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What Is The Difference Between The Ramayana And The Odyssey

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The Hero in Homer's The Odyssey and in the Indian epic, The Ramayana
The word hero can be considered an umbrella term for its inability to be pigeonholed into one set definition. There's different criteria to be a hero as determined by each individual or groups of people. The protagonist of the Ramayana, Rama, and Odysseus from The Odyssey, are both considered heroes and fit that description according to the most basic notion of a hero.
Rama is a hero because he defeated Ravana and consequently evil, and Odysseus triumphed over mammoth obstacles on his journey home from war. Superficially they do share many heroic qualities but in a deeper level they are very distinct characters from one another and their heroic qualities are manifested in different ways.
In understanding the heroic quality of Rama and Odysseus, it is important to look at the context of the setting and time in which these characters inhabit. This is an instance of how the definition of hero can vary for different people. If both characters were to swap settings while retaining their own characteristics, they may still be considered heroes but not to the degree of success each one achieves in their native locations. At the time that The Odyssey was written,
Greece was very much a war-like culture which placed great emphasis on fame and fortune.
Evidence of this can be traced all throughout The Odyssey. The narrator while setting the scene, never fails to describe the luxurious details and goods. In the very

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