Dioscurica and the Roots of the Cyclic Tradition TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction The Prehist.pdf

Dioscurica and the Roots of the Cyclic Tradition TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Prehistory of Greek Mythology and Poetics The Indo-European Heritage The ?Cyclic? Tradition I. Father Heaven, Heaven?s Daughter, and the Divine Twins The rape of Nemesis Shape-shifting, rape, and corov Heaven?s Incest Helen and Saran?y¨ ei[dolon and sávarn?a The birth of the Dvine Twins II. Returning heroes The Dioscuri as rescuers Odysseus and the Phaeacians Indo-Iranian rescue epyllia The Vedic story of Bhujyu III. Concluding remarks: the origins of the epic framework 1 Foreword It would seem dubious to address the issue of roots and origins without reservations, because one thereby awakens the notion of absolute beginnings, which is a matter of metaphysics rather than of history or philology. By ?roots? I simply mean conditions not being explicit in the discrete texts, but nonetheless discernible in the comparative record, aspects that lie beneath (but not necessarily at the bottom of) the texts themselves. In the same spirit, beginnings and origins may, instead of being regarded as something absolute, be understood as the current closure of historical vision. In the case of myth, any attempt to trace its origin by merely focusing the plot is bound to fail. However, one may endeavor to track down early versions of myths, as well as early connotations of themes and agents, by paying attention to the tradition of their performance. There are processes in history causing traditions to diverge, allowing some parts to survive while others begin to break down and fade away. Although we are seldom able to pinpoint exactly why, when, and where these processes occur, they are always dependent on the maintenance, change, or lack of social interaction at a given point in time. Only to some extent does this interaction serve the purpose of communication in the present, so that a tradition may have to follow certain paths in space. It