Greece's History
...and perhaps they were not first in the most important things. The first human beings came from Africa, not Greece. The Greeks did not discover agriculture, did not produce the first civilization, did not invent law, or religion, or myth, or art, or writing, or literature. The first civilizations were in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Egypt, and the Greeks learned much from these peoples. Other civilizations--such as those in China and those in the Americas, would arise independently both from the Greeks and from those in the Near East. But one can make a good argument to credit the Greeks with some very important stuff:
democracy
science
mathematics
philosophy
(naturalistic) art
drama
history
western style warfare
Why does first mater? It ought not to be a matter of pride, or of some competition for cultural supremacy. None of us are ancient Greeks; almost all of our ancestors would have been considered barbarians by the Greeks. For me it matters that the Greeks were first in some things because in studying the Greeks we can study the earliest phases of these things, see them coming into being. We can thus understand the conditions necessary for a democracy to come into being, for example, or the reasons why people begin to study their own history; or why some people make great drama out of their myths.
An example. We will have a chance this semester to study the first historian, Herodotus. By studying the first person we know who wrote something at least many scholars consider a legitimate historical text, we'll be able to ask a host of questions:
What distinguishes history from story-telling? Or epic poetry?
What is the purpose of history?
What method should the historian follow?
What should the historian report?
2. The Greeks have often been most influential.
For better and for worse, Western civilization is dominant...
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