Attached Paper Online Meeting 2024

The Unburdening of the Earth: The Greek Structure of the *Mahābhārata*

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

This paper focuses on the motif of the Unburdening of the Earth by reviewing five relevant passages structured as a form of *Ringkomposition*: *MBh*. 1.58.3 – 59.6 narrated by Vaiśaṃpāyana, *MBh*. 1.189 narrated by Vyāsa, *MBh*. 2.33.10–20 narrated by Nārada, *MBh*. 11.8.20–38 again narrated by Vyāsa, and *MBh*. 18.5.7–25 again narrated by Vaiśaṃpāyana. Then, those texts are compared with five Greek passages dealing with the same motif: *Iliad* 1.1-5, *Iliad* 2.1-6, *Iliad* 12.3-33, *Odyssey* 8.71-82, and *Cypria* fr. 1. Against more accepted explanations like Folk origin or Indo-European origin, and after dealing with the main methodological problems that such proposal would entail, the paper argues for a Greco-Indian origin (understood as a Greek influence in India) of the motif, along the lines of Wulff Alonso (2008, 2014, 2019a, 2019b, 2020).