Christopher Nolan's much-awaited project, 'The Odyssey ', has some striking similarities with the Hindu epic, 'The Ramayana'. Which of these two came first?
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Add BollywoodShaadis on GoogleChristopher Nolan's movie, The Odyssey, hit the theatres on July 17, 2026, and the excitement is palpable. For those who don't know, this is one of Nolan's much-anticipated projects, and he has had the idea for it for 20 years, which has finally come to fruition. Christopher Nolan was all set to make the movie Troy, which was later cancelled, and he went on to make Batman Begins.
Now, after all these years, Nolan's movie has hit the theatres and is already winning hearts. The movie is based on Homer's Odyssey and features a stellar cast including Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Matt Damon and others. While everyone who has read Odyssey or has already seen the movie in theatres knows what the plot is about. But did you know that The Odyssey shares some striking similarities with the Hindu epic, The Ramayana? Yes! There are four such similarities that are too prominent to ignore, which equally raises the question of which came first among these two.
So, amid the release of The Odyssey, let's know about these four similarities. The first ever similarity between The Ramayana and The Odyssey is where the heroes return to their homes. In Ramayana, Lord Rama, after the end of his 14-year exile, returned to home, but before that, he had to fight a battle to get back his wife, Sita, who was abducted by Lankadhipati, Ravana.
Speaking of 'King Odysseus', he also returned to his home after a prolonged battle, after conquering Troy in the Trojan War, but he had a gruelling voyage back home, which required him to face mythical obstacles as well as logistical nightmares. Another similarity between The Odyssey and The Ramayana is that both of these show the wives of the heroes in a captivated state.
While the circumstances that led to Sita and Penelope being in a captivated state are totally different, it's one of the striking similarities between The Odyssey and The Ramayana. The only difference is that Odysseus had to return to his kingdom to save his queen, while Ram had to reach Lanka to save Sita, and he did the same and returned to Ayodhya with her.
Another striking similarity is the stringing of the bow. The Odyssey showed Odysseus, in the disguise of a beggar, stringing the bow, which none of the suitors could do. In Ramayana, Ram had to string the celestial bow of Lord Shiva, which only he could do. Last but not least, the final similarity between The Odyssey and The Ramayana is the sequence in which the heroes chase deer, which turns out to be an illusion.
The similarities between The Odyssey and The Ramayana, raised the question of which of these two came first. While The Ramayana was written in Treta Yuga, The Odyssey came much later, around 1200 BCE. If we talk about the documentation, The Odyssey was documented between 750-650 BCE, while The Ramayana was documented between 500-250 BCE.
What do you think about the striking similarities between The Odyssey and The Ramayana?
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