What is your favourite national epic, /lit/? Why?

The Lusiads. Because I liked it.

The iliad

>>9878291
gilgamesh

>>9878398
a good choice

>>9878291
Is the Mahabharata worth reading? seems crazy long

>>9878477
Unless you're a Hindu it's not worth it to read the entire thing. There's a fair amount of stuff that'll fly over your head if you're not well versed in Hindu myths and rituals, and unlike the Iliad it's way too long so reaching a level of knowledge to be able to appreciate and read the epic will take years.

Read the abridged version of the Mahabharata by c rajagopalachari. Also, you can read the Ramayana in it's original form, which is much shorter and more accessible than the Mahabharata.

File: faraz-shanyar-rostam-work-in-progress-by-shanyar-d6avnhe.jpg (206KB, 1920x1169px) Image search: [Google]

206KB, 1920x1169px

>>9878291
Shahnameh, Zoroastrian epic of Greater Iran

>>9878477
Read the Bhagavad Gita, it's a standalone part of the Mahabharata.

>>9878515
>it's not worth it to study another culture/religion unless you're explicitly a part of it
When you say read, I'm assuming you mean translations, which are entry mode anyway.

>>9879713
Why does everyone jerk off to Vedic myths but never Zoroastrian, which are actually closer to Western ethos?

>>9879721
As one who is reading the Shahnameh and studying Zoroastrianism, I think this is a good thing.

Zoroastrianism is the only "exotic" religion that hasn't been overly popularized and watered down for modern Westerners.

The short answer to your question would be that the British Empire put Westerners into direct contact with India for centuries, and that Hinduism has influenced a wider cultural area. (Though I suppose that's debatable if you consider the Abrahamic religions to be offshoots of Zoroastrianism.)

The mountain wreath
Because I'm a Serb and I like genocide handbooks

>>9879721
>>9879753
Also (pseud) people are more likely to jerk off to whatever is most different from their culture.

>>9879753
>and studying Zoroastrianism
How much have you studied Zoroastrianism? Do you believe older, pre-Sassanian Zoroastrianism to have been more monotheistic or a cosmological dualism and henotheism?