Volume 50, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2022 Damaged Minds and Disturbed Behavior in the Greek and Indian Epics Maria Marcinkowska-Rosół Institute of Classical Philology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland Sven Sellmer Institute of Oriental Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland This article deals with descriptions of disturbances of mind and behavior in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and in the Indian poems Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. We collect and examine Homeric scenes in which the poet depicts the human mind as being negatively affected by various factors, and in which such mental events are related to a behavior that is significantly deficient, and conduct a parallel analysis of the two Sanskrit epics. We first present these scenes according to our classification of 11 types of disturbed behavior, and on this basis we tackle our main question, which concerns the kind of relation between the negative event affecting the mind and the disturbed behavior. We conclude that this relation is basically conceived of as causal, and we present the main ways in which the Greek and the Indian poets construct and express this relation. Finally, we point to the main similarities and differences between the two traditions in this regard. I Introduction In dangerous, unexpected or difficult situations, the ἦτορ of the Homeric heroes is “torn apart” (δεδαϊγμένον, Od.13.320), the κραδίη “leaps out of the breast” (ἔξω στηθέων ἐκθρῴσκει, Il. 10.94–95), the νόος is “thrown into confusion” (σὺν … χύτο, Il. 24.358), and the θυμός “sinks down to the feet” (παραὶ ποσὶ κάππεσε, Il. 15.280)—such images of negative events affecting the seats of mental life (the so-called “mental organs”) are used by the epic poet to depict the influence of outward forces on the inner experience of the persons acting. Descriptions of this