ABSTRACT
The Tibetan painting called the Wheel of Life (bhavacakra) shows a hub surrounded by concentric bands and illustrates Buddhist teachings on samsāra and nirvāṇa. The image, which derives from Indian Buddhism and is described in early texts, is here compared with two passages from Homer. The Shield of Achilles (Iliad 18) resembles the Wheel in layout and in presenting a world view by means of vignettes of human activity, but one can also compare the Sirens–Scylla–Charybdis episode in Odyssey 12. The three types of monster parallel the three animals that symbolize evils and occupy the hub of the Wheel, while Scylla also parallels the demon who grips the Wheel. All three scenes express the pentadic ideology of the early Indo-Europeans. Apparently, Buddhism has fused material from different parts of early Indo-European tradition – possibly in a shamanistic context.
