I found Thalaba the Destroyer strangely similar to the epic story/poem (I believe the very first known) of Gilgamesh. Since it was said that Southey studied the religions and was making the connections between them and finding how very similar some can be, I wonder if he used Gilgamesh as a reference as well.
I find it similar in the epic tale of it and a bit of the writing. I'm not sure if I am just imagining it or not. But it is a curious idea to see if he used it within his work. I also wonder how many other different texts he has used within his work.
And for some weird reason, when I first read the title of the work on the syllabus H.P. Lovecraft popped into my mind.
Does anyone else seem similarities between Thalaba and other specific epic texts?
Also (this is a bit different topic then above) when we brought up the discussion on how he seemed to take things from others and how it made at least one critic upset. Then there was also the poem he created and I wonder if he is serious or not. I'm also curious if he has done this before and just how trustworthy Southey is within his work.
I hadn't made any particular connections but when we were discussing all the religions being similar, it reminded me of how overarching themes in literature are often extremely similar, there is even a book about it, I think it's called "hero of a thousand faces" or something like that.
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