Grief in the Iliad and Mahabharata
Apologies if this is a bit off-topic for this forum (and also ahead of the current readings), but I thought I'd try posting it and just see if anyone's interested.
Grief and Separation: The Mahabharata and the Iliad: the death Abhimanyu and the death of Patroclus.
Um, spoilers, if that term means anything in millennia-old texts...
I'm not the first to point out that the death of Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, in the Mahabharata is like the death of Patroclus in the Iliad. In both texts, a person dear to the heart of the ultimate warrior-hero Arjuna/Achilles is killed in battle while the greater warrior is not there to protect him. In both cases, the lesser hero is valiant but overreaches his capabilities: Abhimanyu because he lacks the secret knowledge of how to survive Drona's military formation, Patroclus because he tries to sack Troy though Achilles warned him simply to drive the Trojans back from the Greeks' ships. In both cases, this death propels the greater hero into a revenge kick, which causes much havoc within the enemy army.
The other day, however, I noticed a further parallel: in both cases, there is a woman who is (almost) as devastated by this death as the great warrior. Abhimanyu gets two women really: his mother, Subhadra, and his wife, Uttara, but his wife is a non-speaking non-entity. It is Subhadra who articulates her grief for her son's loss. (Come to that, Patroclus--if we extrapolate on Homer--also has a "wife," his slave, Iphis, who is also a non-speaking non-entity; indeed, she's not even mentioned in connection with his death.) The woman who articulates her grief for Patroclus is Briseis, Achilles's slave.
Thus, in both cases, this death is mutually devastating to both halves of a "marital" pair: Arjuna and Subhadra, and Achilles and Briseis. Even apart from their mutual grief, these pairs have close relationships with each other, at least to some extent. Arjuna and Subhadra are a devoted married couple. Achilles and Briseis are not as close, but he is fond enough of her to fall out with Agamemnon over her, and she is reluctant to leave him. In both cases, therefore, it would seem reasonable and natural for the man and woman in these pairs to commiserate in their grief, to cry on each other's shoulders.
But they don't.
In the Iliad, is clearly highly significant. Achilles explicitly blames Briseis for Patroclus's death, saying he wishes Artemis had shot her before he ever got involved with her. Of course, he's really blaming himself for allowing his anger over the loss of Briseis to keep him out of the battle and leave Patroclus in danger. In any case, Briseis is clearly a painful presence in his life by this point. Nor does she seem especially happy with Achilles. When Agamemnon finally returns her to him, her chief reaction is to weep and mourn over the loss of Patroclus. For Achilles himself, she has not a word. In fact, the two pass like ships in the night in book 19. Both are in agony, for very similar reasons, yet they seem absolutely unable to look each other in the face.
In the Mahabharata, I suspect that the separation between Arjuna and Subhadra is more incidental. The men (fighting the war) seem to be somewhat spacially separated from the women, and if Arjuna needs to concentrate on his attack on the Kauravas, he may not have time to go see his wife--though Krishna (her brother), who is also very much involved with planning this attack, has no problem making it to Subhadra's abode for some lengthy commiserating. (But then again, he's God, so he can travel pretty fast!)
In my reading so far, I haven't reached the next time Arjuna and Subhadra are actually together. But it has to be hundreds of pages later because those battle scenes just carry on and on and on. So here's an open question: is the separation of Arjuna and Subhadra significant, or is it just a factor of the massiveness of the text, the "sloppiness" of the writing (as some have said, meaning no insult, about the vast canvas of Dostoevsky)? Has anyone looked into this?
Grief and Separation: The Mahabharata and the Iliad: the death Abhimanyu and the death of Patroclus.
Um, spoilers, if that term means anything in millennia-old texts...
I'm not the first to point out that the death of Arjuna's son, Abhimanyu, in the Mahabharata is like the death of Patroclus in the Iliad. In both texts, a person dear to the heart of the ultimate warrior-hero Arjuna/Achilles is killed in battle while the greater warrior is not there to protect him. In both cases, the lesser hero is valiant but overreaches his capabilities: Abhimanyu because he lacks the secret knowledge of how to survive Drona's military formation, Patroclus because he tries to sack Troy though Achilles warned him simply to drive the Trojans back from the Greeks' ships. In both cases, this death propels the greater hero into a revenge kick, which causes much havoc within the enemy army.
The other day, however, I noticed a further parallel: in both cases, there is a woman who is (almost) as devastated by this death as the great warrior. Abhimanyu gets two women really: his mother, Subhadra, and his wife, Uttara, but his wife is a non-speaking non-entity. It is Subhadra who articulates her grief for her son's loss. (Come to that, Patroclus--if we extrapolate on Homer--also has a "wife," his slave, Iphis, who is also a non-speaking non-entity; indeed, she's not even mentioned in connection with his death.) The woman who articulates her grief for Patroclus is Briseis, Achilles's slave.
Thus, in both cases, this death is mutually devastating to both halves of a "marital" pair: Arjuna and Subhadra, and Achilles and Briseis. Even apart from their mutual grief, these pairs have close relationships with each other, at least to some extent. Arjuna and Subhadra are a devoted married couple. Achilles and Briseis are not as close, but he is fond enough of her to fall out with Agamemnon over her, and she is reluctant to leave him. In both cases, therefore, it would seem reasonable and natural for the man and woman in these pairs to commiserate in their grief, to cry on each other's shoulders.
But they don't.
In the Iliad, is clearly highly significant. Achilles explicitly blames Briseis for Patroclus's death, saying he wishes Artemis had shot her before he ever got involved with her. Of course, he's really blaming himself for allowing his anger over the loss of Briseis to keep him out of the battle and leave Patroclus in danger. In any case, Briseis is clearly a painful presence in his life by this point. Nor does she seem especially happy with Achilles. When Agamemnon finally returns her to him, her chief reaction is to weep and mourn over the loss of Patroclus. For Achilles himself, she has not a word. In fact, the two pass like ships in the night in book 19. Both are in agony, for very similar reasons, yet they seem absolutely unable to look each other in the face.
In the Mahabharata, I suspect that the separation between Arjuna and Subhadra is more incidental. The men (fighting the war) seem to be somewhat spacially separated from the women, and if Arjuna needs to concentrate on his attack on the Kauravas, he may not have time to go see his wife--though Krishna (her brother), who is also very much involved with planning this attack, has no problem making it to Subhadra's abode for some lengthy commiserating. (But then again, he's God, so he can travel pretty fast!)
In my reading so far, I haven't reached the next time Arjuna and Subhadra are actually together. But it has to be hundreds of pages later because those battle scenes just carry on and on and on. So here's an open question: is the separation of Arjuna and Subhadra significant, or is it just a factor of the massiveness of the text, the "sloppiness" of the writing (as some have said, meaning no insult, about the vast canvas of Dostoevsky)? Has anyone looked into this?