Indo-European Poetry and Myth

its application to horses has left an echo in the name of Menelaus’ horse Podargos ‘Swiftfoot’ (Il. 23. 295). Achilles’ horses X ...

have derived from a postulated *ekvopes ́‘cavalier’, literally ‘horse-flyer’.^66 In the Armenian oral epic a horse is described ...

knew that his master was not living’ (Guðrúnarkviða B 5). In several of the Russian byliny a hero speaks to the horse he is ridi ...

is not clear what use they are in battle except as transport. Archaeological evidence for chariots in Ireland is in fact very sl ...

A recurring epithet of Homeric chariots is ποικλο‘bright-coloured’, sometimes with the addition of χαλκ;ι‘with bronze’, but so ...

The names of the Snakes are very many, ascetic –– I shall not mention all of them. But hear from me the chief ones (MBh. 1. 31. ...

technique is seen in the Welsh Dream of Rhonabwy (pp. 4–11 Richards), where the narrator himself describes a series of persons w ...

son and father arranged their armour, readied their war-guises, girded their swords on, the heroes, over their mail as they rode ...

Similarly in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata midday may mark the end of one phase of the battle (6. 45. 1, 55. 3 ‘after the forenoon had pas ...

the contest with me, you will see the halter placed about his neck’. And Kamus: ‘on the summit of the mountain tomorrow you will ...

SPEECHES Altercations Heroic battle narrative in the Indo-European traditions is not just an account of tactical movements, blow ...

8, 50. 19; Rm. 3. 26. 4). ‘We shall not part like this until I carry off your head or until I leave my head with you’ (Táin (I) ...

As Hector presses the Achaeans back towards their ships, Agamemnon shouts to them and reproaches them, asking them what has happ ...

Poets knew many tales of heroes, and contrasts and comparisons between one and another must often have come into their minds. Ra ...

Skapt mun gnesta, skio ̨ldr mun bresta, sing the Valkyries as they weave their web of war, ‘shaft shall clash and shield crash’ ...

poem, da brat brata poznat’ ne mogasˇe, ‘brother could not recognize brother’.^98 In this text the hero prays to God for a wind ...

five fifties would fall before his blades, twenty hundred laid waste at one time’ (Y Gododdin 47–51). According to Nennius (Hist ...

Divine participation The notion that war is a godless affair is modern. Ancient peoples assumed that their gods and their enemie ...

temporary invisibility, instant transportation to a less dangerous spot. As with such motifs as the invulnerable armour, the unf ...

Archers Although archery does not play a large part in Homer, we are able to observe a number of common features between its tre ...