[lacy_tinpot]

The Greeks and Indians are closer to each other culturally than people are willing to admit. They should be considered cousins in terms of their philosophy, cultural, and religion.

That there were Greek states and colonies in Norther India/Gandhara that spoke Greek for generations is not given enough scrutiny imo. The cultural impact of that transmission not always clear outside of something concrete. Like the most obvious being the Greco style Buddhist statues in Gandhara.

So Stoicism is probably similar because of some cultural link that's lost. This is especially likely considering that the rise of Stoicism coincides with Alexander's conquest and lateral cultural contact.

[abhiyerra]

True! Buddha and Alexander the Great were really only 100 years apart. Greeks and Hindu deities have many similarities. The trimurthi of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva correlates pretty closely to Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. It works the other way as well as I think Greek philosophy also got influenced by Hindu/Buddhist world view like Stocism. Both sides seem to have benefited with the ideas of the other especially along math and science.

A hundred years after Alexander the Great we have Ashoka the Great who sent Buddhist missionaries to the four winds and if you squint Christianity sort of resembles a mesh of Jewish and Buddhist philosophy.

[lacy_tinpot]

The root for the Gods is perhaps even older than that and comes from a yet older culture.

> if you squint Christianity sort of resembles a mesh of Jewish and Buddhist philosophy.

Buddhism originated the entire concept of a "savior" and for the first time introduced the idea of conversion in religion.