Be it the exploits of Hercules, Perseus or Odysseus or their ilk, the warrior kings of the Indian mytho-religious ethos, the knights of King Arthur, Persian princes, Arabian chieftains (Hatim Tai) and merchants (Sindbad), Russian bogatyrs Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets, the old Spanish gentleman (of magnificent imagination but a tenuous grip on reality) of La Mancha, or the expeditions of a ...