I. The Cliché – II. The Classical Paradigms
I. The Cliché
1.
The words Orient and Occident (“the rising/setting sun”; Lat. ortus/occasus, Gk ἀνατολή/anatolē/ δύσις/dýsis) denote either (a) an East (cf. Matt 2:1: “Magi from the East”; also Anatolia/Turkey) or West (cf. the Hesperides), always relative, or (b) a geographical fiction, a construct of “mythic geography,” an ideological stereotype. The administrative language of the Roman Empire was clearer. After the reorganization of the Empire by Diocletian,…