Thompson’s anchor is the most consequential prayer in Greek epic. The blinded Cyclops “lifted up his hands to the firmament of heaven and prayed”: “Hear me, great Neptune; if I am indeed your own true begotten son”, “grant that Ulysses may never reach his home alive” [The Odyssey, Book IX]. The invocation lands: “Thus did he pray, and Neptune heard his prayer” [ibid.]. On the Indian shelf the same act binds harder. Kunti, testing a Brahmana’s mantras, “invoked the Maker of day”, and Surya arrives compelled — “over-powered by the mantras, I come hither obedient to thee” — and cannot be waved off: “Having called a celestial, it is not, however, proper to send him away in vain” [The Mahābhārata, Book 3, Section CCCIV]. Elsewhere invocation is discipline and liturgy: Upamanyu recalls “I invoked with restrained senses and mind that illustrious deity” — Mahadeva, approached through penance [The Mahābhārata, Book 13, Section XIV] — and the Sraddha ordinance prescribes that “both Agni and Soma should be invoked with reverence” [The Mahābhārata, Book 13, Section XCI]. Greek prayer persuades a free god; the mantra summons an obligated one. Thompson’s Hawaiian row remains unresolved.