Epics of India

The current version of this story can be found at my Portfolio here! The battle was near, and both sides waited in a moment of tense anticipation. On one side, Perseus’ dad stood armed and ready ahead of his troops, prepared to charge forward at any second. Poseidon had led them thus far, and those who followed him had faith in his ability to lead them to victory. On the other side, his nemesis Zeus stood in a similar manner. Both knew that they would be the deciding factor in the battle, as each was capable of wiping out the other’s entire army with ease. In a moment of weakness, Zeus came up with a plan to defeat Poseidon in battle. With both sides about to rush forward, Zeus raised his hand in the air, as if he wanted to pause and say something. Poseidon was confused. “What is the meaning of this?”, he asked. Zeus smirked, and yelled across the battlefield. “Oh nothing. I just thought you’d like to know that we captured your son Perseus and killed him.” “That can’t be, P...

For my second reading for week 7, I read part D of the public domain version of the Mahabharata. For this section of the reading, I chose to focus on death, which was wildly abundant in this section. First came the death of Abhimanyu. It seems that all great stories must be associated with the occurrence of tragedy, and the life of Arjuna is no exception. His son, who is described as being pure and innocent, has his head done in by a mace trapped behind enemy lines, which seems like a horrible way to go. He was blinded badly right before then, highlighting his innocent and lack of ability to defend himself, just to exemplify the lack of mercy shown to him. Next came Bhima’s son, which was slightly less dramatic but still a heat tragedy for the side of the Pandavas. It seems that many of these fights occurred solely between two people, which of the rest of the armies just watching on. This adds to the dramatic scene of each fight, although it seems like if they really wanted to pro...

For the first part of my week 7 reading, I read part C of the public domain version of the Mahabharata . \ For this reading, I chose to focus on the conflicting morals that are highlighted throughout the stories. The first one which is discussed is forgiveness. Often the Pandavas discuss the importance of forgiveness, that it is the truth, and yet Arjun, eager for battle, seems to generally be fairly unforgiving. He wrecks an entire city of demons, slaying all that come before him. I know they’re Econ’s, but it still doesn’t seem very forgiving to go attack them without being provoked and destroy their entire city. Another concept which seemed odd was Bhima’s killing animals for fun. He was amused by the monkey that he could not move, and was often described as being the thoughtful and selfless caretaker of his family, but he was killing elephants and then using those dead elephants to kill more elephants for fun. It seems odd to include this and doesn’t seem very fitting. Lastly...