What Is The Difference Between Greek Mythology And Indian Mythology

Mythology in the dictionary is defined as a “collection of myths or the study of myths.” and while the mythologies originate from different places, they are alike in many aspects. They share similar themes, beliefs, and experts believe they are the same for many reasons. Greek and Indian mythology both share the same theme of the main character trying to avoid a prophecy only to succumb to their destiny. In Indian mythology, we have the story of King Kansa. Kansa was an evil ruler who was warned by AakashVani that he would be killed by his sisters, Devaki, eight sons. Threaten he locked up Devaki and her husband, Vaasudeva, and killed every child she had. When the eight child was born Vaasudeva managed to break free and save their

Indian mythology believes that those who are good will go to Svarga, haven, and Naraka, hell. In Greek mythology, they believe that the evil go to the underworld and the good go to heaven or Mount Olympus. The Greeks mummify their gods and bury them in sacred burial grounds with their loved ones while the Indians also have sacred burial grounds they do not mummify their gods. The mortals in both are also required to worship and pray to the gods at the designated temples. In addition, they share similar gods and stories of creation. Both Indian and Greek mythology started off with an empty vast of ocean with one god, “Darkness hidden by darkness in the beginning. With no distinguishing sign, all this was water. The life force was covered with emptiness” (“crystal wind”). this is what is said to describe the Indian beginning. While in Greek mythology, Elliott describes it as “an amorphous, gaping void encompassing the entire universe, and surrounded by an unending stream of water” (Elliot 1). The gods who started it all were Oceanus (Greek) and Lord Vishnu (Indian), then came Eurynome (Greek) and Brahma (Indian) who were both creators of the earth. After that came all the

Indra is similar to Zeus in that they are both gods of heaven and have a thunderbolt as their weapon. They both live in their own little world, in Zeus case it is Mount Olympus and for Indra, it is Mount Meru, where only gods are allowed to be. Hades and Yama are both gods of death and the afterlife, but while Hades literally rules the underworld of earth, Yama’s underworld, Naraka, is in a whole different dimension. Poseidon’s double is Varnus or Vedic who is also the god of the Ocean. The list goes on and on as there are many gods that are similar in identity and roles. Experts like Adrienne Mayor believe that mythological stories were base off of fossils that were found. Mayor says in an interview, “there is also a lot of natural knowledge embedded in those myths, showing that Greek perceptions about fossils were pretty amazing for prescientific people ' ' (“NY times”). Mayor then goes on to talk about how she came to this conclusion. She uses the story of Heracles rescuing Hesione by killing the monster of Troy, “Ms. Mayor pointed out that in the earliest known illustration of the Heracles legend, painted on a Corinthian vase, the monster 's skull closely matched that of an extinct giraffe” (“NY times”). Mayor came to the conclusion that every time Greeks or Romans found fossils they used them to back up a mythology story that was already created or to create a completely new