Reading Diary Week 3: The Voyages of Sindbad

I accidentally read ahead and did a Middle Eastern unit for week 3 instead of another Biblical unit or a Classical unit, so bear in mind all Week 4 Sindbad readers that this way be spoilers. Although the Sindbad that I read about is far from being like Douglas Fairbank Jr.'s swashbuckling Sinbad, I can't say that I walked away disappointed after reading "The Voyages of Sindbad." Sindbad's character is very much in the vein of Odysseus, and this should come as no surprise given the apparent influence Homer's epic had on the stories of Sindbad. Sindbad has the bad luck of constantly running afoul of trouble on his many voyages, but as a trickster-type character, he utilizes his knack for using his wits to survive against the most unlikely of odds. Whether its gargantuan birds, giant snakes, hordes of elephant-eared cyclopses, or a society that forces men and women to be buried alive alongside their dead spouses, Sindbad rises to every challenge and finds a way to come out alive.

Some of Sindbad's voyages are better than others. I found the merchant's first and fifth adventures to be a bit on the dry side, but his other adventures are all very entertaining. The third voyage reads like a story straight from The Odyssey, but is still very enjoyable in its own right. The sixth and seventh voyages record Sindbad's transformation from an everyday--albeit absurdly rich--merchant into a respected diplomat for his city. 

Of all the voyages, my personal favorites were the second and fourth adventures. Sindbad's second voyage brings him in contact with a gigantic bird known as a roc. Hitching a ride on the bird, Sindbad finds himself in a valley full of diamonds. Unfortunately, there appears to be  no easy escape from the valley, and giant snakes--because everything in Sindbad's voyages has to be giant or it's just not fun--come out at night, forcing Sindbad to hide during that time. What really makes this story great is how Sindbad uses his knowledge and wit to escape from the valley with a load of diamonds. If there was one voyage that I would want people to read above the other voyages, it would be this one.

"Sindbad Children's Magazine" (Wikipedia Commons)

I found Sindbad's fourth voyage very interesting. Instead of having to deal with fearsome--and don't forget giant!--beasts, the sailor has to contend with the ridiculous laws of a society that he has found himself living in. According to the rules of this society, when a man's wife or a woman's husband dies, the living spouse is forced to be buried alive alongside her or him. Sindbad has the misfortune of getting married in this society, and as bad luck would have it, his wife dies. Sindbad ends up getting buried alive. This is when things take a turn for the dark. In what was to me quite a surprise, I read about Sindbad killing the living spouses that are lowered into the mass grave as they come so as to steal the bread and water that are ritually placed alongside the unfortunate man or woman. These are far from Sindbad's most heroic moments, and I was shocked at the rather casual tone with which he describes his murders. It actually inspired me to base my story tomorrow on this dark time in Sindbad's adventures. I think one could definitely mine a lot of pathos out of the scenes in the mass grave.