Draupadí on the Walls of Troy: "Iliad" 3 from an Indic Perspective

Abstract

Helen's "viewing" of the Greek heroes from the walls of Troy in "Iliad" 3 (the Teikhoskopia) and its relation to the duel between Menelaos and Paris later in the same book are much-discussed episodes in Homeric criticism. Comparison with a cognate epic tradition, that of ancient India, produces insight on these problematic scenes. The illegal abduction and correct reabduction of Draupadī, the wife of the heroes of the Mahābhārata, show striking parallels to the sequence of the events in "Iliad" 3, and the narrative pattern in both epics appears to reflect inherited Indo-European legal institutions that bear upon the legality and correct procedure of marriage by abduction.