It's going to be more a 70 - 30 rule. Monotheism was not absent in the ancient world outside of the Jews either. Zoroastrians, Dacia's Zalmoxians, Caucasian Mithrasites, Tuistics were all Monotheists as well and some strands of Buddhism in the early years also carried some pro-Monotheist thoughts as well. Despite being Polytheist dominated, ittl will have visible monotheist faiths as well.
Samsara: An Antiquity Greco-Buddhist Timeline
- Thread starter Sarthak
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Now that would be telling! But yes, the Slavs don't accept Buddhism largely and only have some shared stories due to proximity but with different adaptations and moral teachings to the same basic concepts.
I could see the Jews being stomped out by the Greeks ittl and being forced to move somewhere like Ethiopia or just south of the Sahel in general. Or just being crushed by the Greeks, considering how Judaism seems to be very anti Buddhist and vice versa ittl (and that the ppl would have a reason to crush them since they're 'heretics').
I wonder if we'd see Europe being separated as 'keltic' vs 'hellenic' as the branches of Buddhism are already diverging, and I could see Keltic buddhism being better at absorbing pagan rites. Also if Perisa is conquered and converted by buddhists it'd be interesting to see buddhism being the main faith in every corner of the world, but the different sects see each other as heretical and often fight each other to assert which sect is the 'correct one'.
I do wonder what the end game would be for this 'world' ittl. How would the American civs do in general? would we get a more substantial Vinland/Japanese contact with the native and we get animals/diseases there before otl?
Well Carthage is right there and they were rather buddy buddies with the phoenicians a while back
The end goal is something I don't know either. I have mapped it out until 500 AD in-verse and have a rough outline till 1000 AD but not after that. The end goal is simply to create a compelling real world like deep and nuanced alternate history that I can have fun with worldbuilding as well.
It be interesting see Jewish polemic texts I imagine a great deal of ink would be split over critiquing the shifting polytheistic cosmology of the Hellenic Buddhism. Along with a rabid defense of the goodness of the body and the created order.
Slavic polytheism was influenced by Iranic religions (through Iranic steppe nomads-Scythians and Sarmatians) and shared some concepts with them (like dualism). Even Slavic word for god (bog) is of Iranic origin.
I mean, I've read the Books of the Maccabees, so I get how the Diadochi wrenched the Judaeans towards a stricter interpretation of their faith.
That said, I don't see how the Jews would see Tharmists as heretics to the Jewish faith. Infidels or heathens, yes, but heretic has a certain connotation of having a common root with the parent religion.
I mean. Buddhists in Canton, Yunnan, (South China in General), Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia definitely do pray to Sun Wukong. It helped that he was a minor deity already worshipped before being appropriated by Buddhism. Gwinnohuiffar is more a culmination of the fox trickster girl legends and myths that are present in Brythonic Celtic myths and legends - especially among the northern ones like the Caledonians and Brigantes.
Yup. Barring the coastlines, most of the influence the Slavs will be getting for the foreseeable future will be from the Scythian-Iranian dominated steppes who made inroads into Slavic societies instead of just waiting at the coast for centuries like the Greeks and Dacians and Tuists as well.
Any word that is more appropriate can be used. In retrospect, Blasphemous would be better I guess? I used heretics because the Maccabees declared the Hellenic Pantheon heresy is all.
That seems odd. Maybe they were referring to the Hellenized Jews? Heathen seems more appropriate for the Jews looking at the Tharmists.
Oh that's a very good point! Buddhism says that desire leads to suffering and that's no bueno. Jews would push against that.
so basically jewish teologians are going to transform their faith in the anti-buddhism that culd be intersting
Probably, I don't really understand it properly either. Early translations are wonky like that
Buddhism, doesn't specifically advise against desire. It advocates controlling it, and not falling into it and being ensnared by its materialism and temporary satisfaction so that you can live your life as you need to, not as how you want to.
Well, that's the point of Buddhism isn't it - it represents the Middle Way between the extremes of hedonism and asceticism.