The Arabian Nights has several distinct parallels to The Odyssey. The major similarity is the story of the cyclops, which was translated almost exactly into the "Voyages of Sindbad". In Sindbad's account it contains all the details of Odysseus' account, the most obvious being the blinding of the cyclopse with asharpened stake. The Arabian Nights shares several distinct parallels with The Odyssey. The major similarity is the story of the cyclops, which was translated almost exactly into the "Voyages of Sindbad". In Sindbad's account it contains all the details of Odysseus' account, the most obvious being the blinding ofthe aforementioned beast. There is again the attempt to outdo Odysseus, only this time it is rather the opposite way than the outdoing in The Aeneid. While in Aeneas’s case the difficulty springs from his avoidance and perseverance through the same problems as Odysseus with less misfortune, the various characters in The Arabian Nights suffer greater misfortunes than Odysseus and still come through profitably. Outdoing Homer seems to be extremely important in those early works from cultures which venerated Greek society. A perfect example is the slaughter of the maids. Odysseus’s maids are all joyously killed at the end of the book, while the Sultan Shaharihar’s maids and wives are unfaithful to him in the beginning, at which point, in his disillusionment, he kills them. He spends the entire book sorrowing over being unable to find a woman true and fair. The disillusionment and fear of women caused by betrayal by them is also one of Odysseus’s dominant characteristics, only Shaharihar carries it out of all proportion.
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