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125-517: In the Mahabharata , Sanjaya uses this epithet of Vishnu to describe the latter's prowess to King Dhritarashtra : You askest me repeatedly, O king, about the Pandavas for knowing their strength and weakness. Listen now to all that in brief. If the whole universe be placed on one scale and Janardana on the other, even then Janardana will outweigh the entire universe. Janardana, at his pleasure, can reduce

250-653: A clay cup found in Ischia , Italy, are the words "Nestor's cup, good to drink from." Some scholars, such as Calvert Watkins , have tied this cup to a description of King Nestor's golden cup in the Iliad. If the cup is an allusion to the Iliad , that poem's composition can be dated to at least 700–750 BC. Dating is similarly complicated by the fact that the Homeric poems, or sections of them, were performed regularly by rhapsodes for several hundred years. The Odyssey as it exists today

375-479: A fig tree. Washed ashore on Ogygia , he remained there as Calypso's lover. Having listened to his story, the Phaeacians agree to provide Odysseus with more treasure than he would have received from the spoils of Troy. They deliver him at night, while he is fast asleep, to a hidden harbour on Ithaca. Odysseus awakens and believes that he has been dropped on a distant land before Athena appears to him and reveals that he

500-508: A leading role. Unable to hide his emotion as he relives this episode, Odysseus at last reveals his identity. He then tells the story of his return from Troy. Odysseus recounts his story to the Phaeacians. After a failed raid against the Cicones , Odysseus and his twelve ships were driven off course by storms. Odysseus visited the lotus-eaters who gave his men their fruit which caused them to forget their homecoming. Odysseus had to drag them back to

625-617: A particular version of the text had become canonised. The Iliad and the Odyssey were widely copied and used as school texts in lands where the Greek language was spoken throughout antiquity. Scholars may have begun to write commentaries on the poems as early as the time of Aristotle in the 4th century BC. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, scholars affiliated with the Library of Alexandria —particularly Zenodotus and Aristarchus of Samothrace —edited

750-457: A particularly close connection to Vedic ( Brahmana ) literature. The Panchavimsha Brahmana (at 25.15.3) enumerates the officiant priests of a sarpasattra among whom the names Dhritarashtra and Janamejaya, two main figures of the Mahābhārata' s sarpasattra , as well as Takshaka , a snake in the Mahābhārata , occur. The Suparnakhyana , a late Vedic period poem considered to be among

875-478: A plan to ambush his ship and kill him as he sails back home. Penelope overhears their plot and worries for her son's safety. In the course of Odysseus's seven years as a captive of Calypso on the island Ogygia , she has fallen deeply in love with him, even though he spurns her offers of immortality as her husband and still mourns for home. She is ordered to release him by the messenger god Hermes , who has been sent by Zeus in response to Athena's plea. Odysseus builds

1000-489: A pond and assumes it is not water and falls in. Bhima , Arjuna , the twins and the servants laugh at him. In popular adaptations, this insult is wrongly attributed to Draupadi, even though in the Sanskrit epic, it was the Pandavas (except Yudhishthira) who had insulted Duryodhana. Enraged by the insult, and jealous at seeing the wealth of the Pandavas, Duryodhana decides to host a dice-game on Shakuni's suggestion. This suggestion

1125-457: A princess from Gandhara, who blindfolds herself for the rest of her life so that she may feel the pain that her husband feels. Her brother Shakuni is enraged by this and vows to take revenge on the Kuru family. One day, when Pandu is relaxing in the forest, he hears the sound of a wild animal. He shoots an arrow in the direction of the sound. However, the arrow hits the sage Kindama , who was engaged in

1250-405: A raft and is given clothing, food, and drink by Calypso. When Poseidon learns that Odysseus has escaped, he wrecks the raft, but helped by a veil given by the sea nymph Ino , Odysseus swims ashore on Scherie , the island of the Phaeacians. Naked and exhausted, he hides in a pile of leaves and falls asleep. The next morning, awakened by girls' laughter, he sees the young Nausicaä , who has gone to

1375-451: A re-telling of the Odyssey set in Dublin , is divided into eighteen sections ("episodes") which can be mapped roughly onto the twenty-four books of the Odyssey . Joyce claimed familiarity with the original Homeric Greek, but this has been disputed by some scholars, who cite his poor grasp of the language as evidence to the contrary. The book, and especially its stream of consciousness prose,

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1500-511: A role in the Mahābhārata , some parts of the epic may have already been known in his day. Another aspect is that Panini determined the accent of mahā-bhārata . However, the Mahābhārata was not recited in Vedic accent . The Greek writer Dio Chrysostom ( c.  40  – c.  120 CE ) reported that Homer 's poetry was being sung even in India. Many scholars have taken this as evidence for

1625-401: A sexual act in the guise of a deer. He curses Pandu that if he engages in a sexual act, he will die. Pandu then retires to the forest along with his two wives, and his brother Dhritarashtra rules thereafter, despite his blindness. Pandu's older queen Kunti, however, had been given a boon by Sage Durvasa that she could invoke any god using a special mantra. Kunti uses this boon to ask Dharma ,

1750-462: A similar distinction. At least three redactions of the text are commonly recognized: Jaya (Victory) with 8,800 verses attributed to Vyasa, the Bharata with 24,000 verses as recited by Vaisampayana , and finally the Mahābhārata as recited by Ugrashrava Sauti with over 100,000 verses. However, some scholars, such as John Brockington, argue that Jaya and Bharata refer to the same text, and ascribe

1875-514: A tunnel. They escape to safety through the tunnel and go into hiding. During this time, Bhima marries a demoness Hidimbi and has a son Ghatotkacha . Back in Hastinapur, the Pandavas and Kunti are presumed dead. Whilst they were in hiding, the Pandavas learn of a swayamvara which is taking place for the hand of the Pāñcāla princess Draupadī . The Pandavas, disguised as Brahmins , come to witness

2000-466: A type scene in the Odyssey. Two important parts of an omen type scene are the recognition of the omen, followed by its interpretation . In the Odyssey , all of the bird omens—with the exception of the first—show large birds attacking smaller birds. Accompanying each omen is a wish which can be either explicitly stated or only implied. For example, Telemachus wishes for vengeance and for Odysseus to be home, Penelope wishes for Odysseus' return, and

2125-585: A very short uneventful life and dies. Vichitravirya, the younger son, rules Hastinapura . Meanwhile, the King of Kāśī arranges a swayamvara for his three daughters, neglecting to invite the royal family of Hastinapur. To arrange the marriage of young Vichitravirya, Bhishma attends the swayamvara of the three princesses Amba , Ambika , and Ambalika , uninvited, and proceeds to abduct them. Ambika and Ambalika consent to be married to Vichitravirya. The oldest princess Amba, however, informs Bhishma that she wishes to marry

2250-409: A very specific type scene that accompanies it. Throughout the epic, the testing of others follows a typical pattern. This pattern is: Omens occur frequently throughout the Odyssey . Within the epic poem, they frequently involve birds. According to Thornton, most crucial is who receives each omen and in what way it manifests. For instance, bird omens are shown to Telemachus, Penelope, Odysseus, and

2375-422: A wooden stake. When Polyphemus cried out, his neighbors left after Polyphemus claimed that "Nobody" had attacked him. Odysseus and his men finally escaped the cave by hiding on the underbellies of the sheep as they were let out of the cave. As they escaped, however, Odysseus taunted Polyphemus and revealed himself. The Cyclops prayed to his father Poseidon, asking him to curse Odysseus to wander for ten years. After

2500-486: A world beyond man and that influences the fact he cannot return home. These beings that are close to the gods include the Phaeacians who lived near the Cyclopes, whose king, Alcinous, is the great-grandson of the king of the giants, Eurymedon , and the grandson of Poseidon. Some of the other characters that Odysseus encounters are the cyclops Polyphemus , the son of Poseidon; Circe, a sorceress who turns men into animals; and

2625-607: Is as follows: The historicity of the Kurukshetra War is unclear. Many historians estimate the date of the Kurukshetra war to Iron Age India of the 10th century BCE. The setting of the epic has a historical precedent in Iron Age ( Vedic ) India, where the Kuru kingdom was the center of political power during roughly 1200 to 800 BCE. A dynastic conflict of the period could have been

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2750-550: Is based on a story that is the precursor to the Mahābhārata . The Urubhanga , a Sanskrit play written by Bhasa who is believed to have lived before Kalidasa, is based on the slaying of Duryodhana by the splitting of his thighs by Bhima . The copper-plate inscription of the Maharaja Sharvanatha (533–534 CE) from Khoh ( Satna District, Madhya Pradesh ) describes the Mahābhārata as a "collection of 100,000 verses" ( śata-sahasri saṃhitā ). The division into 18 parvas

2875-426: Is born blind. Ambalika turns pale and bloodless upon seeing him, and thus her son Pandu is born pale and unhealthy (the term Pandu may also mean 'jaundiced' ). Due to the physical challenges of the first two children, Satyavati asks Vyasa to try once again. However, Ambika and Ambalika send their maid instead, to Vyasa's room. Vyasa fathers a third son, Vidura , by the maid. He is born healthy and grows up to be one of

3000-433: Is discovered by the housekeeper Eurycleia when she recognizes an old scar as she is washing his feet. Eurycleia tries to tell Penelope about the beggar's true identity, but Athena makes sure that Penelope cannot hear her. Odysseus swears Eurycleia to secrecy. The next day, at Athena's prompting, Penelope maneuvers the suitors into competing for her hand with an archery competition using Odysseus's bow. The man who can string

3125-568: Is first recited at Takshashila by the sage Vaisampayana , a disciple of Vyasa, to the King Janamejaya who was the great-grandson of the Pandava prince Arjuna . The story is then recited again by a professional storyteller named Ugrashrava Sauti , many years later, to an assemblage of sages performing the 12-year sacrifice for the king Saunaka Kulapati in the Naimisha Forest . The text

3250-436: Is indeed on Ithaca. She hides his treasure in a nearby cave and disguises him as an elderly beggar so he can see how things stand in his household. He finds his way to the hut of one of his own slaves, swineherd Eumaeus , who treats him hospitably and speaks favorably of Odysseus. After dinner, the disguised Odysseus tells the farm laborers a fictitious tale of himself. Telemachus sails home from Sparta, evading an ambush set by

3375-465: Is likely not significantly different. Aside from minor differences, the Homeric poems gained a canonical place in the institutions of ancient Athens by the 6th century. In 566 BC, Peisistratos instituted a civic and religious festival called the Panathenaia , which featured performances of Homeric poems. These are significant because a "correct" version of the poems had to be performed, indicating that

3500-633: Is one of the oldest works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. Like the Iliad , the Odyssey is divided into 24 books . It follows the Greek hero Odysseus , king of Ithaca , and his journey home after the Trojan War . After the war, which lasted ten years, his journey from Troy to Ithaca, via Africa and southern Europe, lasted for ten additional years during which time he encountered many perils and all of his crewmates were killed. In his absence, Odysseus

3625-642: Is one of the two major Smriti texts and Sanskrit epics of ancient India revered in Hinduism , the other being the Rāmāyaṇa . It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kurukshetra War , a war of succession between two groups of princely cousins, the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas . It also contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four "goals of life" or puruṣārtha (12.161). Among

3750-415: Is reborn to King Drupada as Shikhandi (or Shikhandini) and causes Bhishma's fall, with the help of Arjuna , in the battle of Kurukshetra. When Vichitravirya dies young without any heirs, Satyavati asks her first son Vyasa , born to her from a previous union with the sage Parashara , to father children with the widows. The eldest, Ambika, shuts her eyes when she sees him, and so her son Dhritarashtra

3875-569: Is right, as well as the converse. The Mahābhārata itself ends with the death of Krishna , and the subsequent end of his dynasty and ascent of the Pandava brothers to heaven. It also marks the beginning of the Hindu age of Kali Yuga , the fourth and final age of humankind, in which great values and noble ideas have crumbled, and people are heading towards the complete dissolution of right action, morality, and virtue. King Janamejaya's ancestor, Shantanu ,

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4000-402: Is that he will eat him last. Calypso also exemplifies poor guest-friendship because she does not allow Odysseus to leave her island. Another important factor to guest-friendship is that kingship implies generosity. It is assumed that a king has the means to be a generous host and is more generous with his own property. This is best seen when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, begs Antinous, one of

4125-430: Is translated as "Great Bharat (India)", or "the story of the great descendents of Bharata ", or as " The Great Indian Tale ". The Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem known and has been described as "the longest poem ever written". Its longest version consists of over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet), and long prose passages. At about 1.8 million words in total,

4250-453: The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Odyssey . Both Odysseus and Gilgamesh are known for traveling to the ends of the earth and on their journeys go to the land of the dead. On his voyage to the underworld, Odysseus follows instructions given to him by Circe, who is located at the edges of the world and is associated through imagery with the sun. Like Odysseus, Gilgamesh gets directions on how to reach

4375-653: The Kali Yuga epoch, based on planetary conjunctions, by Aryabhata (6th century). Aryabhata's date of 18 February 3102 BCE for Mahābhārata war has become widespread in Indian tradition. Some sources mark this as the disappearance of Krishna from the Earth. The Aihole inscription of Pulakeshin II , dated to Saka 556 = 634 CE, claims that 3,735 years have elapsed since the Bhārata battle, putting

4500-593: The Guru–shishya tradition , which traces all great teachers and their students of the Vedic times. The first section of the Mahābhārata states that it was Ganesha who wrote down the text to Vyasa's dictation, but this is regarded by scholars as a later interpolation to the epic and the "Critical Edition" does not include Ganesha. The epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales , popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works. It

4625-424: The Iliad and the Odyssey were composed independently and that the stories formed as part of a long oral tradition . Given widespread illiteracy, the poem was performed by an aoidos or rhapsode and was more likely to be heard than read. Crucial themes in the poem include the ideas of nostos (νόστος; "return"), wandering, xenia (ξενία; "guest-friendship"), testing, and omens. Scholars still reflect on

4750-574: The Iliad , Alexander Pope began to translate the Odyssey because of his financial situation. His second translation was not received as favourably as the first. Emily Wilson , a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania , notes that as late as the first decade of the 21st century, almost all of the most prominent translators of Greek and Roman literature had been men. She calls her experience of translating Homer one of "intimate alienation." Wilson writes that this has affected

4875-643: The Kaurava and the Pandava . Although the Kaurava is the senior branch of the family, Duryodhana , the eldest Kaurava, is younger than Yudhishthira , the eldest Pandava. Both Duryodhana and Yudhishthira claim to be first in line to inherit the throne. The struggle culminates in the Kurukshetra War , in which the Pandavas are ultimately victorious. The battle produces complex conflicts of kinship and friendship, instances of family loyalty and duty taking precedence over what

5000-502: The Kushan Period (200 CE). According to what one figure says at Mbh. 1.1.50, there were three versions of the epic, beginning with Manu (1.1.27), Astika (1.3, sub-Parva 5), or Vasu (1.57), respectively. These versions would correspond to the addition of one and then another 'frame' settings of dialogues. The Vasu version would omit the frame settings and begin with the account of the birth of Vyasa. The astika version would add

5125-413: The Mahābhārata has put an enormous effort into recognizing and dating layers within the text. Some elements of the present Mahabharata can be traced back to Vedic times. The background to the Mahābhārata suggests the origin of the epic occurs "after the very early Vedic period " and before " the first Indian 'empire' was to rise in the third century B.C." That this is "a date not too far removed from

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5250-427: The Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa . There have been many attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The bulk of the Mahābhārata was probably compiled between the 3rd century BCE and the 3rd century CE, with the oldest preserved parts not much older than around 400 BCE. The text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period ( c.  4th century CE ). The title

5375-509: The Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa . Within the Indian tradition it is sometimes called the fifth Veda . The epic is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa , who is also a major figure in the epic. Vyasa described it as being an itihasa ( transl.  history ). He also describes

5500-601: The Odyssey alone spans nearly 2,000 oversized pages in a twentieth-century edition. The first printed edition of the Odyssey , known as the editio princeps , was produced in 1488 by the Greek scholar Demetrios Chalkokondyles , who had been born in Athens and had studied in Constantinople. His edition was printed in Milan by a Greek printer named Antonios Damilas. Since the late 19th century, many papyri containing fragments of

5625-576: The Odyssey and the Iliad , published together in 1616 but serialised earlier, were the first to enjoy widespread success. The texts had been published in translation before, with some translated not from the original Greek. Chapman worked on these for a large part of his life. In 1581, Arthur Hall translated the first 10 books of the Iliad from a French version. Chapman's translations persisted in popularity, and are often remembered today through John Keats ' sonnet " On First Looking into Chapman's Homer " (1816). Years after completing his translation of

5750-572: The Odyssey have been found in Egypt, some with content different from later medieval versions. In 2018, the Greek Cultural Ministry revealed the discovery of a clay tablet near the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, containing 13 verses from the Odyssey 's 14th book. While it was initially reported to date from the 3rd century AD, the date is unconfirmed. George Chapman 's English translations of

5875-399: The Odyssey was in the 16th century. Adaptations and re-imaginings continue to be produced across a wide variety of media . In 2018, when BBC Culture polled experts around the world to find literature's most enduring narrative, the Odyssey topped the list. The Odyssey begins after the end of the ten-year Trojan War (the subject of the Iliad ), from which Odysseus (also known by

6000-399: The bard , performs a narrative poem for them. That night, Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the insolent suitors, who then scoff at Telemachus. Accompanied by Athena (now disguised as Mentor ), the son of Odysseus departs for the Greek mainland to

6125-499: The eighth circle of hell , where Odysseus appends a new ending to the Odyssey in which he never returns to Ithaca and instead continues his restless adventuring. Edith Hall suggests that Dante's depiction of Odysseus became understood as a manifestation of Renaissance colonialism and othering , with the cyclops standing in for "accounts of monstrous races on the edge of the world", and his defeat as symbolising "the Roman domination of

6250-532: The sarpasattra and ashvamedha material from Brahmanical literature, introduce the name Mahābhārata , and identify Vyasa as the work's author. The redactors of these additions were probably Pancharatrin scholars who according to Oberlies (1998) likely retained control over the text until its final redaction. Mention of the Huna in the Bhishma Parva however appears to imply that this Parva may have been edited around

6375-630: The wife of all five brothers . After the wedding, the Pandava brothers are invited back to Hastinapura. The Kuru family elders and relatives negotiate and broker a split of the kingdom, with the Pandavas obtaining and demanding only a wild forest inhabited by Takshaka , the king of snakes, and his family. Through hard work, the Pandavas build a new glorious capital for the territory at Indraprastha . Shortly after this, Arjuna elopes with and then marries Krishna's sister, Subhadra . Yudhishthira wishes to establish his position as king; he seeks Krishna's advice. Krishna advises him, and after due preparation and

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6500-645: The "earliest traces of epic poetry in India," is an older, shorter precursor to the expanded legend of Garuda that is included in the Astika Parva , within the Adi Parva of the Mahābhārata . The earliest known references to bhārata and the compound mahābhārata date to the Ashtadhyayi ( sutra 6.2.38) of Panini ( fl. 4th century BCE) and the Ashvalayana Grihyasutra (3.4.4). This may mean that

6625-459: The 13th year, they must remain hidden called as Agyaata Vaasa . If they are discovered by the Kauravas in the 13th year of their exile, then they will be forced into exile for another 12 years. Odyssey The Odyssey ( / ˈ ɒ d ɪ s i / ; Ancient Greek : Ὀδύσσεια , romanized :  Odýsseia ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer . It

6750-427: The 4th century. The Adi Parva includes the snake sacrifice ( sarpasattra ) of Janamejaya , explaining its motivation, detailing why all snakes in existence were intended to be destroyed, and why despite this, there are still snakes in existence. This sarpasattra material was often considered an independent tale added to a version of the Mahābhārata by "thematic attraction" (Minkowski 1991), and considered to have

6875-512: The 78 CE. This places Yudhishthara (and therefore, the Mahabharata war) around 2448–2449 BCE (2526–78). Some scholars have attempted to identify the "Shaka" calendar era mentioned by Varāhamihira with other eras, but such identifications place Varāhamihira in the first century BCE, which is impossible as he refers to the 5th century astronomer Aryabhata . Kalhana 's Rajatarangini (11th century), apparently relying on Varāhamihira, also states that

7000-461: The 8th or 9th century B.C." is likely. The Mahabharata started as an orally-transmitted tale of the charioteer bards . It is generally agreed that "Unlike the Vedas , which have to be preserved letter-perfect, the epic was a popular work whose reciters would inevitably conform to changes in language and style," so the earliest 'surviving' components of this dynamic text are believed to be no older than

7125-592: The Homeric poems, wrote commentaries on them, and helped establish the canonical texts. The Iliad and the Odyssey remained widely studied and used as school texts in the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages . The Byzantine Greek scholar and archbishop Eustathios of Thessalonike ( c.  1115  – c.  1195/6 AD ) wrote exhaustive commentaries on both of the Homeric epics that became seen by later generations as authoritative; his commentary on

7250-464: The Latin variant Ulysses), king of Ithaca , has still not returned because he angered Poseidon , the god of the sea. Odysseus's son, Telemachus , is about 20 years old and is sharing his absent father's house on the island of Ithaca with his mother Penelope and the suitors of Penelope , a crowd of 108 boisterous young men who each aim to persuade Penelope for her hand in marriage, all the while reveling in

7375-460: The Pandava brothers, from their youth and into manhood, leads to the Kurukshetra war. After the deaths of their mother (Madri) and father (Pandu), the Pandavas and their mother Kunti return to the palace of Hastinapur. Yudhishthira is made Crown Prince by Dhritarashtra, under considerable pressure from his courtiers. Dhritarashtra wanted his son Duryodhana to become king and lets his ambition get in

7500-554: The Pandavas flourished 653 years after the beginning of the Kali Yuga; Kalhana adds that people who believe that the Bharata war was fought at the end of the Dvapara Yuga are foolish. The core story of the work is that of a dynastic struggle for the throne of Hastinapura , the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan. The two collateral branches of the family that participate in the struggle are

7625-658: The attempt but is interrupted by Draupadi who refuses to marry a suta (this has been excised from the Critical Edition of Mahabharata as later interpolation ). After this, the swayamvara is opened to the Brahmins leading Arjuna to win the contest and marry Draupadi. The Pandavas return home and inform their meditating mother that Arjuna has won a competition and to look at what they have brought back. Without looking, Kunti asks them to share whatever Arjuna has won amongst themselves, thinking it to be alms . Thus, Draupadi ends up being

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7750-442: The average duration of a reign, arrived at an estimate of 850  BCE for Adhisimakrishna, and thus approximately 950  BCE for the Bharata battle. B. B. Lal used the same approach with a more conservative assumption of the average reign to estimate a date of 836 BCE, and correlated this with archaeological evidence from Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites, the association being strong between PGW artifacts and places mentioned in

7875-598: The birth of Parikshit (Arjuna's grandson) and the accession of Mahapadma Nanda (400–329 BCE), which would yield an estimate of about 1400 BCE for the Bharata battle. However, this would imply improbably long reigns on average for the kings listed in the genealogies. Of the second kind is analysis of parallel genealogies in the Puranas between the times of Adhisimakrishna ( Parikshit 's great-grandson) and Mahapadma Nanda . Pargiter accordingly estimated 26 generations by averaging 10 different dynastic lists and, assuming 18 years for

8000-406: The bow and shoot an arrow through a dozen axe heads would win. Odysseus takes part in the competition, and he alone is strong enough to string the bow and shoot the arrow through the dozen axe heads, making him the winner. He then throws off his rags and kills Antinous with his next arrow. Odysseus kills the other suitors, first using the rest of the arrows and then, along with Telemachus, Eumaeus, and

8125-415: The cannibalistic Laestrygonians destroyed all of his ships except his own, Odysseus sailed on and reached the island of Aeaea , home of witch-goddess Circe . She turned half of his men into swine with drugged cheese and wine. Hermes warned Odysseus about Circe and gave Odysseus an herb called moly , making him resistant to Circe's magic. Odysseus forced Circe to change his men back to their human forms and

8250-550: The cannibalistic giants, the Laestrygonians. Throughout the course of the epic, Odysseus encounters several examples of xenia ("guest-friendship"), which provide models of how hosts should and should not act. The Phaeacians demonstrate exemplary guest-friendship by feeding Odysseus, giving him a place to sleep, and granting him many gifts and a safe voyage home, which are all things a good host should do. Polyphemus demonstrates poor guest-friendship. His only "gift" to Odysseus

8375-592: The core 24,000 verses, known as the Bhārata , as well as an early version of the extended Mahābhārata , were composed by the 4th century BCE. However, it is uncertain whether Panini referred to the epic, as bhārata was also used to describe other things. Albrecht Weber mentions the Rigvedic tribe of the Bharatas , where a great person might have been designated as Mahā-Bhārata. However, as Panini also mentions figures that play

8500-511: The cowherd Philoetius, with swords and spears. Once the battle is won, Telemachus also hangs twelve of their household maids whom Eurycleia identifies as guilty of betraying Penelope or having sex with the suitors. Odysseus identifies himself to Penelope. She is hesitant but recognizes him when he mentions that he made their bed from an olive tree still rooted to the ground. She embraces him and they sleep. The next day, Odysseus goes to his father Laertes 's farm and reveals himself. Following them to

8625-428: The crew overriding Odysseus's wishes to remain away from the island. Zeus caused a storm that prevented them from leaving, causing them to deplete the food given to them by Circe. While Odysseus was away praying, his men ignored the warnings of Tiresias and Circe and hunted the sacred cattle. Helios insisted that Zeus punish the men for this sacrilege. They suffered a shipwreck, and all but Odysseus drowned as he clung to

8750-502: The date of Mahābhārata war at 3137BCE. Another traditional school of astronomers and historians, represented by Vrddha Garga , Varāhamihira and Kalhana , place the Bharata war 653 years after the Kali Yuga epoch, corresponding to 2449 BCE. According to Varāhamihira's Bṛhat Saṃhitā (6th century), Yudhishthara lived 2,526 years before the beginning of the Shaka era , which begins in

8875-478: The earliest 'external' references we have to the epic, which include an reference in Panini 's 4th century BCE grammar Ashtadhyayi 4:2:56. Vishnu Sukthankar, editor of the first great critical edition of the Mahābhārata , commented: "It is useless to think of reconstructing a fluid text in an original shape, based on an archetype and a stemma codicum . What then is possible? Our objective can only be to reconstruct

9000-454: The elimination of some opposition, Yudhishthira carries out the rājasūya yagna ceremony; he is thus recognized as pre-eminent among kings. The Pandavas have a new palace built for them, by Maya the Danava . They invite their Kaurava cousins to Indraprastha. Duryodhana walks round the palace, and mistakes a glossy floor for water, and will not step in. After being told of his error, he then sees

9125-515: The end of the Odyssey . For instance, one example is that of Agamemnon's homecoming versus Odysseus'. Upon Agamemnon's return, his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, kill Agamemnon. Agamemnon's son, Orestes , out of vengeance for his father's death, kills Aegisthus. This parallel compares the death of the suitors to the death of Aegisthus and sets Orestes up as an example for Telemachus. Also, because Odysseus knows about Clytemnestra's betrayal, Odysseus returns home in disguise in order to test

9250-483: The entire court, but Draupadi's disrobe is prevented by Krishna, who miraculously make her dress endless, therefore it couldn't be removed. Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, and the other elders are aghast at the situation, but Duryodhana is adamant that there is no place for two crown princes in Hastinapura. Against his wishes Dhritarashtra calls for another dice game. The Pandavas are required to go into exile for 12 years, and in

9375-462: The epic. John Keay suggests "their core narratives seem to relate to events from a period prior to all but the Rig Veda." Attempts to date the events using methods of archaeoastronomy have produced, depending on which passages are chosen and how they are interpreted, estimates ranging from the late 4th to the mid-2nd millennium BCE. The late 4th-millennium date has a precedent in the calculation of

9500-439: The escape, Aeolus gave Odysseus a leather bag containing all the winds except the west wind, a gift that should have ensured a safe return home. Just as Ithaca came into sight, the sailors opened the bag while Odysseus slept, thinking it contained gold. The winds flew out, and the storm drove the ships back the way they had come. Aeolus, recognizing that Odysseus had drawn the ire of the gods, refused to further assist him. After

9625-406: The event. Meanwhile, Krishna, who has already befriended Draupadi, tells her to look out for Arjuna (though now believed to be dead). The task was to string a mighty steel bow and shoot a target on the ceiling, which was the eye of a moving artificial fish, while looking at its reflection in oil below. In popular versions, after all the princes fail, many being unable to lift the bow, Karna proceeds to

9750-572: The existence of a Māhabhārata at this date, whose episodes Dio or his sources identify with the story of the Iliad . Several stories within the Mahābhārata took on separate identities of their own in Classical Sanskrit literature . For instance, the Abhijnanashkuntala by the renowned Sanskrit poet Kalidasa ( c.  400 CE ), believed to have lived in the era of the Gupta dynasty,

9875-452: The farm is a group of Ithacans, led by Eupeithes , father of Antinous, who are out for revenge for the murder of the suitors. A battle breaks out, but it is quickly stopped by Athena and Zeus. The Odyssey is 12,109 lines composed in dactylic hexameter , also called Homeric hexameter. It opens in medias res , in the middle of the overall story, with prior events described through flashbacks and storytelling. The 24 books correspond to

10000-399: The five brothers, who are from then on usually referred to as the Pandava brothers. Dhritarashtra has a hundred sons, and one daughter— Duhsala —through Gandhari , all born after the birth of Yudhishthira. These are the Kaurava brothers, the eldest being Duryodhana , and the second Dushasana . Other Kaurava brothers include Vikarna and Sukarna. The rivalry and enmity between them and

10125-478: The god of justice, Vayu , the god of the wind, and Indra , the lord of the heavens for sons. She gives birth to three sons, Yudhishthira , Bhima , and Arjuna , through these gods. Kunti shares her mantra with the younger queen Madri , who bears the twins Nakula and Sahadeva through the Ashwini twins. However, Pandu and Madri indulge in lovemaking, and Pandu dies. Madri commits suicide out of remorse. Kunti raises

10250-569: The homeland of Odysseus, which may or may not be the same island that is now called Ithakē (modern Greek: Ιθάκη ). The wanderings of Odysseus as told to the Phaeacians, and the location of the Phaeacians' own island of Scheria, pose more fundamental problems, if geography is to be applied: scholars, both ancient and modern, are divided as to whether any of the places visited by Odysseus (after Ismaros and before his return to Ithaca) are real. Both antiquated and contemporary scholars have attempted to map Odysseus's journey but now largely agree that

10375-433: The host's home. Another theme throughout the Odyssey is testing. This occurs in two distinct ways. Odysseus tests the loyalty of others and others test Odysseus' identity. An example of Odysseus testing the loyalties of others is when he returns home. Instead of immediately revealing his identity, he arrives disguised as a beggar and then proceeds to determine who in his house has remained loyal to him and who has helped

10500-450: The household of Nestor , most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy , who resided in Pylos after the war. From there, Telemachus rides to Sparta , accompanied by Nestor's son . There he finds Menelaus and Helen , who are now reconciled. Both Helen and Menelaus also say that they returned to Sparta after a long voyage by way of Egypt. There, on the island of Pharos , Menelaus encounters

10625-451: The inspiration for the Jaya , the foundation on which the Mahābhārata corpus was built, with a climactic battle, eventually coming to be viewed as an epochal event. Puranic literature presents genealogical lists associated with the Mahābhārata narrative. The evidence of the Puranas is of two kinds. Of the first kind, there is the direct statement that there were 1,015 (or 1,050) years between

10750-452: The island of Thrinacia and that failure to do so would result in the loss of his ship and his entire crew. He then meets his dead mother Anticleia and first learns of the suitors and what happened in Ithaca in his absence. Odysseus also converses with his dead comrades from Troy. Returning to Aeaea, they buried Elpenor and were advised by Circe on the remaining stages of the journey. They skirted

10875-438: The king of Hastinapura , had a short-lived marriage with the goddess Ganga and had a son, Devavrata (later to be called Bhishma , a great warrior), who becomes the heir apparent. Many years later, when King Shantanu goes hunting, he sees Satyavati , the daughter of the chief of fishermen, and asks her father for her hand. Her father refuses to consent to the marriage unless Shantanu promises to make any future son of Satyavati

11000-429: The king of Shalva whom Bhishma defeated at their swayamvara. Bhishma lets her leave to marry the king of Shalva, but Shalva refuses to marry her, still smarting at his humiliation at the hands of Bhishma. Amba then returns to marry Bhishma but he refuses due to his vow of celibacy. Amba becomes enraged and becomes Bhishma's bitter enemy, holding him responsible for her plight. She vows to kill him in her next life. Later she

11125-408: The king upon his death. To resolve his father's dilemma, Devavrata agrees to relinquish his right to the throne. As the fisherman is not sure about the prince's children honoring the promise, Devavrata also takes a vow of lifelong celibacy to guarantee his father's promise. Shantanu has two sons by Satyavati, Chitrāngada and Vichitravirya . Upon Shantanu's death, Chitrangada becomes king. He lives

11250-411: The king's palace and eating up his wealth. Odysseus's protectress, the goddess Athena , asks Zeus , king of the gods , to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Poseidon is absent from Mount Olympus . Disguised as a chieftain named Mentes , Athena visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality, and they observe the suitors dining rowdily while Phemius ,

11375-459: The land of the Sirens . All of the sailors had their ears plugged up with beeswax, except for Odysseus, who was tied to the mast as he wanted to hear the song. He told his sailors not to untie him as it would only make him drown himself. They then passed between the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis . Scylla claimed six of his men. Next, they landed on the island of Thrinacia, with

11500-412: The land of the dead from a divine helper: the goddess Siduri , who, like Circe, dwells by the sea at the ends of the earth, whose home is also associated with the sun. Gilgamesh reaches Siduri's house by passing through a tunnel underneath Mt. Mashu , the high mountain from which the sun comes into the sky. West argues that the similarity of Odysseus' and Gilgamesh's journeys to the edges of the earth are

11625-542: The landscapes, especially of the Apologia (Books 9 to 11), include too many mythic aspects as features to be unequivocally mappable. Classicist Peter T. Struck created an interactive map which plots Odysseus's travels, including his near homecoming which was thwarted by the bag of wind. Scholars have seen strong influences from Near Eastern mythology and literature in the Odyssey . Martin West notes substantial parallels between

11750-534: The last 548 lines of the Odyssey , corresponding to Book 24, are believed by many scholars to have been added by a slightly later poet. The events in the main sequence of the Odyssey (excluding Odysseus's embedded narrative of his wanderings) have been said to take place in the Peloponnese and in what are now called the Ionian Islands . There are difficulties in the apparently simple identification of Ithaca,

11875-579: The letters of the Greek alphabet ; the division was likely made after the poem's composition, by someone other than Homer, but is generally accepted. In the Classical period , some of the books (individually and in groups) were commonly given their own titles: Book 22 concludes the Greek Epic Cycle , though fragments remain of the "alternative ending" of sorts known as the Telegony . The Telegony aside,

12000-490: The loyalty of his own wife, Penelope. Later, Agamemnon praises Penelope for not killing Odysseus. It is because of Penelope that Odysseus has fame and a successful homecoming. This successful homecoming is unlike Achilles , who has fame but is dead, and Agamemnon, who had an unsuccessful homecoming resulting in his death. Only two of Odysseus's adventures are described by the narrator. The rest of Odysseus' adventures are recounted by Odysseus himself. The two scenes described by

12125-542: The narrative significance of certain groups in the poem, such as women and slaves, who have a more prominent role in the epic than in many other works of ancient literature. This focus is especially remarkable when contrasted with the Iliad , which centres the exploits of soldiers and kings during the Trojan War. The Odyssey is regarded as one of the most significant works of the Western canon . The first English translation of

12250-477: The narrator are Odysseus on Calypso's island and Odysseus' encounter with the Phaeacians. These scenes are told by the poet to represent an important transition in Odysseus' journey: being concealed to returning home. Calypso's name comes from the Greek word kalúptō ( καλύπτω ), meaning 'to cover' or 'conceal', which is apt, as this is exactly what she does with Odysseus. Calypso keeps Odysseus concealed from

12375-461: The old sea-god Proteus , who tells him that Odysseus was a captive of the nymph Calypso . Telemachus learns the fate of Menelaus's brother, Agamemnon , king of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks at Troy: he was murdered on his return home by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus . The story briefly shifts to the suitors, who have only just realized that Telemachus is gone. Angry, they formulate

12500-432: The oldest form of the text which it is possible to reach based on the manuscript material available." That manuscript evidence is somewhat late, given its material composition and the climate of India, but it is very extensive. The Mahābhārata itself (1.1.61) distinguishes a core portion of 24,000 verses: the Bhārata proper, as opposed to additional secondary material, while the Ashvalayana Grihyasutra (3.4.4) makes

12625-449: The oldest works of extant literature commonly read by Western audiences. As an imaginary voyage , it is considered a distant forerunner of the science fiction genre, and, says science fiction scholar Brian Stableford , "there are more science-fictional transfigurations of the Odyssey than of any other literary text". In Canto XXVI of the Inferno , Dante Alighieri meets Odysseus in

12750-423: The original Greek, the word used is hai , the feminine article, equivalent to "those female people". The influence of the Homeric texts can be difficult to summarise because of how greatly they have affected the popular imagination and cultural values. The Odyssey and the Iliad formed the basis of education for members of ancient Mediterranean society. That curriculum was adopted by Western humanists, meaning

12875-414: The popular conception of characters and events of the Odyssey, inflecting the story with connotations not present in the original text: "For instance, in the scene where Telemachus oversees the hanging of the slaves who have been sleeping with the suitors, most translations introduce derogatory language ("sluts" or "whores") [...] The original Greek does not label these slaves with derogatory language." In

13000-456: The principal works and stories in the Mahābhārata are the Bhagavad Gita , the story of Damayanti , the story of Shakuntala , the story of Pururava and Urvashi , the story of Savitri and Satyavan , the story of Kacha and Devayani , the story of Rishyasringa and an abbreviated version of the Rāmāyaṇa , often considered as works in their own right. Traditionally, the authorship of

13125-529: The result of the influence of the Gilgamesh epic upon the Odyssey . In 1914, paleontologist Othenio Abel surmised the origins of the Cyclops to be the result of ancient Greeks finding an elephant skull. The enormous nasal passage in the middle of the forehead could have looked like the eye socket of a giant, to those who had never seen a living elephant. Classical scholars, on the other hand, have long known that

13250-483: The seashore with her maids after Athena told her in a dream to do so. He appeals for help. She encourages him to seek the hospitality of her parents, Arete and Alcinous . Alcinous promises to provide him a ship to return him home without knowing the identity of Odysseus. He remains for several days. Odysseus asks the blind singer Demodocus to tell the story of the Trojan Horse , a stratagem in which Odysseus had played

13375-515: The ship by force. Afterward, Odysseus and his men landed on a lush, uninhabited island near the land of the Cyclopes . The men entered the cave of Polyphemus , where they found all the cheeses and meat they desired. Upon returning to his cave, Polyphemus sealed the entrance with a massive boulder and proceeded to eat Odysseus's men. Odysseus devised an escape plan in which he, identifying himself as "Nobody," plied Polyphemus with wine and blinded him with

13500-521: The story of the Cyclops was originally a folk tale , which existed independently of the Odyssey and which became part of it at a later date. Similar stories are found in cultures across Europe and the Middle East. According to this explanation, the Cyclops was originally simply a giant or ogre, much like Humbaba in the Epic of Gilgamesh . Graham Anderson suggests that the addition about it having only one eye

13625-487: The suitors wish for the death of Telemachus. There is no scholarly consensus on the date of the composition of the Odyssey . The Greeks began adopting a modified version of the Phoenician alphabet to write down their own language during the mid-8th century BC. The Homeric poems may have been one of the earliest products of that literacy, and if so, would have been composed some time in the late 8th century BC. Inscribed on

13750-411: The suitors, for food and Antinous denies his request. Odysseus essentially says that while Antinous may look like a king, he is far from a king since he is not generous. According to J. B. Hainsworth, guest-friendship follows a very specific pattern: Another important factor of guest-friendship is not keeping the guest longer than they wish and also promising their safety while they are a guest within

13875-418: The suitors. Telemachus and Penelope receive their omens as well in the form of words, sneezes, and dreams. However, Odysseus is the only character who receives thunder or lightning as an omen. She highlights this as crucial because lightning, as a symbol of Zeus, represents the kingship of Odysseus. Odysseus is associated with Zeus throughout both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Omens are another example of

14000-442: The suitors. After Odysseus reveals his true identity, the characters test Odysseus' identity to see if he really is who he says he is. For instance, Penelope tests Odysseus' identity by saying that she will move the bed into the other room for him. This is a difficult task since it is made out of a living tree that would require being cut down, a fact that only the real Odysseus would know, thus proving his identity. Testing also has

14125-720: The suitors. He disembarks on the coast of Ithaca and meets Odysseus. Odysseus identifies himself to Telemachus (but not to Eumaeus), and they decide that the suitors must be killed. Telemachus goes home first. Accompanied by Eumaeus, Odysseus returns to his own house, still pretending to be a beggar. He is ridiculed by the suitors in his own home, especially Antinous . Odysseus meets Penelope and tests her intentions by saying he once met Odysseus in Crete. Closely questioned, he adds that he had recently been in Thesprotia and had learned something there of Odysseus's recent wanderings. Odysseus's identity

14250-399: The text was so much a part of the cultural fabric that it became irrelevant whether an individual had read it. As such, the influence of the Odyssey has reverberated through over a millennium of writing. The poem topped a poll of experts by BBC Culture to find literature's most enduring narrative. It is widely regarded by western literary critics as a timeless classic and remains one of

14375-569: The theory of Jaya with 8,800 verses to a misreading of a verse in the Adi Parva (1.1.81). The redaction of this large body of text was carried out after formal principles, emphasizing the numbers 18 and 12. The addition of the latest parts may be dated by the absence of the Anushasana Parva and the Virata Parva from the " Spitzer manuscript ". The oldest surviving Sanskrit text dates to

14500-1239: The universe to ashes, but the entire universe is incapable of reducing Janardana to ashes. Wherever there is truthfulness, wherever virtue, wherever modesty, wherever simplicity, even there is Govinda. And thither where Krishna is, success must be. That soul of all creatures, most exalted of male beings, Janardana, guides, as if in sport, the entire earth, the firmament, and the heaven. In the Bhagavad Gita , Arjuna invokes this epithet: विस्तरेणात्मनो योगं विभूतिं च जनार्दन । भूयः कथय तृप्तिर् हि शृण्वतो नास्ति मेऽमृतम् ॥ १८ ॥ vistareṇātmano yogaṃ vibhūtiṃ ca janārdana | bhūyaḥ kathaya tṛptir hi śṛṇvato nāsti me'mṛtam || 18 || O Janārdana, please tell me again in detail about Your mystic powers and opulences, for I am not satiated from hearing Your nectarean words. Mahabharata Divisions Sama vedic Yajur vedic Atharva vedic Vaishnava puranas Shaiva puranas Shakta puranas The Mahābhārata ( / m ə ˌ h ɑː ˈ b ɑːr ə t ə , ˌ m ɑː h ə -/ mə- HAH - BAR -ə-tə, MAH -hə- ; Sanskrit : महाभारतम् , IAST : Mahābhāratam , pronounced [mɐɦaːˈbʱaːrɐt̪ɐm] )

14625-463: The way of preserving justice. Shakuni, Duryodhana, and Dushasana plot to get rid of the Pandavas. Shakuni calls the architect Purochana to build a palace out of flammable materials like lac and ghee. He then arranges for the Pandavas and the Queen Mother Kunti to stay there, intending to set it alight. However, the Pandavas are warned by their wise uncle, Vidura , who sends them a miner to dig

14750-642: The western Mediterranean". Some of Ulysses's adventures reappear in the Arabic tales of Sinbad the Sailor . The Irish writer James Joyce 's modernist novel Ulysses (1922) was significantly influenced by the Odyssey . Joyce had encountered the figure of Odysseus in Charles Lamb 's Adventures of Ulysses , an adaptation of the epic poem for children, which seems to have established the Latin name in Joyce's mind. Ulysses,

14875-535: The wisest figures in the Mahabharata . He serves as Prime Minister (Mahamantri or Mahatma) to King Pandu and King Dhritarashtra. When the princes grow up, Dhritarashtra is about to be crowned king by Bhishma when Vidura intervenes and uses his knowledge of politics to assert that a blind person cannot be king. This is because a blind man cannot control and protect his subjects. The throne is then given to Pandu because of Dhritarashtra's blindness. Pandu marries twice, to Kunti and Madri . Dhritarashtra marries Gandhari ,

15000-460: The world and unable to return home. After leaving Calypso's island, the poet describes Odysseus' encounters with the Phaeacians—those who "convoy without hurt to all men" —which represents his transition from not returning home to returning home. Also, during Odysseus' journey, he encounters many beings that are close to the gods. These encounters are useful in understanding that Odysseus is in

15125-460: Was accepted by Yudhisthira despite the rest of the Pandavas advising him not to play. Shakuni , Duryodhana's uncle, now arranges a dice game, playing against Yudhishthira with loaded dice. In the dice game, Yudhishthira loses all his wealth, then his kingdom. Yudhishthira then gambles his brothers, himself, and finally his wife into servitude. The jubilant Kauravas insult the Pandavas in their helpless state and even try to disrobe Draupadi in front of

15250-514: Was assumed dead, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus had to contend with a group of unruly suitors who were competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The Odyssey was originally composed in Homeric Greek in around the 8th or 7th century BC and, by the mid-6th century BC, had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity , Homer's authorship of the poem was not questioned, but contemporary scholarship predominantly assumes that

15375-453: Was described by some early 20th-century Indologists as unstructured and chaotic. Hermann Oldenberg supposed that the original poem must once have carried an immense "tragic force" but dismissed the full text as a "horrible chaos." Moritz Winternitz ( Geschichte der indischen Literatur 1909) considered that "only unpoetical theologists and clumsy scribes" could have lumped the parts of disparate origin into an unordered whole. Research on

15500-460: Was invented to explain how the creature was so easily blinded. Homecoming (Ancient Greek: νόστος, nostos ) is a central theme of the Odyssey . Anna Bonafazi of the University of Cologne writes that, in Homer, nostos is "return home from Troy, by sea". Agatha Thornton examines nostos in the context of characters other than Odysseus, in order to provide an alternative for what might happen after

15625-416: Was seduced by her. They remained with her for one year. Finally, guided by Circe's instructions, Odysseus and his crew crossed the ocean and reached a harbor at the western edge of the world, where Odysseus sacrificed to the dead . Odysseus summoned the spirit of the prophet Tiresias and was told that he may return home if he is able to stay himself and his crew from eating the sacred livestock of Helios on

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