ABSTRACT
The many similarities between the Sanskrit and Greek epic traditions include the five-phase structure of the Great War (if we ignore its ‘cosmic appendix’). The phases are distinguished by the five or four successive leaders of the Losers or ‘Baddies’ (Kauravas/Trojans). In the Sanskrit, phase 5 is a nocturnal massacre within an enclosure carried out by Kauravas, who are led by Aśvatthāman, son of Droṇa; in the Greek, it is a similar massacre carried out by the Victors or Goodies, using the Wooden Horse. Despite this difference (‘the crossover’), Aśvatthāman and the Horse are similar both in their structural position and in details, and the comparison needs to take account also of Droṇa’s death in phase 2 and of the pre-war Khāṇḍava forest massacre. Such similarities (and others studied elsewhere) are best explained by postulating an early Indo-European proto-narrative from which both epics descend, the Greek having conflated stories that remain separate in the Sanskrit. One implication is that attempts to explain the Iliad as originating from historical events in the Troad in the late second millennium bc are misconceived. The archaeological findings are not irrelevant but have been incorporated in a pre-existing narrative.
