Diffusion of Western Civilization and Drawing Force of Eastern Civilization ~ Transmission of Greek and Roman mythological iconography towards East

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24652135
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Historical studies in general
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: HAGA Mitsuru 東北大学, 高度教養教育・学生支援機構, 教授 (40218384)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: ギリシア・ローマ美術 / 仏教美術 / ガンダーラ / 東西文化交流 / ディオニュソス / スキュラ / テュケ－ / 出家踰城

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the transmission of iconography of Greek mythology towards the East, in cases such as Tyche, Dionysus and others, Buddhism played an important role just like a strong “magnetic force”. As a result, one can say that Mediterranean Civilization is not to be found only in the Mediterranean region but also in the Buddhist context in Central Asia.
But it was not just a unilateral flow of ideas from West to East. Understanding well the functions and attributes of Greek Gods and Goddesses, the East exclusively and selectively absorbed elements of Western Civilization to adapt them into Eastern Cosmology and therefore forming an even richer Eastern Civilization.
It has been mentioned often that Greek or Western iconography had the power to diffuse into the East. The author would add to this that the Eastern Civilization had the power and ability to draw aspects of the Western Civilization into their own.

Free Research Field

考古学