cially –– when it is an opponent in battle, he is asked his identity and lineage.^67
Achilles demands of Asteropaios, τ πο ́ θεν ε! qνδρ;ν, J μοι #τλη
qντο $λθε4ν;‘Who, from where among men are you, that have ventured to
come against me?’ (Il. 21. 150). In the Odyssey a variant of this verse occurs
repeatedly: ‘Who, from where among men are you? Where do you have your
community and parents?’ Similar double questions appear in the Indian
epics: ko ’si, kasya ̄si?‘Who are you, of whom are you?’ (MBh. 1. 122. 19 v.l.,
cf. 139. 19, 142. 3, 160. 34; 13 App. 3. 203 post.; ‘Who are you, who do you
belong to, where do you come from?’ (Rm. 3. 44. 30; 5. 40. 6, 47. 53). So in the
Ga ̄tha ̄s (Y. 43. 7), cisˇ ahı ̄, kahya ̄ ahı ̄?‘(when someone asks me) “Who are you,
of whom are you?” ’; in the Hildebrandslied (9–11), her fragen gistuont fohem
uuortum, wer sin fater wari... ‘eddo welihhes cnuosles du sis’, ‘he began to
ask in few words, who his father was... “or of what race you are” ’; in Saxo
(1. 4. 3 p. 14), quod tibi nomen, | qua fueris, dic, | gente creata. ::... Tu quoque,
quis sis | aut satus unde, | promito nobis; and in Serbo-Croat heroic songs, ‘O
Border warrior, whence come you? From what country of the world are you?
From what part of the world, and by what name do they call you?’ (SCHS ii,
no. 17. 516–19, cf. no. 18. 190–2, 259–61).
A man meeting a beautiful woman or girl in Greek or Indian epic is liable
to ask wonderingly whether she is a goddess or some other class of super-
natural being. ‘Hail, Lady,’ says Anchises, ‘whichever of the blessed ones you
are that arrive at this dwelling, Artemis or Leto or golden Aphrodite... or
perhaps you are one of the Graces come here... or one of the nymphs, who
haunt the fair groves and the waters of rivers and the grassy meads’ (Hymn.
Aphr. 92–9, cf. Od. 6. 149–52). Likewise S ́amtanu: ‘Art thou a Goddess, or a
maiden of the Da ̄navas or Gandharvas, or perchance an Apsara ̄? Or art thou
a Yaks
̇
̄, or a Snake sprite, or a mortal woman, slim-waisted lady?’ı^68
On two occasions in the Odyssey, when Odysseus makes a request or asks a
question that betrays him as a newcomer in the place, he receives the reply
ν πιο ́ ε!, p ξε4ν,, N τηλο ́ θεν ε!λ λουθα, ‘you are a simpleton, sir, or
else you have come from a long way away’. There is a curiously exact parallel
in the Mabinogion. Peredur comes to a broad valley in which a great, colourful
concourse of people is encamped. He asks a miller for the reason, and is told,
(^67) Cf. Schmitt (1967), 135–8; E. D. Floyd, Wo rd 43 (1992), 399–409; id., JIES 20 (1992),
305–15.
(^68) MBh. 1. 92. 30; cf. 1. 142. 3; 3. 61. 69, 114, 249. 2–4; Rm. 3. 44. 15 f.; 5. 31. 2ff.; V. Pisani,
ZDMG 103 (1953), 131 f. = Schmitt (1968), 161 f. In the Odyssey passage, after likening
Nausicaa to Artemis, Odysseus goes on to say ‘Thrice blessed are your father and mother, thrice
blessed your brothers’. So the Nart hero Uryzmæg, meeting a boy who darts about more nimbly
than the eye can follow and who is a joy to behold, thinks to himself ‘Happy the man whose son
you are!’ (Sikojev (1985), 41).
- King and Hero 431