Origins of the "double-truth"

[Venkatraman Iyer]

I guess what L. M. Fosse is alluding to is that if we
allow Indian/Persian influences in Greece, many things
constructed as IE by Dumezil et al. cannot stand.

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Dear listmembers,

I have not read Bruce Lincoln's book and do not know why he places
Parmenides in an old Indo-European tradition of which India is also
a part. Parmenides' background was  the Ionian Asia Minor, where Greek
philosophy was born, in contact with oriental influences. Indian
influence on Greek philosophy remains conjectural, but transmigration
of souls might have been one such influence, see W. Burkert, ANCIENT
MYSTERY CULTS, HUP, 1987, p.87: "Transmigration of souls is a
doctrine that suddenly appeared in the Greek world toward the end of
the sixth century B.C. We find the name of either Pythagoras or
Orpheus attached to it, and we have the word of Plato that it was told
in mysteries, teletai, and found 'strong believers' there... In
addition there are the cryptic statements, to be found mainly
in Plato, about the soul enclosed in the 'prison' of the body, being
punished for unspeakable ancient crimes, waiting for release ordained
by the god... It is all the more remarkable that beyond this evidence,
which is concentrated in the fifth and fourth centuries, there is
nothing to suggest that belief in transmigration was a basic or
essential tenet of mysteries as practiced. There remains the
impression of a 'drop of foreign blood'..."

Best wishes,
Bjarte Kaldhol,
Oslo
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