Just wondering, could many of the similarities between Greek and Biblical stories be because both are derived from Babylonian sources? The flood myth, obviously (which also has an Indian version that is virtually identical with the Greek and Biblical stories). Similarities between Hercules and Samson may link to Gilgamesh. The story of Abraham sacrificing his son, but at the last moment an animal is substituted is very like the Greek myth of Iphigeneia. There is also an Indian myth on the same theme. A god asks a father to sacrifice his son, Shunashepa, and at the last moment intervenes and saves him. Interestingly, this is alluded to in the Rig Veda, which is older than either the Bible or the Greek myths in the form we have them now. So I'm wondering if we have some very ancient myths (maybe Babylonian or Sumerian in origin) which spread around the area east and west, and became part of the mythology of many cultures.
Just wondering, could many of the similarities between Greek and Biblical stories be because both are derived from Babylonian sources? The flood myth, obviously (which also has an Indian version that is virtually identical with the Greek and Biblical stories). Similarities between Hercules and Samson may link to Gilgamesh. The story of Abraham sacrificing his son, but at the last moment an animal is substituted is very like the Greek myth of Iphigeneia. There is also an Indian myth on the same theme. A god asks a father to sacrifice his son, Shunashepa, and at the last moment intervenes and saves him. Interestingly, this is alluded to in the Rig Veda, which is older than either the Bible or the Greek myths in the form we have them now. So I'm wondering if we have some very ancient myths (maybe Babylonian or Sumerian in origin) which spread around the area east and west, and became part of the mythology of many cultures.