Thursday, February 25, 2016

Week 6 Reading Diary: PDE Mahabharata continued

PDE: Mahabharata by various authors

For the end of this week, I finished reading the great Indian epic, Mahabharata. This epic story was full of drama and had many different characters to keep up with. Although I have previously read and watched the Mahabharata, I found myself learning new things as I read. My parents read bits and pieces of the Mahabharata to me most nights when I was a kid, but I guess some of the stuff left my memory. The ending of the Mahabharata really stuck out to me, especially the death of Krishna. The eerie setting in Dwaraka really set the mood for Krishna's death. The description of the town was very vivid. "Then the night was haunted by a black woman with yellow teeth who grinned horribly at house doors." I got a clear visual of a creepy looking lady who just looked like death. Krishna's actual death reminded me of the Achilles' heel reference. Krishna was shot in the only spot on his body where he could be mortally wounded, which ultimately lead to his death. The idea of achilles' heel standing for weakness in spite of overall strength comes from Greek mythology. Achilles was dipped into a river that was supposed to give him invulnerability. In order to get the magical water on him, Achilles was held by his heel and because of that, his heel was untouched by the water, leaving his heel vulnerable. If I were to write a story about this, I have this idea to combine Krishna's death and Achilles' story into one. 


(Achilles dipped in River Styx. Source: Wikimedia Commons)



No comments:

Post a Comment