Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Heroes and Pentads

Or How Indo-European Is Greek Epic

Bibliographic Data

ID9369585
AuthorsNick Allen (0000-0003-4009-186X, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume57
Issue1
Pages1-19
Publication date2014-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0076-0730 • E-ISSN: 2041-5370
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.2041-5370.2014.00062.x
OpenAlexW2052212522
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Students of the narrative content of Greek epic usually ignore the hypothesis that it shares a common origin with the Sanskrit epic, and even Georges Dumézil, the best known Indo-European cultural comparativist of the last century, emphasized the contrast between the two traditions. However, since Dumézil's death, it has been argued that his ‘trifunctional’ theory of Indo-European ideology needs to be subsumed within a pentadic framework. This framework suggests that the sets of protagonists in the Massacre of the Suitors and in the Trojan War are comparable with those at the heart of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata. Despite some blurring, the influence of the pentadic ideology is recognisable in a ‘canonical’ set of Achaean heroes, as regards not only their participation in certain Homeric episodes but also the sequence of their deaths and their relationship to geographical space

Ancient history · Art · EPIC · Ideology · Literature · Macedonian · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sanskrit · Historical and Literary Analyses · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Law · Renaissance Literature and Culture

  • Management Lessons from Indian Epics

    Jatin Kumar Jaiswal, Pooja Kumari et al.•Journal of Human Values•2026

  • Ferecides de Siro y las cosmologías quinarias de la antigüedad. Materiales para una discusión

    Open Access•Roque Lazcano Vázquez•Ilu Revista de Ciencias de las…•2022

  • Vedic Sacrifice and the Pentadic Theory of Indo-European Ideology

    Nick Allen•Religions of South Asia•2015

  • Plato's Republic and the Indo-European Pentadic Ideology

    Open Access•Nick Allen•The Classical Quarterly•2020

Citations per year0.36
Citation span2015 - 2026 (12)
Highly citedNo

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae