The Hindu gods in Ramayana are portrayed very differently from the Greek gods in the Odyssey. For starters, they are not as prideful – Rama is consistently praised as being a god and having god like beauty and strength, during the time he is perceived as a mortal. Such a display of pride in Greek mythology would have surely incurred the wrath of the Zeus, even if it was another god he was punishing. In addition, these gods are far more forgiving, kind and less judgmental, with the main instance being at the very end, when Rama berates his wife and allows her to burn herself to death. Such an act would have caused the Greek gods to curse, kill or bestow a horrible prophecy on Rama, who did not realize he was a god yet. Throughout Greek mythology, the gods inflict cruel fates upon those who treat others badly or offend other gods. Instead, in the Ramayana, the gods step forward and give Rama his wife back, saying that she has done no harm and that he should not judge her so quickly. They even reveal that they are immortal anyways. Even though his reasoning for her initial suicide had an ulterior motive, the gods of Olympus would have found his actions extremely unfavorable.
2 thoughts on “The Gods of Ramayana vs The Gods of Mount Olympus”
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I agree with your statements. It seems that the gods in Hindu culture have more of an understanding of earthly matters and are therefore kinder to the people, whereas gods in Greek mythology are much more celestial and do not have as great a connection and understanding with the mortals.
You hit upon an integral difference between Ancient Greek and Hindu cultures here, Anthony: that the western gods here arguably have more personality if by personality we mean something like a capacity for cruelty that one doesn’t find as often or perhaps at all in Hinduism. Great work!