TY - CHAP

T1 - An Underlying Divinatory Structure Common to Bharata and Semonides

AU - Zysk, Kenneth Gregory

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - This comparative study finds similarities between the 7th century BCE Greek iambic poem of Semonides on Women and Sanskirt anuṣṭubh verses from Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, which describe character-types of women depicted on stage. Both use a fixed set of animals, five of which are shared, to illustrate the female character-types and both share a conditional syntactical structure common to omen literature, but expressed in different ways. Semonides’ poetry and humour are replaced by a Bharata’s didacticism aimed at the instruction of actors. Their common connection to drama and performance suggests a link between the Greek symposium and the Indian goṣṭhī as a possible mode for the transmission of ideas in the early centuries of the Common Era.

AB - This comparative study finds similarities between the 7th century BCE Greek iambic poem of Semonides on Women and Sanskirt anuṣṭubh verses from Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, which describe character-types of women depicted on stage. Both use a fixed set of animals, five of which are shared, to illustrate the female character-types and both share a conditional syntactical structure common to omen literature, but expressed in different ways. Semonides’ poetry and humour are replaced by a Bharata’s didacticism aimed at the instruction of actors. Their common connection to drama and performance suggests a link between the Greek symposium and the Indian goṣṭhī as a possible mode for the transmission of ideas in the early centuries of the Common Era.

U2 - 10.1163/9789004538283_014

DO - 10.1163/9789004538283_014

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9789004538276

T3 - Leiden Studies in Indo-European

SP - 256

EP - 274

BT - Castalia

A2 - Massetti, Laura

PB - Brill

CY - Leiden/Boston

ER -