Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Destiny of a King

The Destiny of a King

Dumézil, Georges
Hiltebeitel, Alf

Paperback

Series: Midway Reprint Series

Hinduism

ISBN10: 0226169766
ISBN13: 9780226169767
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: Aug 26 1988
Pages: 164
Weight: 0.60
Height: 0.54 Width: 6.02 Depth: 8.98
Language: English
The preeminent scholar of comparative studies of Indo-European society, Georges Dumézil theorized that ancient and prehistoric Indo-European culture and literature revolved around three major functions: sovereignty, force, and fertility. This work treats these functions as they are articulated through first king legends found in Indian, Iranian, and Celtic epics, particularly the Mahabharata. Dumézil, drawing on an extraordinarily broad range of Indo-European sources from Scandinavia to India and offering an original and provocative analytic method, set a new agenda for studies in comparative oral literature, historical linguistics, comparative mythology, and history of religions.

The Destiny of a King examines one of the little epics within the Mahabharata--the legend of King Yayati, a distant ancestor of the Pandavas, the heroes of the larger epic. Dumézil compares Yayati's attributes and actions with those of the legendary Celtic king Eochaid Feidlech and also finds striking similarities in the stories surrounding the daughters of these two kings, the Indian Madhavi and the Celtic Medb. When he compares these two traditions with the first king legends from Iran, he finds such common themes as the apportionment of the earth and the sin of the sovereign.

Also in

Hinduism

View All