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This paper examines the narrative sub-structure of the Homeric Calypso and Circe episodes alongside that of a comparable episode in Sanskrit epic. Certain shared features in the Circe and Calypso tales have led many to conclude that they are closely related. It is argued here that when viewed in conjunction with the Mahabharata's story of Hidimba the scenes on Ogygia and Aiaia reveal themselves to be constructed upon a thematic armature discernable in all three narratives. The analysis of this underlying structure not only offers insight into the issue of the genetic relationship between the Greek and Sanskrit epics, it proposes answers to long-standing questions about the relationship between the two Homeric episodes.
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Parallelism in the Circe and Calypso Episodes
Calypso and Circe form a natural pair, and it is widely acknowledged that the two episodes share multiple features.1 Even Odysseus himself connects and almost seems to conflate the two at Od. 9.29-33, when he claims that Circe detained him and wished him to be her husband. Much of the early scholarly discussion regarding the two goddesses' origins and relationship to one another figured into the Analyst quest to unravel the origins of the Homeric epics, and was thus carried out not so much on the characters in and of themselves, but with an eye to understanding what they could tell us about the composition and development of the Odyssey. Wilamowitz, for example, asserted that Calypso was a poetic invention modeled upon Circe, while Circe herself was an element inherited from folk-tale.2 Lang, clinging to his Unitarian perspective, argued vehemently against Wilamowitz in a special chapter devoted to the two goddesses (Lang 1893: 275-289). Güntert reacted strongly against the idea that the two are a pair, and preferred to see Calypso as a goddess of the dead, 3 which incited strong disagreement from Meuli (1921: 30) and Woodhouse (1930: 46-53), both of whom more or less followed Wilamowitz, as did Page, who saw the story of Circe as an adaptation of the "witch in the woods" folktale (Page 1973: 57-69), whereas Heubeck saw the Circe episode as purely "epic" in its tone and style (1989: 51). In short, while scholars have always agreed that there is some charge...