> [[allen-n]]. Book. *Arjuna-Odysseus: shared heritage in Indian and Greek epic*. > Routledge, 2020. > [pdf](a/allen-n2020-arjuna.pdf) ## Reviews [[collins2020]] ## Description > Bringing together the study of the Greek Classics and Indology, Arjuna-Odysseus provides a comparative analysis of the shared heritage of the Mah¿bh¿rata and early Greek traditions presented in the texts of Homer and Hesiod. Building on the ethnographic theories of Durkheim, Mauss and Dumont, the volume explores the convergences and rapprochements between the Mah¿bh¿rata and the Greek texts. In exploring the networks of similarities between the two epic traditions, it also reformulates the theory of Georeges Dumézil regarding Indo-European cultural comparativism. It includes a detailed comparison between journeys undertaken by the two epic heroes-Odysseus and Arjuna, and more generally, it ranges across the philosophical ideas of these cultures, and the epic traditions, metaphors, and archetypes that define the cultural ideology of ancient Greece and India. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of Indo-European comparativism, social and cultural anthropology, classical literature, Indology, cultural and post-colonial studies, philosophy and religion, as well as to those who love the Indian and Greek epics. ## Contents > A starting point -- Five relationships -- Homer's simile -- Hero and horse -- Yoga -- Crocodiles and nymphs -- Monkey and dog -- Durg¿ and Athena -- Draupadī and Penelope -- Bhīṣma and Sarpedon -- Hesiod's Succession Myth -- Five elements -- Rings and rotations -- Achilles' shield -- Dumézil and Dumont -- Yudhiṣṭhira and Agamemnon -- Kauravas and suitors -- Hanging over abyss -- Gods descend to battlefield -- Heroes and supercategories -- Cyavana and Prometheus -- Telemachy -- Droṇa and Calchas -- Aśvatth¿man and the Wooden Horse.