#2 King of the Gods
The Greeks believed Zeus to be the king of the gods. Similarly, Hindus
believe that Indra is the King of the Gods. But the similarities don’t stop
there! They both live on mountains (Mount Olympus and Mount Meru),
are gods of thunder, wield lightning bolts, and are worshiped on
Thursdays!
#3 Prophecy-Death By Child
Many of us are familiar with the story of Kronos and Zeus.
Kronos hears a prophesy that his child will overthrow him, so he eats his
children at birth (because that made more sense than not having children)
until the 6th, Zeus, is born in secret and raised in exile. He comes back as a
grown-up and, of course, the prophecy comes true. Somehow, the Hindus
believe in the same myth. King Kamsa hears that the 8th child of his sister
will kill him, so he logically imprisons his sister and her husband together
instead of separating them, kills her first 7 children, and then - somehow -
the 8th child (Krishna, my namesake) gets sent and exiled on a river. Of
course Krishna grows up and kills his uncle Kamsa to become the next king.
#4 The Great War a.k.a Don't Steal My Wife
The Trojan War was waged on the city of Troy by the Greeks when Paris
took Helen of Troy from King Menelaus of Sparta. The war raged for 10
years until the Trojans lost to a fake horse. The Ramayana is the story of
the war between Rama and Ravana. Rama and Sita live in the woods
together until Ravana abducts Sita. In order to go retrieve his wife, Rama
brings along his brother and an army of monkeys and kills Ravana, who,
for some reason, has 10 heads.
Hopefully, I have now convinced you that the Classical mythologies live on in
Hinduism, or at the very least, that the Classical myths and Hinduism share some
similarities. I only named four here, but there are numerous shared myths between
the two. See if you can find more!
19