Olympic Games (interesting, actually)

[SigniferOne]

I think if orientalists would acknowledge that, just as much as classicists need to value the fundamental contribution of the orient, there would be no need of disagreements.

The problem is that we're talking about different levels of fundamentals here. The Orient's fundamental contribution was that it created the notion of these disciplines in the first place; i.e. any Classicist would acknowledge that there wouldn't be a Homer were it not for Gilgamesh and some of the Egyptian writings to have been created first. Homer didn't invent writing. It had to be handed down to him. But what Homer et al. did was that they revolutionized and instituted fundamentally new and unique qualities that were completely lacking in Gilgamesh, and that were never developed outside of the Greek tradition.

Let me paraphrase this with another analogy. The Orient's fundamental contribution was to invent walking as such (let's just say). Without walking how could there even be Greek Olympics or any other such things? But the Greeks took the Oriental creations and transformed them into something completely more advanced, so much so that it has not been created outside of the Greeks (by that very same Orient).

Unfortunately we don't look on walking as anything special today. We don't revere walking and reward expert professionals in it with medals and aplomb. We revere chiseled muscles and perfect human shape, which is precisely the unique Greek contribution. We revere the powerful and profound Aeschylus drama over the primitive and ineffective Egyptian stories.

The principle is that Aeschylus et al. developed a conscious understanding of plot, theme, action, the same literary devices used today. The Greeks took the rather meaningless physical competition existing before them and made it egalitarian and hero-worshipping. So that an athlete isn't just some guy who eats and sleeps and does his movement, but he epitomizes human perfection.

Again I point to the Discobolus. This represents the fundamental shift of the Greeks, because the Orient has never worshipped the human body, and never chose to depict, or even care about, human details or human anatomy.