The Iliad and The Ramayana

The Iliad and the Ramayana are synchronically world literatures. Both of these two epics were created before 100 A.D. Like the significant influence of the Iliad and Odyssey on Ancient Greek, The Ramayana and Mahabharata also played a very important role in Ancient India. We can find many common points between the Iliad and the Ramayana by just comparing the two centered heroes, Achilles and Rama. Meanwhile, we may also find some diversity due to the development of the civilization in different regions. But in conclusion, Ramayana is a didactic epic and Iliad is a dialectic epic. The similarities and dissimilarities of the two epics reveal the diversities of the literature, culture and social background between the Greek and India in the ancient heroic age. This also can be concluded as the difference between the Liberalism of the Western and the Conservatism of the Eastern in the ancient age.

Jordan Hernandez

We started off the week discussing the Ramayana. Canto 2 of Book 1 depicts Brahma's (the creator) visit. We learn that sheeva is the god of destruction and vishnu is a god that keeps the balance. Canto 3 essentially summarizes the entire story. I also noticed that they describe sacrifices and mantras that are spoken making them quite ritualistic. In addition we began to discuss canto 47 of Book 3 when Ravan attempts to woo Sita. Moreover, we compared Achilles and Ram and the consistent themes within both epics. Such themes include war and abduction. One thing, however, that I noticed is that the "bloodiness" present in the Iliad is missing in the Ramayana. I'm not entirely sure why that is the case and I don't think that it has much significance. I enjoyed reading the two verses of the Iliad because I actually understood them. I liked reading parts of the Ramayana except for Canto's 2 and 3, which were so confusing to me.

I'm not sure how I feel about reading the tragedies since I didn't enjoy reading them back in high school.