ABSTRACT
In the Odyssey, the story of the main hero’s return from Troy to Ithaca is preceded by the Telemachy (the outward journey of his son from Ithaca via Pylos to Sparta). The journeys of father and son overlap in time, and the travellers eventually converge at Eumaeus’ piggery. Many detailed parallels have already been found between Homer’s epics and the Mahābhārata (attributed to the sage Vyāsa), and the chapter asks whether, here too, the overlapping journeys in the Greek have Sanskrit parallels. In fact, it is while the central hero Arjuna undertakes a visit to heaven that his brothers and wife undertake a pilgrimage around India, and the two journeys end in a reunion. A dozen rapprochements are presented linking the pairs of journeys recounted in the two epic traditions. The similarities are best explained by postulating a common origin within the Indo-European speaking world.
