CHAPTER 6

COMPARISON OF ATTITUDE TOWARDS

WOMEN IN THE ILIAD. THE ODYSSEY AND

THE 199

After analysing the individual women characters in all these epics, it is possible to compare the attitudes towards women and their status in the two traditions.

A) Women in the Greek epics :

Critics like J. W. Mackail complain that Homer did not use all his skill in women's portrayal as he used it in the portrayal of men. He comments in Lectures on Greek Poetry—

"Homer's women are likewise [like Shakespeare's] remarkable; yet one has the feeling throughout that they are only fragments, sparingly used and jealously scrutinized, of a lost world of poetry that may have held figures as great as those of Gudrun and Brynhild,>of

Imogen or Cleopatra. Andromache and Penelope are the only two women in the foremost plane of action. Both are vivid and actual, as fully alive as men among whom they move. Yet in both it seems as if the poet made them live almost against his will, or against the will of his audience; as though he would rather have given, or they would rather have had given them, generalized portraits of the faithful wife and affectionate mother. The recognition of Odysseus by Penelope might have been treated with the same power and tenderness as the parting of Andromache and Hector; Is the Greek feeling about what was proper for women responsible for its being otherwise and have the limits of the harder Hellenic taste lost for us one of the greatest passages in

poetry?"^ 200

As Mackail suggests, a sense of inferiority about women, whether they are aristocratic or piebian, is found almost everywhere in the two Greek epics. We find that "hero" has no equivalent feminine gender in the age of heroes. Paul Merchant quotes in his Epic the words of Protagoras—

"man is the measure of all things."^

Protagoras suggests that "humans" were important but now we must say that what he seems to have meant is "man" and not "woman" is the measure of all things. The very smallness of the number of women characters in these epics is a measure of the lack of importance given to them. The nature of the Iliad is martial or warlike. The Greek women did not fight like the Amazons did at that time and hence they do not have a prominent role to play in the Iliad.

The Iliad is the story of "the wrath of Achilles", and the story of the Trojan war covers a large part of the epic but it ends where the

"wrath" theme ends and we do not see the end of the war. Apparently a woman is the cause behind each of the events that give rise to these themes. Achilles was full of wrath because the slave-woman Briseis was taken away from him and the whole war resulted from Paris'

abduction of Helen from Menelaus. But when we look more carefully at

the two themes, this reasoning seems not only specious but also

deliberately misogynistic. Briseis is not important to Achilles as a

woman but only because she is the prize. Briseis is a trifle but Briseis

seized from Achilles is worth 'seven tripods that have never been on 201 fire, ten talents of gold' and the like. When Agamemnon takes Briseis from him, his honour is openly shamed and, as Bruno Snell says, once honor is destroyed, the moral existence of the loser collapses.

Even Agamemnon has taken hold of Briseis only because

Chryseis had to be surrendered to her father. Obviously for both the warriors Briseis is only a token of honour and the whole episode illustrates the competition among men for the possession of women, as

"prizes", "trophies" or like heads of rare animals on the walls of a hunter.

Again, even Helen was not the real cause of the war. She was the point of honour for the two Achaean brothers, the kings. Moreover, throughout the epic it is seen that Hera and Athena are keen on destruction of the city of Troy for avenging themselves. Helen is the excuse, the scapegoat. The story of the golden 'apple of discord' is not

related by Homer in the epic but it is in the background and the poet

has taken for granted the audience's knowledge of the story. The other

probable causes are discussed at the end of the chapter.

Helen, Hecuba, Andromache, Briseis, Penelope, Nausicaaa are

the prominent women; Calypso and Circe are witch princesses and if

we include goddesses among them, Thetis, Aphrodite, Hera and

Athena make the list longer. Women are dominant not among mortals

but among the immortals. Zeus is sometimes like a henpecked husband

before Hera. She borrows charms from Aphrodite and enamours him

and then makes him sleep while she manages to bring about Hector's

defeat. Athena and Aphrodite often have their own way and interfere in 202 human affairs. Aphrodite rules Paris and Helen. In Book Three she brings Paris to his chamber from the battlefield. She orders Helen to surrender to him there. Helen is most reluctant to do this. Her words express her weariness of him. She hates his cowardice that is disgusting to her especially against the background of the nobility and bravery of Hector. Hector is going to fight and lose his life in the war that is caused by herself and Paris. Yet she has to follow the order of

Aphrodite because of her threats. Athena creates an illusion for Hector as if Deiphobus was with him to help him during his fight with Achilles.

Hector is deceived and meets his death alone at the hands of Achilles.

He might not have been defeated if he were not deceived. The goddesses are as powerful, capricious, jealous and demanding as the gods are, if not more so, but when it comes to women, they have a uniformly inferior status to men as it comes out in the epics.

W. E. Gladstone says in Homer.

"There is a certain authority of the man over the woman but it does not destroy freedom, or imply the absence either of respect, or of close mental or moral fellowship. Not only the relation of Odysseus to

Penelope and of Hector to Andromache but of those Achilles to Briseis, and of Menelaus to returned Helen are full of dignity and attachment.

Briseis was but a captive, yet Achilles viewed her as in expectation a wife, called her so, avowed his love for her and laid it down that not he only but every man must love his wife, if he had sense and virtue.

Among the Achaeans monogamy is invariable, divorce unknown, incest 203 abhorred It should perhaps be noted as a token of the respect paid to the position of the woman, that these very bad men are not represented as ever having included in their plans the idea of offering violence to Penelope."^

What Gladstone says about the relationship of Hector and

Andromache and of Odysseus to Penelope can perhaps be accepted with reservations. The tenderness of the love of the former couple is expressed in their farewell scene. Odysseus pines to go back to Ithaca and refuses Calypso's offer of immortality and eternal youth. But this love is not equal to the devotion of Penelope because the poet's words are—

"the nymph was dear to him no longer."'*

The words 'no longer' are significant and indicate obviously that she was dear to him earlier. Even though, as Gladstone observes, monogamy was invariable among the Achaeans, such affairs were very common and concubines were customary. J. M. Robertson has noted about Homeric times in A Short History of Morals.

"Husbands appear to have indulged largely, and with little or no

censure, in concubines. Female captives of the highest rank were

treated with great harshness."^

It is also found that all the Greek epic women are very pathetic in

the face of war. Helen repents the moment she joined Paris and

remembers her child and her husband in Sparta. She can resist neither 204

Paris nor Aphrodite and we are not told whether she had resisted them while in Sparta, whether she was abducted or she eloped. Now she is tired of Paris and yet has to depend on him. She feels repulsion for him because of his cowardice. Her divine beauty is only an object of blame and curse in Troy because of the war. Hecuba is a helpless mother trying to appeal to Hector to desist from fighting. She is far less effective or decisive than and even . Andromache's devotion for her husband and her child are exemplary but she lives under the shadow of the awareness of the impending catastrophe that she is helpless to avoid. The famous scene of Hector's farewell reveals her sweetness and tenderness but pathos is the keynote of her character.

Thetis is a goddess but seems more human with her constant motherly concern and anxiety for Achilles. She presses Hephaestus to make an armour for her son and pleads for him in heaven. None of these women are independent or powerful. They do not take any decisions, obey men and face the consequences of the war meekly. It seems that a woman was respected and loved in the family as wife, mother and daughter but when she lost her husband or father or "male support" in a war she became a captive, a slave. In his Evolution of Hindu Moral Ideals P. S.

Shivaswamy Aiyer quotes T. G. Tucker from his Life In Ancient Athens.

"In ancient Greece at no time of her life could a woman be

without a guardian. If her father was not alive, it would be her nearest

male relative, and this person remained her guardian even when she

vi/as married. After her husband's death her son was her guardian."^ ' 205

These words sound just like a translation of Manu in India.

B) Slave women :

The position of the Greek women even from the upper stratum of

society represented by Helen, Hecuba, Andromache, Penelope is not

very elevated, as is explained earlier, so one can only imagine how low the status of the actual slave women may be in those times. The

Odyssey shows a more elaborate picture of this class than the Iliad.

The practice of enslaving captured women and distributing them to the warriors as spoils is casually mentioned many times in the Hiad. Nestor addresses the Achaeans here—

So now let no man hurry to sail for home, not yet...

nor till he beds down with a faithful Trojan wife ^

Achilles is mentioned to oe

"fighting other soldiers to win their wives as prizes."^

Chryseis was the daughter of Chryses, a priest but was carried

off by the Achaeans in one of their raids and she became

Agamemnon's concubine. However, being a 'high-born' war captive she

was reclaimed later by her father. Agamemnon had to surrender her to

the father and then he claimed Briseis who was Achilles' share of the

booty, as a substitute. He surrendered only when Chryses prayed to 206

Apollo and the god inflicted plague upon the whole army. Otherwise he was determined not to give up the girl. He says—

"The girl—I won't give up the girl. Long before that

Old age will overtake her in my house in Argos

far from her fatherland, slaving back and forth

at the loom, forced to share my bed."''°

The imperious and disdainful tone can be easily noted here. The use of the words "slaving" and "forced" also show his contempt and derision about the girl.

Briseis went from Achilles to Agamemnon when she was demanded and again from Agamemnon to Achilles when it was so decided by the commanders. Chrlseis was freed and returned to her father only because of the pressure of a god, a superior power. Briseis remained like an object, probably, as she had no such support. W. B.

Stanford comments on the situation of women in the Homeric world in his essay "Personal Relationships" in Essays on the Odyssey. On the one hand the Heroic Age was strictly monogamous. Homer generally portrays the relationships between husbands and wives as affectionate, honorable and equal. This can be observed in case of Hector and

Andromache but open concubinage was permitted to husbands. It is true that Menelaus and Odysseus had no concubines with them during the Trojan campaign. Stanford thinks that Menelaus' lasting infatuation

for Helen is the reason of his abstinence. But Stanford is not correct to 207 say this. He has not taken into account that in the Odyssey we are told that Menelaus' son is to be married and he is born of a slaye woman.

"For the wife of his [Menelaus'] son, Megapenthes, he had sought from Sparta the daughter of Alector; this son, courageous and dearly loved, had been begotten upon a slave-woman, for the gods had given no child to Helen when once she had borne Hermione, a girl as lovely as golden Aphrodite." ^^

Stanford points out that Odysseus' affection for Penelope was mixed with prudence and his desire to preserve the unity of his home must be behind his abstinence from concubines. Stanford is right because Odysseus enjoys the company of Circe and Calypso very heartily and he longs for home after spending seven years on Calypso's island. His father, Laertes had bought Eurycleia and did not lay hand upon her only because he feared his wife, Anticleia. The Odyssey shows a kind of evolution in the attitude towards war and towards women. Helen is not merely a puppet in the hands of Aphrodite or Paris in the Odyssey as she is in the Iliad. Odysseus' life at every turn is bound up with a woman's skill. Also the other women, like Nausicaa and Penelope, are not as pale as the women in the Iliad. Yet male

power is unbridled in the patriarchal setting of this epic, the male-female

relationship is complex and the freedom for men about concubinage

worsened the condition of the slave women. 208

C) Gerda Lerner about women in Greek epics :

In her Creation of Patriarchy Gerda Lerner has assessed the whole episode of the transfer of the female war captives. She comments,

"The enslavement of female war captives and their use as concubines and war spoils continued from the time of the Homeric epic into the modern period." ^^

Queen Penelope was weaving assiduously all day and unravelling all night. So the wife is weaving endlessly to protect her virtue and domesticity and performing her dual productive and sexual role to perfection. At the same time roaming Odysseus was engaged in a variety of sexual and martial adventures. This is similar to the case of

Arjuna and . had affairs with Ulupee and Chitrangada while he was roaming and Draupadi is expected to be faithful not only to him but also equally faithful to all the husbands. If Queen Penelope is taken to be so inferior, naturally the plight of the slave women in the palace is far worse. Eurycleia, who was bought by Laertes for twenty oxen, was Penelope's maid. When Odysseus killed all the suitors, the women were witnesses to the scene. They had no voice and no power

to oppose. Then Eurycleia told him about the slave women who had

slept with the suitors. Telemachus had not been able to stop the suitors

when they used the maids and pestered his mother Penelope. But now

that Odysseus wanted to punish these slave women, Telemachus

decided to take a hand. They were called for and made to do the duty of 209 carrying out the dead bodies and scrubbing the hall. Then they were to be killed with 'long blades' but suddenly he refused to give them such a clean and honourable death and strangled them. He might not be strong enough to protect them but he was strong enough to kill them brutally. Odysseus felt 'sweet longing' after this massacre was over to meet other people. Penelope was a queen. We are told that she was sleeping when the slave women were killed. But it is doubtful if the queen could or would have stopped that hanging. Eurycleia herself Was a slave woman but she helped the prince in the hanging. She told him which women went with the suitors. As Gerda Lerner remarks about the slave women—

"The victims of rape are guilty. They are dishonoured by being dishonourable. The offence committed upon them does not count as an assault or a sexual crime but as a crime of property against the master who owns them.

Eurycleia is merely an instrument of her master's will and acts

entirely in his interest. Under such conditions there does not arise any

linkage of sisterhood. Odysseus' love takes the form of violence and

possessiveness. Killing and sweet longing are for him not incompatible.

And the son of the master becomes a man partaking in the assault on

slave women.—[this is] a domestic scene metaphoric of relations

between the sexes under patnarchy." ^^

The episode also shows sexual exploitation of lower class

women by upper class men. Gerda Lerner remarks further, 210

"Women have for millennia participated in the process of their own subordination because they have been psychologically shaped so as to internalize the idea of their own inferiority." ""*

This remark applies to both the traditions. It is interesting to note how wives in the epics use different means to enamour their husbands.

Hera gets a breast band from Aphrodite which is 'pierced and alluring, with every kind of enchantment woven through if and manages to enchant Zeus. When Zeus knows about it later, he scolds her and warns her against such means. In the Aranyaka Parvan in the

Mahabharata Satyabhama asks Draupadi what drugs or magic

Draupadi uses to get the love of her husbands and Draupadi condemns the use of any such means. The idea of using such means suggests the fear of losing their husbands' love which must have been hazardous for the wives.

The remark of Gerda Lerner applies especially to the eastern traditiofi, where the twentieth century has brought about no major

change in the attitudes. The concept of inferiority of woman is banished

only from a very small elite section of the Indian society. An enormous

number of Indian women accept the concept of their inferiority without

protest or resistance—even rather gladly. Marx is believed to have said

that the exploited begin to accept exploitation. This is true in the case of

majority of women.

After Agamemnon took Briseis, he did not even touch her.

Obviously he did not want her either as a sexual object or as a person, 211 but only for winning a point of primacy over Achilles. In his essay mentioned above, W. B. Stanford has quoted Aristotle and said that most of the women slaves awarded to the various heroes were "as an honour", "not for use." Later while returning Briseis to Achilles

Agamemnon swore a great oath that he never entered into her bed and never lay with her. He meant to offer one of his three daughters to

Achilles after the defeat of Troy. He sacrificed Iphigenia, his eldest daughter, to Diana for smooth sailing of the ships at the beginning of the expedition to Troy. As the legend goes, Agamemnon in hunting killed a stag sacred to Diana. The angry goddess visited the army with pestilence and produced such weather that prevented the ships from leaving the port. Calchas the soothsayer thereupon announced that the wrath of the virgin goddess could be appeased only by the sacrifice of a virgin on her altar and that none other but the daughter of the offender would be acceptable. So he sent for Iphigenia under the pretence that

she was to be married to Achilles and she was sacrificed. It was

Iphigenia, and not Orestes or any other son that was to be sacrificed.

Gladstone says that Achilles loved Briseis but the Iliad shows that while

Achilles was sulking about her, he had a woman lying beside him,

Phorbas' daughter. Enslaved male warriors are rarely mentioned in the

Iliad.

Women, even of the higher class, were denied the right to a

"heroic way of life", to feats of prowess, competitive games and

leadership in organized activity of any kind. Women worked manually

regardless of class. Nausicaa did household laundry. Queen Penelope, 212

Andromache did weaving, chough it seems that her work was not exactly indispensable and she had mainly to supervise. Telemachus commands his mother twice [Book One and Book Twenty-one] to leave the hall and get to her province. There he asks her to supervise and not to do the work herself. Women of the upper class mainly did the managerial work. The house was their domain. But it also has to be noted that this status of women is not idealized as it is done in the

Indian tradition. Men had no chivalry or romantic attachment for women either, which is found in the songs in the middle ages.

The circumstances in that ancient world were partially responsible for the dependence of women on men and their total subsidiary position or status. Woman's qualities were expected to be chastity, beauty and economy while those of men were courage, strength and self-reliance. While narrating the representation of

character in tragedy, Aristotle says in Poetics.

"The characters represented should be suitable: for example, the

character represented is brave, but it is not suitable for a woman to be ru brave or clever in this way." ^^

Agamemnon tells Calchas in an outburst of rage about Chryseis-

"I rank her higher than Clytemnestra, my wedded wife—

she is nothing less in build or breeding, in mind or

works of hand. ^^ 213

Jasper Griffin has quoted an ancient connmentator in his Homer about this description as follows—

"In one line he has included the whole excellence of a woman." ^''

Griffin comments further pertinently,

"One might object that this list defines the excellence of a woman in terms of her value to a man; but it is fair to point out that the overriding emphasis on courage and strength as the virtues of a man largely defines him, too, in terms of his value to a womenfolk. Human groups in that early world are constantly vulnerable to attack and their existence depends on the fighting spirit of their men. Without Hector,

Andromache would be a slave." ^^

This dependence of woman on man might have given him a sense of superiority. Perhaps men began to take advantage of this dependence and exploit women for their purpose. They failed sometimes though most of the times they succeeded in this. In Greece, as in India, there seem to have been phases of freedom ahd suppression of women. At a later stage women might have been thought fit to rule as the following quotation from Plato shows—

"Glaucon, you must not forget that some of them (the rulers) will be women. All I have been saying applies just as much to any women who are found to have the necessary gifts." ^^ 214

These might have been different phases but the epic women of

Homer do not seem to be enjoying an equal status with men, or freedom, as it can be observed in the Iliad and the Odvssev.

D) M. I. Finley about Homeric women :

M.I. Finley remarks that the Greeks do not use the word "wives"

but "bedmates". He further says that from Homer to the end of Greek

literature there were no ordinary words with the specific meanings-

husband and wife. A man was a man, a father, a warrior, a chieftain, a

king, a hero; linguistically he was almost never a husband. He quotes

Aristotle's explanation of philia. When there is philia of a lower kind

between a man and a woman, each of the two differs in virtue and in

function, in the ground for friendship, and therefore also in affection and

friendship. Accordingly, the affection should be proportionate to the

respective worth of each. The better of the two should receive more

affection than he gives. Finley thinks that that is precisely what we find

in Homer. While Odysseus was absent, the loss to Penelope

emotionally, psychologically, affectively, was incomparably greater than

the loss to her husband. His remark is—

"The bard fully shared the conviction of the natural inferiority of

women and defined their feelings to their lords and superiors." ^°

This remark is convincing.

Finley also states that among the images of love in Homer there

is no image of husband's joy in life. But this does not sound reasonable 215 when we read Book Twenty-three. It contains beautiful narration of the union of Odysseus and Penelope.

"Thus she spoke, and quickened in hinri the mood for tears; he wept as he held the true-hearted wife in whom his soul delighted. As land is welcome to shipwrecked sailors when out at sea Poseidon has struck their gallant vessel—the sport of tempest and swelling waves— and now a few of them have swum out from the whitening waters to a refuge on shore, their bodies all encrusted with brine-as welcome as is the dry land to those when they set foot there with all their miseries behind them—so welcome to her was the husband she kept her gaze upon, and her white arms about his neck would not even now let him

E) C. M. Bowra about Homeric women :

C. M. Bowra makes a very important point about Homeric women in Greek Experience. They moved freely and easily among men

but took no part in war or public affairs and were excluded from rule and

government. [In the so-called first direct participatory democracy only

"free" male citizens had the vote.] Bowra rightly points out that as a

result of the heroic outlook inevitably the Greek society had an

essentially masculine character and so, much of the sentiment which in

most countries exists between men and women existed in Greece

between men and men. He states,

"The Greeks gave to friendship [between men] the attachment

and the loyalty which elsewhere accompany the love of women." ^^ 216

We find the classic example of this friendship in Achilles and

Patroclus that is a pivot in this story. Grief and anger at Patroclus' death sends Achilles back to battle so that he may take his revenge on

Hector. The lamentation of Achilles for Patroclus is as bitter and intense as that of a beloved for her lover. The epics portray the predominantly male character of the Greek civilization. Their soft affections are to be found in the context of family. Odysseus paints a lovely picture of home life when he is impressed by the graceful conduct of Nausicaa and blesses her affectionately.

"As for yourself, may the gods enrich you with everything that your heart desires-may they bring you a husband and a home and the oneness of mind that means content. There is nothing nobler, nothirig lovelier than when man and wife keep house together with like heart and with like will. Their foes repine, their friends rejoice, but the truth of it all is with her and him." ^^

Hector's farewell of Andromache in the Iliad shows this. Achilles always remembers and thinks of his father very lovingly. He melts before Priam with pity, even though he is his stark enemy, mainly because Priam reminds him of his old father. During the conversation of

Priam and Helen at the Scaean Gates, the old king talks affectionately to the woman who is the cause of the war according to all. He speaks to her as he would speak to any of his daughters-in-law. As pointed out earlier, Odysseus yearns to return to Ithaca for the sake of his family declining the offers of the witch-princess, Calypso. 217

Yet, as one studies the Greek epics with a view of discovering the " Greek" attitude to women in general, one finds therein the

behaviour patterns of the "heroic age." No heroic legend tells a tale of courtesy towards women. A woman's status in the heroic age was

different from that of the "city state" age.

In Homer, the facts of sex are frankly stated and there is no

glorification of purity or self-abnegation. Love had not become a

romantic ideal for which men would be ready to undergo any privation

or undertake any adventure. It is Hellenic or heroic masculine love and

no romantic love of idealized womanhood. Generally there is lust in its

place. Everyone was so often at war that love did not have an important

place in the camp life. Again the heroic standard of conduct did not

allow a great room for women in the life of the warriors. They did not

occupy an important place in the world of men and hardly count in the

action and even the number of women characters is small.

F) Role models of women :

As it is noted in the third chapter of this dissertation, there is no

didactic preaching in the Greek epics. The poet or the characters do not

advise men or women. No pieces of advice to women are given directly

or by implication or through the speeches of prominent characters as to

how they should behave. Homer does not present "role models" of

women in his epics. This is a great contrast between the epics of the

two traditions. The Mahabharata is full of advice and preaching as to

how men and especially women should behave and what their duties 218 are towards their fathers and the family. The duties of a wife towards

her husband occupy a large part of the preaching. In Aaranyaka

Parvan, in Adhyaya Two hundred twenty-two and Two hundred twenty- three Draupadi advises Satyabhama how a wife should behave.

Parvatee narrates a wife's duties in Anushasana Parvan in Adhyaya

One hundred thirty-four. Adhyaya Thirty-two of Anushasana Parvan

relates the attributes of a respectable man but not a single attribute

among them is related to his behaviour or attitude towards women or

his wife. In Adhyaya Ninety-three of Ashwamedhika Parvan 's

story of a brahman consists of a description of a husband's duty to feed

his wife. Probably this is the only place where a husband's duty towards

his wife is narrated. It is brief and has only two verses. The reply to this

speech follows in four verses for narrating a wife's duty. So here, too,

the amount of advice to women is greater. The gist of the advice to

women is that they should think of the husband as a god, an idol of

worship.

G) Religious element in epics :

One is led to think that these dictates must be interpolations

inserted by men later to create an ideal of womanhood or wife or a role

model for women to emulate. The following quotation by M. Winternitz

in A History of Indian Literature explains how the Mahabharata must

have lost its nature of bardic poetry and become an almost religious

and didactic text. This is another major point of difference between the

epics of the two traditions. Homer's epics have remained secular in the 219

sense that they never became religious. M. Winternitz says in his A

History of Indian Literature.

"The nnore the heroic songs grew in favour and the more popular they became, the greater the anxiety of the Brahamans to take

possession of the epic poetry also; and they had the art of

compounding this poetry which was essentially and purely secular in

origin, with their own religious poems and the whole stock-in-trade of

their theological and priestly knowledge. This priestly class welcomed

the popular epic as the very medium for the propagation of their own

doctrines and thereby for strengthening and consolidating of their

influence. It was they who inserted into the epic all the numerous myths

and legends (Itihasas) in which wonderful feats are related of the

famous seers of ancient times, the Rsis, the ancestors of the

Brahmans, how by dint of sacrifices and asceticism they obtain

tremendous power not only over men but even over the gods and how

when they are offended, their curse causes the fall of princes and great

men, and even of the kings of the gods.

The Mahabharata was however, too much of a popular book, too

much the property of the extensive circles of the people, in particular of

the warrior caste, for it ever to have become an actual Brahmanical

work or the property of any Vedic school." ^'*

Lokamanya Tilak mentions in his editorials about the

Mahabharata that originally it was a saga of the ' victory in the

war and the discourses about dharma, morality and other tenets were 220 added later to it. In her : Texts. Readings. Histories. Ronnila

Thapar, an eminent scholar of ancient history, also writes about the interpolations and constant additions in the Mahabharata. She points out that analyses of the structure and content of the Mahabharata have led to the view that the original epic was subjected to n^iany additions and interpolations. She rightly remarks that people select from the past those images which endorse what we want from the present. Many of these interpolations were made deliberately and so they acted as mechanisms of legitimizing different ideologies, religious sects and socio-political changes.

As the brahmans used the epics to consolidate their authority and master status over the so called low classes or common people, so also must these men have used the epics to disseminate and popularize the brahmanical ideal of a woman.

Therefore, the attitude towards women has to be appraised and coaxed out very carefully from the text of the Mahabharata as it is known today, trying to chip away interpolations to find the "real story."

Although it is impossible to excise the epic of such interpolations (it is a highly controversial matter), we can at least ignore the preaching and the advice to women. The discussion of Bheeshma and in

Anushasana Parvan when Bheeshma is on his deathbed of arrows consists of "the nature of women". Women are absolutely degraded in this part. But Bheeshma also advises in the Shanti Parvan that a daughter may be made a queen if there is no son. Bheeshma proved to 221 be insensitive wlnen Draupadi was being liumiiiatecl in tlie court of tine

Kauravas. But he does not come out as misogynist as he does In this discussion. One, therefore, wonders whether Bheeshma's speech in

Anusasana Parvan is not an interpolation. Adhyaya Thirty-eight of the

Anushasana Parvan condemns womankind in twenty verses as the combination of poison, cruelty and lust.

Monier Williams notes in his Religious Thought and Life in India-

Part 1 : Vedism. Brahmanism and as follows-

"I have seen several shrines of Draupadi [called in southern India

Draupadi Amman] but her five husbands receive little actual adoration."

25

But this is not common and Draupadi's temples are rarely found.

In the Indian tradition Seeta is given the status of a goddess. The reason is obvious. Seeta never questioned any judgement of and accepted his decisions meekly and protested only very mildly whereas

Draupadi's charges against Yudhishthira are very harsh. She argues with him boldly during their stay in the wilderness. Seeta is the desirable ideal of a traditional wife.

The priests of ancient Greece do not seem at any time to have

had much weight in the political or social scale. The soothsayers advise

the kings according to the so-called messages of gods but they never

decide the behaviour patterns. The Greek epics never become religious

texts. The story of the Mahabharata also does not show any religious

purpose. The passages in the Mahabharata dictating a woman's duties 222 appear to be parasitical. The reason why this can be said is this: the main women characters in the Mahabharata do not behave like these later models. The character sketch of Draupadi shows this. She 'has discussions and debates with her husbands and boldly asks questibns in the court. Other women such as Kunti, Gandhari also do not match these models.

The story of Savitri can show us how the Mahabharata women were converted into models for religious and didactic purposes. Her story as it comes out in the Mahabharata. is only a saga of love and constancy, virtue and wisdom; but the same story is taken by the priests and made into Savitri Vrata. Women fast on the particular day, Vat

Poornima in the month of Jeshtha, worship the vat (banyan) tree with a thread, [because Savitri's husband, Satyavana, was lying under a banyan tree when he was saved by Savitri] and recite Savitri's story.

They pray to her for obtaining the same husband for the next seven births. So the vrata advocates one-way loyalty and eternal constancy towards the husband, and the vrata is followed by a large number of women in many parts of India. Savitri is worshipped in this way whereas

Draupadi is included among krityas (fatal women). M. Winternitz has noted that Jataka 536 shows Draupadi as an example of feminine depravity and committing adultery. Irawati Karve quotes in Yuqanta.

In the Kritayuga Renuka was Kritya,

In the Satyayuga was Kritya,

In the Dvaparyuga Draupadi was Kritya ^^ 223

Yet Renuka and Seeta are worshipped, but not Draupadi. Is it because she had five husbands or because she was not meek like

Seeta?

The role models of women were presented not only through religious vratas but also through popular literature. Savitri is converted into a goddess to be worshipped and emulated for husband worship.

Romila Thapar, has monitorcid the development of the story of

Shakuntala of the Mahabharata in her Shakuntala : Texts. Readings-

Histories. She has shown that the representation of Shakuntala as a woman has altered radically over the centuries. She says that the women in the Mahabharata are strong personalities, cherishing their autonomy and willing to argue for their rights but Kalidasa portrayed

Shakuntala as a meek and docile woman. Romila Thapar remarks further in this connection,

"The Kalidasa play has been more popular with the Indian middle class than the epic rendering The reason was obvious. It highlighted the qualities valued in a woman from the dominant social culture, and underlined what was seen as the triumph of morality." ^^

H) Freedom of women in India :

The status of women has been different in different periods of history of India. The Mahabharata shows that a certain class of women had a certain freedom in India. The marriages in the Mahabharata take place after girls reach womanhood. They are mostly allowed a limited say in the selection of their husbands. It seems that they are "educated" 224 before their marriage. In Vana Parvan Draupadi tells Yudhishthira that she learnt the philosophy of Brihaspati in her father's house.

[3.33.56.57] Women attended celebrations and festivals as is described in Adi Parvan. In the great festival of Raivataka mountain Balrama, other warriors and people in the city are shown enjoying music and dancing along with their wives. [1.211]

Monier Williams also notes in Indian Wisdom.

"When the epic songs were current in India, women were not confined to intercourse with their own families; they did very much as they pleased, travelled about and showed themselves unreservedly in

public." 2^

The custom of swayamvara might have given at least some

freedom to women with respect to marriage.

In India in the Vedic times women enjoyed equality with men and

had freedom to choose their life vocation of pursuit of knowledge rather

than household matters. It is true that the examples of this are only two,

Gargi and Maitriyee, that are often cited, but they show that at least this

was possible at that time. Takatirtha Laxmanshastri Joshi writes in

Vaidik Sanskriticha Itihasa.

w^m] f^^^ 3TT^. ...^ ^ ^^ f^ v5^^c]jTiii ^ #T^nfRT iii^w w^ 225

HMRHC^ MiNci7d ^fficf wumfi xHiHiRrich [ci(^cil c^ ^j^rpff ^jeq?f ?nerf

^^Tc^. 3r?n fcr^5#JT ?f?T^3r rqr^xzn cf^r^ MN'»T men.

^ (#ff) ^g^ ^NdlijiMHiulxj dT^5ii'>4i^ x^ ?t^. q^g clTrjRjdHMI Jter TJtcf^ '^F^ T^ %eTT ?^, "ZTT^ PlcJl^JH ^fTFTgcT ^" .^^

(It is found that many women were bramavadini or preaching . Twenty-six sooktas or verses in the Rig-Veda were constructed by women. The social perversion denoting total mental gulf between women and men or between higher and lower classes was not born then. Such a perversion started at the beginning of the construction of 'Brahma sutras'. Greece, too, was a nation of philosophers like the Indians, but there is no trace of any Greel; Vvoman who had explored the field of philosophical thinking.)

Tarkatirtha Joshi has not considered here the example of

Aspecia who was known in the intellectual circles of Greece, but it is true that such examples are very few. So are they in India.

A.S. Altekar thinks that women's position in both Greece and

India changed because of the introduction of slavery. He says,

"The ir»troduction of slavery revolutionized the position of women

in the classical period of Greek history; they became parasites and lost

the esteem of society. The same happened in India, when a definite

semi servile status came io be assigned to the shudra class, within

Hindu society, service of the Aryan conquerors being its only and

definite duty." ^° 226

1) Ambivalent attitude towards women in the iVIahabharata :

Yet the Mahabharata reveals an ambivalent attitude towards women. On the one hand, Kunti and Draupadi are strong and powerful women. Draupadi tells Satyabhama in Adhyaya Two hundred twenty- two of Aranyaka Parvan that she has full knowledge of the economic and administrative affairs of her husbands and she looks after them.

This shows her full participation in the family's affairs. At the same time, she also relates how she serves the Pandavas with total submission and devotion. Kunti took important decisions for the Pandavas in the absence of their deceased father and his deceased wife, and they never disobeyed her. She loves, adores and cares for Draupadi and values her honour. Arjuna marries Chitrangada and during his journey and the sons born of these princesses remain with their mothers.

Gandhari had to marry blind Dhrutarashtra probably to further her father's political interests but she could take the decision of closing her eyes permanently whether out of a pious desire to share her lord and husband's plight or as a rebellious protest against her father's sacrificing his daughter to politics. Her efforts to stop the evil plotting of

Duryodhana were in vain but she did opposes him incessantly and

could strongly curse even for his ignoring and inability to stop

the disasters.

On the other hand there are characters like Madhavi who are

used like objects of transaction. She had to stay with three kings and 227 give birth to their sons in order to provide her father with eight hundred horses. While Draupadi narrates her role in the family affairs to

Satyabhama, she describes her self-effacement before her husbands and advocates it.

(The world is full of deities but there is no deity like a husband.)

These words do not match the personality of a woman who had arguments with her husband Yudhishthira. and Ambalika have to submit to levirate [) to perpetuate the Kuru dynasty. They have no choice of the man they will allow to sexually possess them and their mother-in-law, a woman, imposes a crude-looking aged man, , upon them. One of them fainted with fear and the other closed her eyes in consternation. They had to give birth to children by levirate for the sake of the dynasty. Perhaps this was natural then because an individual was nothing before society in those times.

Honour of woman was a value but it was protected only until men were not endangered in that effort. The intelligentsia like Bheeshma and

Drona were passive observers when Duhsasana was humilating

Draupadi. Bheeshma said,

^ ^^ ri ^ ^fY^T^ IW^ 9\^-c\^M I 228

(As this task is so subtle, deep and significant, certainly I cannot provide an exact answer to your question in this context.)

He avoided to intervene and act to stop Draupadi's hunriiliation.

He could have exercised his authority as the eldest in the family or the clan for this but he desisted. In the Udyoga Parvan, Adhyaya Twelve, gods first tried to protect 's honour from but when

Nahusha was indignant, they were ready to hand her over to him.

Bheeshma's behaviour is only slightly different from this.

J) Expectations from Draupadi:

In Mahaprasthanika Pan/an the Pandavas and Draupadi are proceeding to Heaven. Draupadi falls down on the way first. When

Bheema asks the reason of her falling, Yudhisthira replies,

^srWt H^H^-yi fcr?rtoT w^^ \

(0 great man, she was very much partial towards Arjuna and now she is being punished for it in this way.)

Now every has another wife than Draupadi. The irony is that Draupadi is expected to be devoted to all her husbands equally. In fact Draupadi cannot be blamed for her greater love for Arjuna whom

she chose in sv^ayamyara and who won her as the other (also-ran)

husbands were actually dumped on her willy-nilly. Obviously, only a

wife is expected to be completely faithful to her husband and not vice-

versa. 229

K) Exceptional sensitivity to women in the epics :

In spite of the general view of inferiority of women in the epics, there are certain examples of high regard about women and their honour. Krishna is an extra-ordinary person in the whole of the

Mahabharata. He shows a rare sense of the value of the honour of women. The episode of providing garments to Draupadi in the court of the may or may not be true, but he does posses the decency to perform that kind of act. That is why such a story is created and credited. The story of his supposed marriage to sixteen thousand war captives of Narakarsura certainly suggests that he gave them some legitimacy and status in society. Kirtankars and other preachers have used this episode only to try to establish that Krishna was God and could perform any prodigious act. Obviously they did not grasp the meaning of his act. Many disasters for women could have been avoided with some similar gesture at the time of the partition of India in 1947.

Bhyrappa has interpreted this story on the same lines in his rich and voluminous novel 'Parva' and it is quite convincing. He has shown how these women were grateful to Krishna for the status he gave them.

Sadananda More also interprets this story of Narakasura in the

same way. He says,

"Not inconsistent with his principle of active interference to bring

about the desired changes in the situation, Krishna took almost a

revolutionary decision. He boldly accepted them [sixteen thousand

women captives] as his wives and gave them guarantee of their 230 livelihood, status, security and honour Throughout his life, Krishna had always stood by the side of the oppressed, deprived apd helpless and had resisted injustice and exploitation." ^^

Everyone in the Mahabharata confides in him and approaches him when they are in difficulties and he is the saviour of almost all the people. They reveal their secrets to him with trust and faith. A powerful woman like Kunti looks upon him as her support. Krishna's relationship with Draupadi also points to a deep regard for womankind. He is her close friend and saviour who never lets her down. He is not like a god to her in the religious sense of the word but their friendship is very precious and beautiful. When Duhshasana is killed by Bheema, Krishna asserts that it is on account of the humiliation of Draupadi in the court of the Kauravas that Duhshasana is punished. Yet Krishna, too could not help thinking of Draupadi as a bait for Kama. He promises Kama that he would earn the conjugal rights towards Draupadi if Kama came to the Pandavas' side. Barring this instance, this kind of sensitivity of

Krishna is rare. It is all the more amazing when we consider those ancient times.

A similar sensitivity is found in Hector among the Greek epics.

He has tender feelings for his wife Andromache. The famous farewell scene between them expresses the feelings very finely. Moreover, he never blames Helen as the cause of the war. He scolds Paris but

always shows sympathy for her. While lamenting after Hector's death,

she says. 231

"But t'lis, now, is the twentieth year for nrie

since I sailed here and forsook my own native land,

yet never once did I hear from you a taunt, an insult.

But if someone else in the royal halls would curse me,

one of your brothers or sisters or brothers' wives

trailing their long robes, even your own mother—

not your father, always kind as my own father—

why, you'd restrain them with words. Hector,

you'd win them to my side...." ^^

At that time she also mentions his 'kind heart and gentle speech'.

In Book Six he arrives in the city of Troy at the instruction of Helenus to organize a sacrifice and procession to Athens. At that time the wives and daughters of Troy come rushing up around him, asking about their

sons, brothers, friends and husbands. He is their stay and support, the

man to whom they turn for comfort. His nobility shines all the more

beside the irresponsible behaviour of Paris.The encounter of Odysseus

and Nausicaa also has a grace of tenderness and understanding. He

admires her beauty and she thinks—

" If only such a man as this might come to be called my

husband."^^ 232

Yet this adoration of each other does not beconne erotic. Both of them preserve an affectionate distance. Patroclus seems to possess a similar sensitivity and sympathy about women. This is not directly

expressed by Homer. We are told about it only indirectly when Briseis

laments Patroclus' death. She says that he was always gentle to her! J.

W. Mackail says in his Lectures on Greek poetn/.

"It is one of the touches which make Patroclus different from all

the other Achaean captains, that he had tried, clumsily perhaps, but

affectionately, to make poor Briseis happy."^^

This raises another point about the status of women. When the

warriors conquered their enemies, they made the wives of the enemies

their slaves. Hector fears that Andromache would be made a slave

woman. Were the slave women made -or could be made- respectable

wives of the warriors? Briseis mentions in her lamenting that he

undertook to see her married to Achilles. Why did Patroclus only

undertake to make Briseis Achilles' wife and did not do it? It seems that

Briseis or slave women could not elevate their status by marriage and

could not be happy in this way.

Persons like Krishna or Hector are very rarely to be found and in

general the attitude of men in almost all the civilizations of the world has

been of following the theory of "social Darwinism" or 'Might is right' or

survival of the fittest. Yet no civilization generally shows a record of

constant or continuous suppression of women. Society would not

survive then. In the structure of society itself there are either 233 considerate persons like Krishna or assertive wonnen like Draupadi who

react and act as guardians of the conscience of the society.

L) Epic women as causes of wars :

The heroines of the epics are branded 'femmes fataies' and

causes of wars in Iliad, the and the Mahabharata. People in

both the traditions like to believe that the great wars of ancient history

were fought because of the snare of a woman's beauty. The words of

Faustus in Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus only echo this popular

belief when he says that Helen caused launching of thousand ships and

burnt the topless towers of Ilium. M. I. Finley quotes,

" The people of Asia, [says Herodotus] when their women were

seized, made no issue of it whereas the Greeks, on account of a single

Lacedaemonian woman, collected a great expedition, came to Asia,

and destroyed the power of Priam."^®

The old men at the Scean Gates in the Iliad wish

"But still,

ravishing as she is, let her go

home in the long ships

and not be left behind for

us and our children

"39 down the years an irresistible sorrow. 234

They hold her responsible for the war. She also curses herself bitterly as the cause of the war. But this is not the whole truth. Whether

Paris abducted Helen or she eloped with hinn, (of course the Achaeans chose to see It as abduction and not elopement.) the Achaeans did not fight solely for her. Although the Trojan elders blanne Helen for the war,

King Priam and Hector, the worst sufferers, never blame her. On the contrary they are tender to her. According to the legend, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite approached Paris for the golden apple meant for the most beautiful woman. Hera was ready to bribe him with the kingdom of the world, and Aphrodite offered to give him the most beautiful woman, for the apple. But the sense of pride of owning the most beautiful woman in the world was so overpowering that Paris declined Hera's offer and gave the apple to Aphrodite. The Achaean warriors fought in the Trojan War because their ego or pride was hurt by the abduction of

'their' queen who was the most beautiful woman in the world, a kind of a trophy.

Hadas Moses quotes -

"Herodotus (2.120) cannot believe that the Trojan war could have been fought for Helen's sake. If Helen had been at Troy, the inhabitants would, I think, have given her up to the Greeks, whether Paris consented to it or not. For surely neither Priam nor his family could have

been so infatuated as to endanger their own persons, their children and

their city merely that Paris might possess Helen. I do not believe

that even if Priam himself had been married to her he would have 235 have declined to deliver her up, v^ith the view of bringing the series of calamities to a close.

[And so Thucydides (2.9), with greater satisfaction;]

I am inclined to think that Agamemnon succeeded in collecting the expedition, not because the suitors of Helen bound themselves by oath to Tyndareus, but because he was the most powerful king of his time. It was because he inherited his power and was the greatest naval potentate of his time that he was able to assemble the expedition; and the other princes followed him, not from good will, but from fear.'"*"

One may add'greed'to good will and fear.

The motives of war were fixed. Lust for loot, territory or markets was strong. Envy of prestige or wealth or influence must have been an impetus. Fear of domination from without must have urged them to set out for war. Also there must have been the political instinct of union, the desire, charm and fascination of adventure or the irrepressible force of daring and excitement was there. The warriors were an energetic people with ardour, not yet tamed by experience.

Not only Herodotus and Thucydides but also Theocritus thinks in

the same way about the Trojan war. J.A. Symonds quotes from

Theocritus -

"Theocritus, in his exquisite marriage song of Helen has not a

word to say by hint or innuendo that she will bring a curse upon her

husband. When Appollonius of Tyana, the most famous medium of 236 antiquity, evolved the spirit of Acliilles by the pillar on his barrow on the

Troad, the great ghost consented to answer five questions. One was about Helen - Did she really go to Troy ? Achilles indignantly repudiated the notion. She remained in Egypt; and this the heroes of

Achaia soon knew well; but we fought for fame and Priam's wealth.""^^

All these quotations signify that Helen was not the real cause of the war.

Homer assumed his audience's knowledge of the story of the judgement of Paris and based the epic on that story. Even that story does not prove Helen's responsibility in bringing about the war. Paris denied the apple to the goddesses Hera and Athena. So they were keen on destroying Troy as a revenge for the insult. This was a cause of the war. When it seemed that the war would stop, Hera tried to incite it again, as it is shown in Book Four.

The excavation at Hissarlick shows that the city of Troy was

subjected to invasions again and again obviously for its wealth. The

Trojan War is a historical fact and it is proved beyond doubt now.

Modern Greek historians point out many circumstances that led to this

war. Sir Maurice Bowra has mentioned some in his Homer and His

Forerunners. He says,

"—it was an essential post of communication with kindred

peoples in Europe like the Thracians, Ciconians and Paeonians [The

lljad, ii - 844]; it may have been the centre of a coalition designed to

protect lands recently seized by invasion from the west. The destruction 237 of Troy seems to have been an episode in the formidable movement of peoples 1200 BC, which destroyed the Hittite empire, ravaged the cities of Syria and Palestine.'"*^

The Iliad has many references to the riches of Troy. In Book Six,

Hecuba goes to the royal storeroom to select an offering for Athena. In

Book Twenty-four Priam assembles the ransom for Hector's body. The enormous store is narrated here. In book Eighteen Hector mentions

Troy as

"the city rich in gold and rich in bronze'"*^

In Book Twenty-four Achilles describes how Priam excelled all

men in wealth and sons and 'lorded over lands like Lesbos, Phrygia and

Macar'.

The wealthy city promised handsome loot to men who liked to

store gold in their treasuries. C. M. Bowra points out that geographically

"--it commanded the passage It-Tough the Dardanelles to the

Black Sea where the Argaunauts had ventured in an earlier

generation."'*'*

M.I. Finley points out in The World of Odvsseus that the need for

metal was crucial then and metal could be a target of a voyage or a

war. He says,

"Some scholars think that the- kernel of historical truth in the tale

of the Trojan War is precisely such a mass raid for iron supplies."'*^ 238

As Bernard Knox has pointed out in his "Introduction" to the Iliad translated by Robert Fagles, time and again the Trojan warriors like

Adrestus or the sons of Antimachus offer the Achaeans rich ransom to save their life when they are menaced by death. The repeated appeals to accept ransom indicate immense wealth of Troy. Bernard Knox also quotes Plato from his Laws to suggest the recurrence of wars in those times. The Cretan participant in the discussion says,

"Peace is just a name. The truth is that every city-state is, by natural law, engaged in a perpetual undeclared war with every other city-state.'"*^

There was no lack of declared wars either in the ancient history of Greece. So Helen cannot be held wholly responsible for the war and destruction.

Seeta, another epic heroine, has been blamed traditionally for causing the war between Rama and Ravana but here again Rama's honour was the stimulus and the following words of Rama express the same thing in the Yuddhakanda of the Ramavana -

^ cM: ^gf^ cfr^ c^sl TPRIT ^: | 239

( 0 Seeta, I have done all that a man nnust do for redressing a wrong. I have suffered at the hands of an angry enemy. O lady, you should appreciate well that I have faced this adversity and trouble of war with the help and valour of my friends. It was not done for your sake. I did it to remove a blot of any kind on our name and to protect the honour of my well known dynasty.)

So this war was not fought for wealth. Yet it was not fought for

Seeta, but only for the honour of the dynasty. Again, Rama told Seeta further that she was free to go anywhere she liked.

In the Mahabharata Draupadi was humiliated in the Kauravas' court very shamefully, mainly by Duhshasana. When Bheema killed him, he said it was a revenge for that humiliation. Draupadi was burning for a revenge all the time. Yet this humiliation and desire for revenge was not the real cause of the war. The Pandavas were prepared to be satisfied with a grant from the Kauravas of no more than five villages.

Krishna offered this deal when he tried to mediate for peace between cousins. would not give an inch, and his obduracy of course resulted in war. The war was fought for the usual reason: territory and political power.

The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata. contrary to popular tales, says nothing about Draupadi laughing at Duryodhana but tradition

has maintained this canard to prove the popular notion that women are

the causes of wars and strifes. 240

Perhaps in order to hide their greed for gold, land and power, the

'man'- made mythologies and texts of literary and semi-religious kind in almost all languages of the world have blamed women for every calamity including the original sin. Michael Grant remarks in Myths of the Greeks and Romans

"For women, as Semonides of Samos echoed in the seventh century BC, are the biggest single bad thing Zeus has made for us. So say the tragedians too, and especially Euripides, though his Medea declares that their name shall regain its honour. To the early Christian

Church all women were again,

'instrumenta diaboli'"- - 48

So the tradition of branding woman as the cause of evil including wars is a part of a universal tradition. Epics of both the traditions have

similar attitudes in this respect. 241

NOTES

1. Mackail, Lectures on Greek Poetry 34.

2. Merchant. Epic 14.

3. W. E. Gladstone, Homer (London : Macmillan, n.d.) 108, 109.

4. Odvssev 58,

5. J. M. Robertson, A Short History of Morals (London : Watts, 1920) 280.

6. P. S. Shivaswamy Aiyer, Eyolution of Hindu Moral Ideals (Calcutta : The Calcutta University, 1953) 57.

7. Manusmruti. ed. Gopalshastri Nene (Varanasi : Chaukhamba Sanskrit Sansthan, 1982) 457. [Adhyaya 9, Verse 3].

8. Iliad 111.

9. Ibid. 262.

10. Ibid. 33.

11. Odyssey 34.

12. Gerda Leaner, The Creation of Patriarchy (Oxford : Oxford U. P., 1986)85.

13. Ibid. 98.

14. Ibid. 218.

15. Aristotle, "Poetics", trans. M. E. Hubbard, Classical Literary Criticism 69.

16. Iliad 81.

17. Griffin. Homer 30.

18. Ibid. 30.

19. F. M. Cornford, The Republic of Plato (New York : Oxford U. P., 1969)262.

20. Finlev. The World of Odysseus 143.

21. Odyssey 282. 242

22. C. M. Bowra, Greek Experience (1957; London : Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1958)27.

23. Odyssey 71.

24. M. Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature (Calcutta : University of Calcutta, 1927)318.

25. Monier Wiliianns, Religious Thought and life in India : Part-1- Vedism. Buddhism and Hinduism (London : Luzac, 1893) 271.

26. Yuqanta 71.

27. Romila Thapar, Shakuntala : Texts. Readings. Histories ( New Delhi: for Women, 1999)257.

28. Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom (London ; Luzac , 1893) 439.

29. Laxmansshastri Joshi, Vaidik Sanskruticha Vikas (Vai : Pradnya Pathashala Mandal, 1972) 134.

30. A. S. Altekar, The Position of Women in Hindu Ciyilization : From Prehistoric Times to the Present Day (Delhi : Motilal Banarasidas, 1959)344.

31. Mahabharata 701.

32. Ibid. 371.

33. Ibid. 2916.

34. Sadananda More, Krishna (Pune : Gaaj prakashan, 1995) 59.

35. Uiad 613. 36. Odyssey 73.

37. Mackail. Lectures on Greek Poetn/ 36.

38. Finley, The World of Odysseus 49.

39. Iliad 134.

40. Hadas Moses, Ancila to Classical Reading (New York ; Columbia U. P., 1965) 141.

41. Studies of the Greek Poets 77.

42. C. M. Bowra, Homer and His Forerunners (Edinburgh : Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1955)36.

Hereafter cited as Homer and His Forerunners. 243

43. iiiad 476.

44. Homer and His Forerunners 36.

45. Finley, The World of Odysseus , 68.

46. iljad 24.

47. The Valmiki Ramavana. (Baroda : Oriental Institute, 1971) 766- 767.

48. Myths of the Greeks and Romans 109 -110.

*****