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Sinbad is a Merchant Hero, different in many ways from Western folk and mythic heroes. There are clear cross-cultural similarities in some of his adventures (such as his meeting with a cyclops and a giant island which turns out to be a sea monster), but this Persian Sinbad is unique, valuing cleverness above all else and being rewarded with wealth. At each stage of life, a new name evolving from the most childish, Sinbad the Horseman, to Sinbad the Ambassador and finally Sinbad the Sailor. In telling his tales to a porter, our hero passes the story of a mid-Eastern life odyssey to the next generation.
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