Did you know the similarities Greek mythology has with Indian mythology

You must have heard of Greek mythology at some point of time in your life. My older sister was really into green mythology and she would often tell me stories from what she found out from internet. While she used to tell me the adventures and courageous stories of the Aphrodite or Poseidon.

I used to wonder where have I heard this before. It always used to ring a bell in my mind. The fascinating stories from the Greek mythology used to always seem familiar to me. So, I did my research and found out that Greek mythology is actually quite similar to Indian mythology. And all the stories that felt familiar to me were once told to me by my grandmother as bedtime stories to me.
    
Small world isn't it. Digging more into the topic I found out more about it and some professionals and professors who have studied mythology have already proven that they are the same events but with different names. Since once upon a time our world used to have one big continent and it is also believed that we might have experienced one culture but as time passed by and the differences came in the human race. The culture started changing but the stories of the events remained the same. So here are the similarities I have gathered from two very different cultures.
 
When we talk about both Greek and Indian mythology the first gods that come to my mind are Zeus and Indra. They are the king of Gods in their respective cultures but the similarities are what is striking. They both are the Gods of sky and have control over the weather like rain, storm and darkness. Zeus has thunderbolt as the weapons and Indra has the vajra and both of them are supposed to have the power of thunder in it. Also, both the Gods often seem to have fling with the mortal women and both are the children of Power Gods.
 
Indian mythology has the three gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv as the main three Gods of Indian mythology. Greek mythology also has Zeus, Hades and Poseidon even though their roles might not be similar to each other but their existence is.
There are also the goddesses that have striking similarities. Athena and Goddess Sarasvati, both are known to be goddess of wisdom and knowledge.
 

There is one particular story I remember that had a different story but the same moral. In Greek mythology there is the story of Achilles. His mother wanted him to be the invincible warrior of all time. So, his mother dipped him in the river Styx which was known to make anyone who touches the water immortal but his mother made a mistake Here. She was a mother and in no way, she would have drowned the boy in the River and instead she held the boy by the ankle and dipped him in the water.

Since, she was holding him by his ankles. The ankles did not touch the water. Thus, making his ankles vulnerable. Later in his life, when Achilles had to participate in the war. He was killed by being shot in the ankle by an arrow leading to his death. A similar sorry We have in our Indian mythology. The story is from Mahabharata where Duryodhana had to participate in the war against the Pandavas. In order to make him undefeatable Gandhari, Duryodhana’s mother decided to take off her long vow of blindfold which would make Duryodhana’s immortal. Wherever Gandhari sees after taking off her blindfold would make it immortal but the lord Krishna tricked him saying that " it will be shameful for a son to let her mother see him all naked since he is a grown-up man". To which he covered his thighs and private parts and went to his mother but when his mother's Power made the rest of his body immortal. His thighs and private part area became vulnerable which later became the cause of his death.

This was one of the prime examples of how both the stories had a similar type of story. Both the stories revolved around warriors and warfare and their mothers trying to save them but what was destined to be that happened. There are many more stories having the same background that can be found in both Greek mythology and Indian mythology. Whether it is the Zeus distinguishing himself into king of titan and had had his way with the queen. Leading it to the defeat of the titans and or the story of how Tulsi had to be impure by Vishnu in disguise of his husband to defeat her husband in the war in an unfair way. These kinds of stories have always existed in both country's cultures even though they are thousands of miles apart.
 

Till this date we don't know which side of the mythological world was the original one but the mythologies have been circulating all over the world. There is a chance of Aryans bringing these stories to our country India and it can be that the pilgrimage travellers took our stories and travelled to the west where the stories got westernised and reframed according to them. Or there is also the possibility of the one world and the people who wrote these or passed on These stories had witnessed the same event but as the time passed by it changed according to the region.

These are some of the theories we are yet to find out. Till then these mythologies will just be the stories that our culture has preserved over the years and passed on generation by generation.

-Durgesh Nandini Naik

Note: Some of the references are taken from Greek mythology and Mahabharata. And the story mentioned in the article is also mentioned in an episode of "Devlok with Devdutt Pattanaik".