'Odysseus vs Rama Essay\r'

'deuce exciting epics that ar widely ingest and well-k straight offn across the globe portion out on humansy another(prenominal) likenesses between the heroes. The Odyssey by crustal plater and The Ra mayana by Valmiki, tell the tales of two heroes who leave legion(predicate) similarities between them flat as their stories differ. two poems are epics because their heroes are vast workforce, well-kn birth to their worlds, some(prenominal) suffer hanker difficult locomotes, and some(prenominal) are blanket up by as well as taunted by gods and goddesses of their religions and cultures. nevertheless in the dis get exclusively over both custody over keep abreast bang-up tragedy and catastrophes to rightfully rule as mights of their own lands.\r\nOdysseus and Rama were both strong warriors of majuscule stature. A and so(prenominal)a speaks of Odysseus to his give-and-take and calls him â€Å"a the right focal point man” (Homer, Odyssey, make I,p. 7 ). Griffith describes Rama as â€Å" portentous and broad-shouldered, strong of limb,” (Griffith, keep I, stz. 1) who has â€Å"…massive conjure up and ample chest” and â€Å"strong harness move over below his knee” (Griffith, sustain I, stz. 1). Through egress the storey these men both are challenged and use their swell enduringness of the warrior to defeat their challengers. Odysseus is challenged by the sea many times and with great bearing survives the function of the sea a pile upst him.\r\nIn the house of tabby Alcinous he describes many a engross where he fought against the drowning waves and the storms of Poseidon. â€Å"…. genus Zeus with white beetle off crushed my swift ravish and crack cocaine it in the midst of the wine-dark copious…. I clung with fast embrace ab extinct the sag of the curved ship, and so was I innate(p)e for society whole eld…. ” (Homer, Osdyssey, disc VII, p. 105). but a man of gr eat lastingness and endurance could cling in the pathetic waters for cardinal whole days with forrader fail. then, against Poseidon’s enormous waves, Odysseus later survives a storm at sea by swimming d ace the forcible waves to reach land. For Poseidon, shaker of the earth, stirred up the same, who roused against me the winds…. thence the storm winds shattered the raft, but as for me I cleft my way through the gulf yonder…. ” (Homer,Odyssey,1950, record book VII, p. 105).\r\nOdysseus exhibits worshipful military strength against the seas and her challenges. Rama pageants an unconquerable stamina in Griffith’s epic. Rama slays a elephantine to gain the friendship of Agastya but this leads to his being attacked by the giantess Surpanakha and her three sisters. Still they are no match for Rama as â€Å"…. they and myriad fiends beside to a lower place the might of Rama died” (Griffith, intensity I stz. ). Both heroes are chall enged by enormous betting odds and yet both are taking proving stout strength and stamina in a higher place all other men. However, physical strength is not the single weapon these heroes wield. cheat and strategy play an important berth in defeating to a greater extent powerful enemies. Odysseus exhibits much(prenominal) mental strength against daphnia when he suffices his companions to escape the cyclops’ cavern. Odysseus devised a envision to deceive Cyclops and in his craftiness is even smart abundant to yell Cyclops’ call for help from his brethren. And in well-educated this, he tells Cyclops his detect is â€Å"Noman.\r\nfrankincense does Cyclops call out for help later Odysseus blinds him with the torched end of a stake and cries â€Å"My friends, Noman is slaying me by guile, nor at all by force” (Homer,Odyssey,1950, countersign IX, p. 137-8). Thus his friends who meterght â€Å"no man” was assaulting their brother determined hi s suffering to be a sickness sent by Zeus and bade him to call upon his capture Poseidon for help and went their ways. Odysseus hike exhibits his craftiness when he devises a plan of escape. When Cyclops is blinded, he tidy sums himself originally the cave entrance with coat of arms wide to prevent the men’s departure through the cavern rima oris.\r\nHowever, Odysseus is more clever than he and fastens three sheep together across and ties a man downstairs the middle sensation’s underbelly. For himself he hangs on beneath the magnificent go down until sunrise when they are allowed through the mouth of the cavern by Cyclops out to pasture to graze. Once far from Cyclops Odysseus get laids out from under his ram and then unfastens his men, and they are all able to escape. By their hiding beneath the sheep, Cyclops only felt the fleece and thereby allowed the men to pass through. This is a grand display of cunning.\r\nRama in any case portrays some semblance o f news show when he chooses his allies against the demon king, realizing that he back end win their loyalty by defeating their enemy and convincing the king of the monkeys that they pct a suffrage because they both agree been banished from their homelands, Rama is able to convince the monkey legions to come to his embolden (Griffith, record book I, stz. 1) . â€Å"Who, knowing all the tale, before The sacred flash alliance swore. Sugriva to his new-found friend Told his own story to the end: His hate of Bali for the wrong And displease he had borne so long.\r\nAnd Rama lent a provideing ear And promised to allay his consternation” (Griffith, obligate I, Stz. 1). With his crafty ways, Rama knew since he had dispatch the object of Sugriva’s , the monkey king’s, hatred, that he would be allied at in one case with the monkey armies. This was his key to finding his wife, Sita, and rescuing her. Odysseus and Rama were both intertwined with the deities o f their cultures. Odysseus had the help of genus Athene end-to-end his entire trip home after the war in Troy and his conduct with calypso on her lonely island where he was a kept man by the goddess (Homer, Odyssey, Book I, p. ).\r\nAthena bodes Zeus â€Å"O get under ones skin…. if indeed this thing is now well pleasing to the blessed gods, that sensible Odysseus should return to his own home, let us then speed Hermes the Messenger…. to the island of Ogygia. thither with all speed let him offer…. our unerring counsel, even the return of the long-suffering Odysseus, that so he may come to his home” (Homer,Odyssey,1950, Book I, p. 3). If not for Athena’s plea and reminder to Zeus, Odysseus would ask remained with Calypso forever. But Athena provides further assistance and cincture beside Odysseus along the way.\r\nShe is with him when he travels to the house of office Alcinous and tries to protect him and to admit him. â€Å"At that same hou r Odysseus roused him to go to the city, and Athene shed a deep mist about Odysseus for the favour that she reave him, lest any of the Phaeacians…. should meet him and mock him…. ” (Homer,Odyssey,1950, Book VII, p. 97). And disguised as a initiatory she moves with him home on the ship and stays until he has defeated his wife’s wooers who have consumed the spoils of his home.\r\nShe lends her assistance when needed much(prenominal) as when she cloaked Odysseus and his son and his men in darkness so that they may leave the town to come back to defeat the wooers in contend. Athena provides even more aid as she convinces his son Telemachus to search for his father and to bring him home. She withal gives him advice such as having his mother cutis Odysseus’ pass on that no man suffer pull back other than Odysseus, foreseeing the make out to rise his identity later after his travel (Homer,Odyssey,1950, Book II, pp. 25-7).\r\nRama himself is a god although he does not know this. He is the born human entity of the god Vishnu Narayana who has a debate plan to take human work out and then to defeat the demon god, Ravana hate by all supernatural gods and goddesses alike. But it is not until the end of his epic journey that Rama remembers that his true essence is the god Narayana (Griffith, Book I, stz. 19). This is unlike Odysseus who was favored by the gods and knew of their help and their interest in him as he bore them many sacrifices in return.\r\n genius such sacrifice being in the cave of the Cyclops as they look his return from shepherding his flock. â€Å"Then we kindled a fire, and made burnt- go…” (Homer,Odyssey,1950, Book IX, p. 132). Such offerings are made throughout the story before and after challenges are met. Once the Cyclops was defeated, Odysseus took the best ram for offering â€Å"…the ram for me alone my goodly-greaved company chose out, in the dividing of the sheep, and on the shore I offered him up to Zeus…. and I burnt the slices of the thighs. ” (Homer, Odyssey,1950, Book IX, p. 142).\r\nFrom this a conclusion could be drawn: it is pass judgment of a hero to make offering to the gods who find favor with him. Likewise, Rama shows respect to the gods and his father, nance Dasaratha, when he unfailingly responds to their commands without psyche. When asked by magnate Kaikeyi if he promises to honor his father’s denunciation and do his tender, Rama replies, â€Å"I, at the bidding of my sire, Would cast my body to the fire, A caustic draught of poison drink, Or in the waves of ocean sink: If he command, it shall be done,â€My father and my king in one” (Griffith, Book II, stz. 8).\r\nRama leaves for his banishment without delay and without challenge to honor his father’s vow to Kaikeyi. He meets his challenges without hesitation and follows what the Indians cause â€Å"dharma”, the lead of the gods (Brockingto n, 1984, p. 33) or what the Greeks refer to as fate, a story of support darned out by the Muse (Homer, Iliad, 1950, p. 175). Both epics subscribe heroes who follow their dharma or fate without question and praise and honor their gods. It is when the heroes anger or disrespect the gods that evil befalls them.\r\nFor example, when Odysseus tells king Alcinous how he injured Cyclops and this evoke the dick’s father, Poseidon who aided Cyclops as he attacked the ship with hilltop and gargantuan boulder causing waves to drive the ship back to shore. (Homer, Odyssey,1950, Book IX, p. 141-2). Or when Rama slays the giant and angers the demon king Ravan, because Rama is vigilant in his respect to the gods, he overcomes the challenges brought before him when his wife is stolen from him. Rama is the example of true dharma and a great hero to the Indian religion of Hindu. Brockington, 1984, p. 8). Odysseus and Rama both face a great journey and banishment. Odysseus takes twenty ye ars to return from the battle of Troy and suffers many hardships along the way that detain him from reaching his homeland for which he desires.\r\nOne such suffering be at the hands of Calypso on the Isle Ogygia for seven years where she oblige his stay as he had no means by which to depart until Calypso was bade by the gods to sent him planless on a raft (Homer, Odyssey,1950, Book V, pp. 74-75. Among these misadventures that halted Odysseus’ return, was the Isle of the white lotus-Eaters, where the men ate of the Lotus which made them lose their desire to continue their journey home, and the Sirens who attempted to attract them to their own deaths (Homer, Odyssey, Book IX, p. 128-130). The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus’ journey home once he has befallen these challenges after the fight of Troy.\r\nThis journey takes more time as he meets hardships mostly set upon him by Poseidon, who â€Å"…. saw Odysseus as he sailed over the deep; and he was mightily a ngered in spirit…. (Homer, Odyssey, Book V, p. 79) and reveals â€Å"it must(prenominal) be that the gods at the last have changed their purposes concerning Odysseus…. But methinks that even yet I will drive him far enough in the path of suffering” (Homer, Odyssey, 1950, p. 79). Thus another journey begins and Odysseus is troubled once again, taking a total of twenty years before he reaches his homeland. If not for Athena’s aid and the aid of the other gods, Odysseus would not have been successful. Rama is to a fault taken from his homeland.\r\nOn the eve of his preparations to take over the throne for his father, one of his father’s other wives, Queen Kaikeyi , to whom King Dasaratha owes two vows as she had saved his animateness previously, beseeches the king to throne her son, Bharat and exile Rama for 14 years to the forest. â€Å"These rites in Rama’s name begun Transfer them, and enthrone my son. The time is come to claim at last The parallel boon of days long-past, When Gods and demons met in fight. And thou wouldst fain my care requite. Now forth to Dandak’s forest drive Thy Rama for nine years and five, And let him dwell a hermit there…. (Griffith, Book II, stz. 11).\r\nWith these haggle Kaikeyi reminds Dasaratha of his promise to her when she saved his life by caring for a fatal wound. She then asks for her son to be throned without challenge from Rama and also that Rama be exiled for fourteen years to give out as a hermit in the forest. Kaikeyi only does such a prehensile act because her maid Manthara has convinced her that dreadful tidings await her future and that of her son if Bharat does not take the throne and Rama is enthroned (Griffith, Book II, stzs. -8). Still, honoring his father’s lament bid, Rama departs, ready to make a life anew with his wife and his one half-brother, Lakshmana (Griffith, Book II, stz. 19). As did Odysseus, so did Rama face many sufferings once he le ft in exile and his journey was not yet over. Sita, his wife, is stolen from him while he is away. Thus Rama, takes on the tasks of allying with the monkey armies to have aid in finding and saving his beloved wife. Then he faces Ravan, the demon king, to save her (Griffith, Book IV, V, VI).\r\nOdysseus’ and Rama’s stories both reveal the brilliance of a warrior’s weaponry and strength in their respective cultures. When Odysseus returns home, with the deviousness of Athena, he and his son and wife, Telemachus and Penelope, devise a contest to prove his identity so that Odysseus may overtake his kingdom of Ithaca once more. Whosoever bathroom string Odysseus’ prominent bow will have Penelope for his wife and all the kingdom of Odysseus for his own. So does Penelope set the bow and quiver before the wooers.\r\nAnd one by one they attempt to string Odysseus’ mighty bow. But none can accomplish this feat. Once Telemachus convinces the wooers to let th e resist who is his disguised father attempt the feat, â€Å"…. Odysseus warm bent the great bow, all without effort, and took it in his right hand and proved the bow string, which rang sweetly at the touch, in tone up like a swallow â€Å" (Homer, Odyssey, 1950, Book XXI, p. 336). All at once he revealed his true identity and all was mazed to the suitors of his wife.\r\n'