Asceticism in some Indo-European traditions
The paper compares the periods of asceticism or privation that precede journeys to heaven, or transitions to some other sort of salvation, in four narratives: Mahabharata book 3, Odyssey books 5-6, the Wasting Sickness of Cuchulainn, and the story of the Buddha's enlightenment. It is argued tha...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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2005
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| Summary: | The paper compares the periods of asceticism or privation that precede journeys to heaven, or transitions to some other sort of salvation, in four narratives: Mahabharata book 3, Odyssey books 5-6, the Wasting Sickness of Cuchulainn, and the story of the Buddha's enlightenment. It is argued that all derive from an early Indo-European proto-narrative, probably marked by the pentadic ideology, to which the Sanskrit epic offers the closest approximation. |
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