box 514
751 20 UPPSALA - Available:
- Skytteanum, Valvg. 4
Download contact information for Johan Tralau at Department of Government; Faculty
- CV:
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Biography
Johan Tralau, born 1972, is Professor of Government. His current research interests include the origins of political philosophy in ancient Greece (Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides); the problem of what an interpretation actually interprets; saffron in Greek myth poetry; and developing a normative theory of courtesy. In 2013, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Johan Lundblad Prize in classical philology and ancient history. A very long time ago, he and his team, the Stockholm Mean Machines, became Swedish champions in American football. In 2024 his most recent book was published, Myten om tidens början (Lund: Ellerströms). It is about the beginning of time in Hesiod, Greek and Hittite myth, as well as the origin of justice. In 2021, he was a conférencier invité at the Collège de France, and in 2022 at the Centro Antropologia del Mondo Antico, Università di Siena.

Publications
Selection of publications
Part of Classical Philology, p. 259-281, 2022
Fluid Cypress and Hybrid bodies as a Cognitively Disturbing Metaphor in Euripides’ Cretans
Part of Classical Literature and Post-Humanism, p. 193-201, Bloomsbury Academic, 2019
Approaching Beginnings: The Origins of Politics and Political Thought in Ancient Greece
Part of Eranos, p. 1-12, 2018
Part of Antike und Abendland, p. 27-51, 2018
Part of Eranos, p. 37-54, 2018
Havets väldiga ryggar: Offret och de flytande bildernas gåta
Ellerströms förlag, 2018
Hesiod, Ouranos, Kronos, and the Emasculation at the Beginning of Time
Part of The Classical world, p. 459-484, 2018
Part of Classical Philology, p. 435-455, 2017
- DOI for Cannibalism, Vegetarianism and the Community of Sacrifice: Rediscovering Euripides’ Cretans and the Beginnings of Political Philosophy
- Download full text (pdf) of Cannibalism, Vegetarianism and the Community of Sacrifice: Rediscovering Euripides’ Cretans and the Beginnings of Political Philosophy
Part of Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft, p. 121-139, 2016
Part of Arion, p. 41-67, 2016
Part of Las Torres de Lucca. Revista Internacional de Filosofia Política, p. 61-89, 2016
Monstret i mig: Myter om gränser och vilddjur
Bokförlaget Atlantis, 2015
Deception, Politics and Aesthetics: The Importance of Hobbes’s Concept of Metaphor
Part of Contemporary Political Theory, p. 112-129, 2014
Hobbes’s Hidden Monster: A New Interpretation of the Frontispiece of Leviathan
Part of European Journal of Political Theory, p. 299-320, 2014
Introduksjon til politisk teori
Gyldendal Akademisk, 2013
El Leviatán de Hobbes: La destrucción del Estado, Cristo y el vientre del cocodrilo
Part of Foro Interno, p. 119-138, 2013
Incest and Liberal Neutrality*
Part of The Journal of Political Philosophy, p. 87-105, 2013
L’icona del terrore e dell’ambiguità: Il legame mancante tra Hobbes ed il suo Leviatano
Part of Lo Sguardo – Rivista di Filosofia, p. 183-196, 2013
Part of Vän eller fiende?, p. 79-98, Daidalos, 2012
Studentlitteratur, 2012
Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt: The politics of order and myth
Routledge, 2011
Hobbes Contra Liberty of Conscience
Part of Political theory, p. 58-84, 2011
Draksådd: den grekiska tragedin som politiskt tänkande
Bokförlaget Atlantis, 2010
Order, the ocean, and Satan: Schmitt's Hobbes and the enigmatic ambiguity of friend and foe
Part of Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, p. 435-452, 2010
Part of Philosophisches Jahrbuch, p. 251-261, 2010
Part of Svensk teologisk kvartalskrift, p. 29-40, 2010
Den autonoma individen i Hegels rättsfilosofi
Part of Statsvetare ifrågasätter, p. 59-68, Acta universitatis upsaliensis, 2008
Familjehemligheter i den liberala staten
Part of Hållbara värden?, p. 81-98, Makadam, 2008
The revolt of images: Mutual guilt in the parodos of Sophokles' 'Antigone'
Part of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, p. 237-257, 2008
Leviathan, the Beast of Myth: Medusa, Dionysos, and the Riddle of Hobbes's Sovereign Monster
Part of The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes's Leviathan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007
Leviathan, the Beast of Myth: Medusa, Dionysos, and the Riddle of Hobbes’s Sovereign Monster
Part of Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’s Leviathan, p. 61-81, Cambridge University Press, 2007
Nihilismus als Geheimlehre: Ernst Jünger, Nietzsche und die ästhetische Flucht nach vorn im Arbeiter
Part of Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allegemeine Kunstwissenschaft, p. 277-294, 2007
Tragedy as Political Theory: The Self-Destruction of Antigone's Laws
Part of History of Political Thought, p. 377-396, 2005
Menschendämmerung: Karl Marx, Ernst Jünger und der Untergang des Selbst
Alber, Freiburg/München, 2005
Tragedy as Political Theory: The Self-Destruction of Antigone’s Laws
Part of History of Political Thought, p. 377-396, 2005
The Effaced Self in the Writings of the Young Karl Marx
Part of European Journal of Political Theory, p. 393-412, 2005
Unterirdische Territorien der Moderne: Die Auflösung des Subjekts in Ernst Jüngers Der Arbeiter
Part of Jahrbuch für Philosophie des Forschungsinstituts für Philosophie Hannover, p. 163-190, 1997
Recent publications
Political Thought Before the polis: Reflections from Early Greek, Hittite and Akkadian Sources
Part of Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought, Oxford University Press, 2025
Ellerströms förlag, 2024
Part of Classical Philology, p. 259-281, 2022
Part of Literatura, p. 8-21, 2019
- DOI for Father, Womb, Blood: Apollo’s embryological theory, the ethics of revenge, and the supposed exclusion of women in Aischylos’ Eumenides
- Download full text (pdf) of Father, Womb, Blood: Apollo’s embryological theory, the ethics of revenge, and the supposed exclusion of women in Aischylos’ Eumenides
Part of Anekdot: Det digitala bildningsmagasinet, 2019
All publications
Articles in journal
Part of Classical Philology, p. 259-281, 2022
Part of Literatura, p. 8-21, 2019
- DOI for Father, Womb, Blood: Apollo’s embryological theory, the ethics of revenge, and the supposed exclusion of women in Aischylos’ Eumenides
- Download full text (pdf) of Father, Womb, Blood: Apollo’s embryological theory, the ethics of revenge, and the supposed exclusion of women in Aischylos’ Eumenides
Part of Anekdot: Det digitala bildningsmagasinet, 2019
Approaching Beginnings: The Origins of Politics and Political Thought in Ancient Greece
Part of Eranos, p. 1-12, 2018
Part of Antike und Abendland, p. 27-51, 2018
Part of Eranos, p. 37-54, 2018
Hesiod, Ouranos, Kronos, and the Emasculation at the Beginning of Time
Part of The Classical world, p. 459-484, 2018
Part of Classical Philology, p. 435-455, 2017
- DOI for Cannibalism, Vegetarianism and the Community of Sacrifice: Rediscovering Euripides’ Cretans and the Beginnings of Political Philosophy
- Download full text (pdf) of Cannibalism, Vegetarianism and the Community of Sacrifice: Rediscovering Euripides’ Cretans and the Beginnings of Political Philosophy
Part of Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft, p. 121-139, 2016
Part of Arion, p. 41-67, 2016
Part of Las Torres de Lucca. Revista Internacional de Filosofia Política, p. 61-89, 2016
Deception, Politics and Aesthetics: The Importance of Hobbes’s Concept of Metaphor
Part of Contemporary Political Theory, p. 112-129, 2014
Hobbes’s Hidden Monster: A New Interpretation of the Frontispiece of Leviathan
Part of European Journal of Political Theory, p. 299-320, 2014
El Leviatán de Hobbes: La destrucción del Estado, Cristo y el vientre del cocodrilo
Part of Foro Interno, p. 119-138, 2013
Incest and Liberal Neutrality*
Part of The Journal of Political Philosophy, p. 87-105, 2013
L’icona del terrore e dell’ambiguità: Il legame mancante tra Hobbes ed il suo Leviatano
Part of Lo Sguardo – Rivista di Filosofia, p. 183-196, 2013
Hobbes Contra Liberty of Conscience
Part of Political theory, p. 58-84, 2011
Introduction: Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, and Three Conceptions of Politics
Part of Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, p. 261-273, 2010
Order, the ocean, and Satan: Schmitt's Hobbes and the enigmatic ambiguity of friend and foe
Part of Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, p. 435-452, 2010
Part of Philosophisches Jahrbuch, p. 251-261, 2010
Part of Svensk teologisk kvartalskrift, p. 29-40, 2010
The revolt of images: Mutual guilt in the parodos of Sophokles' 'Antigone'
Part of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, p. 237-257, 2008
Nihilismus als Geheimlehre: Ernst Jünger, Nietzsche und die ästhetische Flucht nach vorn im Arbeiter
Part of Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allegemeine Kunstwissenschaft, p. 277-294, 2007
Tragedy as Political Theory: The Self-Destruction of Antigone's Laws
Part of History of Political Thought, p. 377-396, 2005
The Effaced Self in the Utopia of the Young Karl Marx
Part of European Journal of Political Theory, p. 393-412, 2005
Tragedy as Political Theory: The Self-Destruction of Antigone’s Laws
Part of History of Political Thought, p. 377-396, 2005
The Effaced Self in the Writings of the Young Karl Marx
Part of European Journal of Political Theory, p. 393-412, 2005
Unterirdische Territorien der Moderne: Die Auflösung des Subjekts in Ernst Jüngers Der Arbeiter
Part of Jahrbuch für Philosophie des Forschungsinstituts für Philosophie Hannover, p. 163-190, 1997
Books
Ellerströms förlag, 2024
Havets väldiga ryggar: Offret och de flytande bildernas gåta
Ellerströms förlag, 2018
Statsvetenskapliga föreningen, 2018
Monstret i mig: Myter om gränser och vilddjur
Bokförlaget Atlantis, 2015
Introduksjon til politisk teori
Gyldendal Akademisk, 2013
Studentlitteratur, 2012
Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt: The politics of order and myth
Routledge, 2011
Draksådd: den grekiska tragedin som politiskt tänkande
Bokförlaget Atlantis, 2010
Menschendämmerung: Karl Marx, Ernst Jünger und der Untergang des Selbst
Alber, Freiburg/München, 2005
Menschendämmerung: Karl Marx, Ernst Jünger und der Untergang des Selbst
Alber, 2005
Chapters in book
Political Thought Before the polis: Reflections from Early Greek, Hittite and Akkadian Sources
Part of Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought, Oxford University Press, 2025
Fluid Cypress and Hybrid bodies as a Cognitively Disturbing Metaphor in Euripides’ Cretans
Part of Classical Literature and Post-Humanism, p. 193-201, Bloomsbury Academic, 2019
Part of Transforming Warriors, Routledge, 2016
Part of Transforming Warriors, Routledge, 2016
Part of Vän eller fiende?, p. 79-98, Daidalos, 2012
Den autonoma individen i Hegels rättsfilosofi
Part of Statsvetare ifrågasätter, p. 59-68, Acta universitatis upsaliensis, 2008
Familjehemligheter i den liberala staten
Part of Hållbara värden?, p. 81-98, Makadam, 2008
Leviathan, the Beast of Myth: Medusa, Dionysos, and the Riddle of Hobbes's Sovereign Monster
Part of The Cambridge Companion to Hobbes's Leviathan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007
Leviathan, the Beast of Myth: Medusa, Dionysos, and the Riddle of Hobbes’s Sovereign Monster
Part of Cambridge Companion to Hobbes’s Leviathan, p. 61-81, Cambridge University Press, 2007