Algirdas Julien Greimas
Algirdas Julius Greimas, or Algirdas Julien Greimas (born March 9 1917 in Tula, died 1992 in Paris), was a linguist who contributed to the theory of semiotics, and also researched Lithuanian mythology.
Greimas studied law in Lithuania, and linguistics in Grenoble (1936-1939). In 1939 he returned to Lithuania for his military service. In 1944 he returned to France, and in 1949 he received his PhD from the Sorbonne. He lectured at the universities of Alexandria, Ankara, Istanbul and Poitiers, and was a professor at the Social Sciences Postgraduate Studies School in Paris. From 1965 on, he headed semiotic-linguistic research in Paris, laying the foundations for the Paris School of Semiotics.
Greimas later began researching and reconstructing Lithuanian mythology basing his work on the methods of Georges Dumézil, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Marcel Detienne. His results were published as Of Gods and Men (1979) and In Search of National Memory (1990).