DumézilGeorges, Le Festin d'immortalité: Étude de mythologie comparée indo-européenne (Paris, 1924). In quoting the myth from the passages in the Epic, Worthen makes use of the old translation by RoyP. C. (Calcutta, 1883–96), evidently unaware of the modern version, The Mahābhārata I: The Book of the Beginning, translated and Edited by van BuitenenJ. A. B., (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1973). The story of Āstīka is found on pp. 63–123. In his list of references, Worthen has also conflated titles of two of Dumézil's works, The destiny of a warrior (1970) and The destiny of a king (1973), as The destiny of the warrior king (1970).
2.
His etymological discussion would carry more weight if he realized that when Lommel writes “die weibliche Ersten (purviyôni)” the word purviyôni is not a ‘compound word’ in the Persian text, but only Lommel's gloss, by way of an artificial Sanskrit equivalent to the Avestan paoiryaeinyas: LommelH., Die Yäšt's des Awesta (Göttingen, 1927).
3.
UlanseyDavid, The origins of the Mithraic mysteries (Oxford, 1989); RoyS. B., Prehistoric lunar astronomy (New Delhi, 1976).
4.
The late Willy Hartner wrote a very remarkable paper (not referred to here) which in a sense covers the same territory; “The earliest history of the constellations in the Near East and the motif of the lion-bull combat”, Journal of Near Eastern studies, xxiv (1965), 1–16, reprinted in Willy Hartner Oriens-Occidens (Hildesheim, 1968). Here he considered, for example, the marking of the beginning of spring c. 4000 b.c. by the heliacal rising of the Pleiades, a view supported by a precise astronomical analysis and a survey of numerous ancient artifacts. While much is speculation, Hartner carries conviction by the obvious competence of his discussion, and by persuading the reader that at least there is something that demands an explanation, qualities that are lacking in Worthen's study.
