He wrote extensively on Plato, on Greek tragedy, and on the myth of Atlantis from antiquity to the present. He also studied the modern use of the myth of ancient democracy from the French revolution to the present; he was fascinated by the relation between truth, memory and history.He claimed that his most personal work was that on Flavius Josephus (provocatively entitled Du bon usage de la trahison, “On the Right Use of Treason”, 1977), a man “who refused to accept Jewish history as tragic and wished to make an entirely positive history of Judaism”. There in the Ashmolean Museum he saw Uccello’s famous picture The Night Hunt, which he used as a frontispiece for his first major book, Le Chasseur Noir (1981; The Black Hunter, 1986); in this he set out a modified structuralist analysis of the importance of rites of passage from adolescence to manhood in Greek society. He remained fascinated with the marginal and transitional elements in Greek society – slaves, women, resident aliens, children, foreigners – which he saw as a way of understanding the centre.Marrou had set him the task of understanding why Plato hated history and historians so much. This began a lifelong interest in the relation between reality, the imagination and Utopianism, both of which he regarded as mirrors reflecting society. In 1976 he visited Oxford to give the Nellie Wallace lectures, an experience which he described as the happiest time of his life.

He describes in Le Choix de l’histoire (“My Choice of History”, 2004) how he drifted into ancient rather than modern history almost by chance. A pupil of the Catholic historian and musicologist Henri-Ir?e Marrou, who taught him to reject positivism, after a brief career in the provinces Vidal-Naquet joined J-P. Vernant in Paris in 1966 in the newly created Centre de recherches compar? sur les soci?s anciennes attached to the ?ole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, which was given the house of Auguste Comte (in rue Monsieur-le-Prince); when Vernant was elected to the Coll? de France he became director of the renamed Centre Louis Gernet. This cramped huddle of five rooms with its library doubling up as a seminar room became the Mecca for serious historians of all ancient cultures throughout the world; the revolutionary approach to ancient history of the “?ole de Paris” has changed the face of modern scholarship.Since his wartime childhood Vidal-Naquet had been a passionate anglophile who spoke excellent English; his knowledge of Shakespeare was exceptional, and he was immensely proud of his honorary doctorate from Bristol University, given to him in 1998. The detailed story is recorded in his M?ires (1995-98), which demonstrate an amazing memory for events and people, both friends and betrayers, whom he never forgot or forgave.In 1950 Vidal-Naquet declared to his future wife Genevi? Railhac that “as an atheist, history is for me the only possible substitute for religion”. Check-out staff will use their discretion in deciding how many Clubcard points to give out. A host of TV stars will appear in adverts to mark the scheme’s launch on August 14.

Local Environmental Quality Minister Ben Bradshaw welcomed the scheme, saying: “I strongly support moves to reduce the number of new plastic bags in circulation. They are worth 1p each or up to four times that amount if used for special deals. Clubcard holders will also get one voucher each to redeem against a durable “bag for life” in Tesco stores. Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said the chain had been working on ways to reduce carrier bag use.