A thought-provoking piece.
There is a work of fiction by Gore Vidal called "Creation", in which he creates a character that interacts with seven of the great (religious?) philosophers of history, Zoroaster (600-500 BC?), Socrates (470-399 BC), Anaxagoras (500-428 BC), the Buddha (563-483 BC?), Mahavira (550-500 BC?), Lao Tsu (contemporary of Confucius?), and Confucius (551-479 BC). The book is based upon the possibility that one highly placed man (this one a Persian-Greek diplomat born around 530 BC) could have met and interacted with all seven.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_(novel)
It is believed by evolutionary biologists that this era more or less ushered in the era of Golden Rule, in which it became popular to cooperate with, rather than destroy your competition (Iron Rule).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Cooperation
https://www.harryhiker.com/chronology.htm
Does this mean that Polytheism created a justification for Iron Rule, while Monotheism became a Golden Rule philosophy? Judaism, though officially monotheistic, may have been a transitional religion to Golden Rule. There is certainly a big difference between Old Testament (Judaism, lots of smiting) and New Testament (Christianity, turn the other cheek, heavily influenced by the philosophers in "Creation"?)
Many believe that Zoroaster and Socrates helped lay the foundations for Jesus (the 3 wise men were Zoroastrians,
