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Indeed, before the Greeks The Buddha would most commonly only be depicted by his absence, an empty chair or foot prints most famously. It's amazing that the ico
by tombh 5y ago
Indeed, before the Greeks The Buddha would most commonly only be depicted by his absence, an empty chair or foot prints most famously. It's amazing that the iconography of a religion so ancient and "exotic" is so significantly shaped by European culture.
- routerl 5y ago> It's amazing that the iconography of a religion so ancient and "exotic" is so significantly shaped by European culture. It's more an instance of convergence and mutual influence. Hellenistic philosophy (read: immediately after Socrates) went down a few different lines. The one with the largest influence in the West was the Academic line, concerned with empirical observations and theory making. But another major line was about how to live well, and focused primarily on ethics and the virtues. Today, the most well known school in this line is Stoicism, and this approach to philosophy really has a lot of overlap with Buddhism. The Bactrians were extremely well primed to be receptive of some "wisdom from the East" (like the type Pythagoras was supposed to have received) that covered a lot of the same topics as Hellenistic philosophy. By the time Buddhism was meaningfully re-introduced to European academics (starting around the 17th century, but culminating with Schopenhaur in the 19th), several writers once again remarked on the similarities between the Hellenistic and Buddhist traditions.
- skywal_l 5y agoEven the "live well" philosophies were heavily influenced by India. Democritus, the father of antique materialism which lead to Epicurus and Lucretius was heavily influenced by gymnosophists when he traveled to India. Realized this when I was talking about it with an Indian Colleague and when I mention the principals of materialism she immediately recognized elements of her own religion.
- jbay808 5y agoI never realized that Democritus traveled to India. What an amazing journey that must have been.
- asdff 5y agoHellenism is not a strictly European culture. Most of the hellenic world population lived in Africa or the middle east. These were much larger population centers than cities greece, italy, or anywhere else in the European Mediterranean at the time.
- dukeyukey 5y agoMaybe not European by a strict modern geographic interpretation, but ancient Greek culture laid down so many ideas fundamental to the modern West it would be disingenuous to say it isn't European.
- klyrs 5y agoWouldn't that suggest that Europe is Grecian, and not the other way around?
- dukeyukey 5y agoMaybe, in the same way all adults are just big toddlers. But it discounts the pretty major effect other cultures have had, in the same way describing an adult as a grown-up toddler discounts all the experiences they’ve had in between.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]