> [Taylor, Patrick](taylor-p.md). "Bhīṣma on the Plain of Olympia: Indic Perspectives on some Fragments of the Hesiodic Corpus". > #nodoi > #have > #link > **Abstract** > > Georges Dumézil’s comparison of the Norse god Heimdallr with the Indic god Dyaus and with Dyaus’ incarnation in epic, Bhīṣma, established the Indo-European status of a *figure «cadre»*, a god or hero who is born or present at the very beginning of an eschatological conflict and is the last to die at the end of the battle. The *dieu cadre* of the Norse, Heimdallr, finds his earthly counterpart in the superhuman *héros cadre* of the Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma, and Dumézil’s comparison is supported by the remarkable structural agreement between the two figures, of which only a few aspects can briefly be mentioned here: both are born from watery sources; their birth is associated with a motif of multiple mothers or multiple births; both are the greatest and eldest of their line but they do not reign directly; both are unmarried but play a role in assuring the continuity of generations (Dumézil 1968: 176-190). Dumézil’s rapprochement of these two figures endures as one of the most remarkable accomplishments in field of Indo-European comparative mythology. Furthermore, Skjærvø (1998) has shown that Dumézil’s *héros cadre*, the Indo-Iranian epic transposition of the *dieu cadre*, survives within Iranian legendary cycles in the figure of Rostam. > > Through the comparison of the Mahābhārata with the cognate mythological traditions of Greece, especially as preserved in the Hesiodic corpus, we can add yet another figure to the already impressive dossier of Dumézil’s *dieu cadre/héros cadre*: Endymion. This semidivine hero displays a suite of peculiar characteristics that agree strikingly with those of Bhīṣma—so much so that the congruence can hardly be attributed to chance, late diffusion, or typological universality. At first glance, the textual and iconographic materials relating to Endymion, and in particular the few fragmentary references to him in archaic Greek poetry, seem frustratingly heterogeneous. The disparate elements of Endymion’s character unexpectedly find their place within the framework of Dumézil’s *dieu cadre/héros cadre*.