• Olympus is the home of the Greek gods, much like Amravati of the Hindu devas.
• Zeus, leader of Olympians, wields a thunderbolt like Indra and rides an eagle like Vishnu.
•
The feats of the Greek hero Heracles, known to Romans as Hercules,
reminded many of Krishna, as did his name, ‘Hari-kula-esha’ or lord of
the Hari clan.
• The Greek epic of a husband sailing across the sea
with a thousand ships to bring his wife, Helen, back from Troy seems
strikingly similar to the story of Ram rescuing Sita from Lanka.
Is
there a connection between Greek and Hindu mythology then? Does it have
something to do with a common Indo-European root? Or maybe an exchange
of ideas in the centuries that followed the arrival of Alexander the
Great, when Greek emissaries travelled to the kingdoms of Mathura and
Magadha?
In this book, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik turns his
attention to ancient Greek tales and explores a new world of stories.
Long have Europeans and Americans retold Indic mythologies. It is time
for Indians to reverse the gaze.
