There is an interesting piece on Balthazar in there. Also some neat stuff and pics on the Nubian's influence during the times of the Pharaohs.

Stoicism (and it's variants like epicureanism) and Buddhism are similar, but I was under the impression that they arose independently. Since they are on the same landmass, I guess two traditions could have influenced each other. On the other hand I'm (almost) sure I read somewhere that Aztecs philosophers had the same sort of ideas: The world is slippery slick. One can't hold onto anything.

He said invasion/migration

The theory of Aryan invasion has already been debunked.

The interaction between Greek and Hindu beliefs is an interesting topic, but it's also a potentially controversial one. While it's clear that the Greeks brought back Eastern ideas and introduced innovative artistic styles to India, it's important to consider the possibility of cultural appropriation and the potential harm caused by the spread of these ideas.

There are certainly some examples of Greek iconography appearing in Hindu art and architecture, but it's worth questioning whether or not the Greeks had a right to influence Hindu beliefs in this way. Did they respect the cultural differences between the two traditions, or did they impose their own beliefs on the Hindus?

It's also worth considering whether or not any similarities between Greek and Hindu beliefs are truly coincidental, or if they were influenced by the spread of Greek ideas. It's possible that the Greeks had a significant impact on Hinduism, but it's also possible that they took advantage of the Hindus and appropriated their beliefs without proper respect.

What do you think about the relationship between Greek and Hindu beliefs? Do you think the Greeks had a right to influence Hinduism in this way, or do you think their actions were harmful and culturally appropriative?

The very first lecture of "Nietzsche's Zarathustra," not Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," but the Princeton University Press book titled Nietzsche's Zarathustra, goes into discussing this to quite some detail, showing you how the ideas crept in, and the style of propaganda used then at the time to turn the Values of the ancient Greek on their head. The whole book is worth you time, even though it's completely off topic.

If the myth resonates with people it's not difficult to install it. There are certain sign symbols an artist uses that trigger a reaction in most people, these are the ingredients to what becomes a mythology later. If you look at what the Soviet and Nazi propagandists were doing you can see the attempts to create a new myth, and it was pretty effective.

Imperialism is another "ism", an ideology. Modern ideologies don't have close parallels with the pre modern ages. It's mostly a European thing that spread with European contact, and ideologies tend to be entangled with technology, economic, political, and cultural institutions and situations.

This book looks like a great read, thank you! Just borrowed the audiobook from Libby :)

I’m Japanese and my wife is Greek. I have a tattoo of Fūjin on my arm and after reading this, we both had our minds blown.. so. many. similarities.

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If you're interested in a book, or e-book, check out Will Durant and the story of civilization series. It's highly accessible and despite a few issues, is still useful today. He takes a broad view of what is important and spends more time on art, ideas, and processes than battles and assassinations. The writing style is superb and uses a judicious mix of details and broad strokes (he even uses a different font size for sections that are highly specialized like currency and price overviews so it's easy to skip the uninteresting), and to this day the books give me plenty of avenues for exploration.

Strangley enough, this might not be due to cross-pollination between Acient Greece and Ancient India, but rather due to Proto Indo-European Mythology

IMHO Stoicism of the Greek school is more or less Buddhism without concepts of rebirth or karmic weight, however the reward is a clean conscious and knowing your virtue is aligned with your actions which is essentially the same thing.

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I'm a Classicist who has also done a fair bit of work on Sanskrit because of a) the Indo-European link and b) the literature is just quite cool. I have some thoughts on this but am not sure about the rules on linking to a personal website.

There are going to be some similarities due to a) Springing from a common source (not necessarily the PIE link, ample evidence for influence on both from Mesopotamia). b) Greeks influencing Indians and vice versa. c) Our comparative models making us think two very different things are similar (do not underestimate this).

This is problematised since, despite what RW Indian groups will claim, the Hinduism of the period looked quite a bit different to how its practiced now. In fact, the Gupta Empire (4th-6th AD) seems to be the major formulative influence on modern Hinduism.

In the North West, where Greek influence was strongest, you're looking at a mix of Buddhist and Vedic cults that were ancestral to but in many ways distinct from later forms.

A few areas stick out:

1. Plastic arts (look at the Gandhara Buddha)
2. Architecture - though there are better examples of this in East Afghanistan, at the time you would think of this was part of the Indosphere.
3. Buddhist dress.
4. Astronomy.

Here's something I wrote on a bit of iconography, hopefully, if against the rules, the mods will just remove the link and not the whole post :\

https://philologicalcrocodile.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/what-has-athens-to-do-with-pataliputra/

If you like, I can give you a reading list.

Check out the “Immortality Key” by Brian C Muraresku. I think his work is pioneering how we understand the relationship between Indo-European religions and why they seem so similar.

For more information I recomend https://shwep.net/ Podcast. Acamedic research on the earliest greeks and their esoterism.

My vague understanding is that as earliest as Pythagoras went to the east and came back as a vegetarian that started its own cult and one of the laws was they couldn't stand on grass as it was impure... I think there was more culture crossover than we tend to think nowadays...

Years ago, in college, I did a deep dive into researching the oft-overlooked Kushan Empire for a paper. It was a Silk Road empire, its placement setting it up to be a fascinating blend of culture, religion and language. I'd say it was fundamentally Hellenistic but over time the influence of the subcontinent colored its nature considerably. I'm sure I've forgotten more than I remember about its rise and fall, but it was a fascinating study.

You should check out the YouTube channel called Crash Course World History. Very broad overviews of history from the beginning of agriculture to modern times. It’s done by a history teacher who tries to make it engaging and funny and relate it to why history matters. I really enjoyed the series and it made me decide which periods of history or historical events were interesting to me so that I could then do a deeper dive into those periods. Hope you find the videos as enjoyable as I did! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9

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A great example is the japanese god of wind Fujin. Fujin is always depicted holding a bag which holds the winds slung across his back. This is very similar to how the Greek god of wind, Boreas, was depicted, and it is not a coincidence.

As per the wikipedia article

>The iconography of Fūjin seems to have its origin in the cultural exchanges along the Silk Road. Starting with the Hellenistic period when Greece occupied parts of Central Asia and India, the Greek wind god Boreas became the god Wardo/Oado in Bactrian Greco-Buddhist art, then a wind deity in China (as seen frescoes of the Tarim Basin; usually named Feng Bo/Feng Po - "Uncle Wind" - among various other names), and finally the Japanese Wind God Fūjin. The wind god kept its symbol, the windbag, and its disheveled appearance throughout this evolution.

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Basically this god travelled through all of Asia and was adopted by multiple civilisations reaching as far east as Japan. Looking up the iconography from any one of those civilisations and the similarities are obvious.

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Another fun little tidbit I like, but which is not exactly related with religion but does pertain to cultural exchange due to Ancient Greek conquests of Asia, the Nepalese Kukri knives which are very well known symbols of Nepal and hold much cultural significance are most likely descended by the ancient greek Kopis sword which probably made its way there through Alexander the Great.