The Turkic Deli [Possessed] Domrul and the Greek Admet. A study by W. Eberhard

Abstract

The article contains a commented publication of a fragment from the unpublished work of a Sinologist Wolfram Eberhard (1909-1989) “Über die Erzählungen des Dede Korkut” (“On the legends of” “Dede Korkut”). “The Book of Dede Korkut” always was the object of particular interest to scholars engaged in comparative research and typology of folklore. It is generally accepted that the formation of some of the legends, included in “Kitab-i Dedem Korkut”, was strongly influenced by both the Byzantine, Greek folklore, and archaic plots of the earlier period, what became the starting point of the research in W. Eberhard’s unpublished work. An important feature of Eberhard’s work distinguishing it from the actual Turkological studies of “The Book of Korkut” and Turkish folklore in general, is an attempt to make comparisons with Greek myths, many monuments of the Indian and Persian literary tradition, thus placing the Oghuz epic in the broad context of the history of world literature. The published excerpt dwells with the legend of the possessed Domrul as part of the Turkish book epic “The Book of Dede Korkut”, its origin and parallels with the ancient mythology and plots of the “Ocean of Legends” by Somadeva and “Mahabharata”.