It is hard to over-estimate the influence of Greek culture on Western society; it has influenced it like no other. From literature, to drama, philosophy, science, art, architecture and even language; the English and many other alphabets are derived from the Greek alphabet, which itself might have been derived from the Phoenician (what today would be coastal Lebanon, northern Israel and southern Syria) alphabet. In the new Testament, excluding the epistle to the Romans, half of Paul’s epistles to cities (as opposed to persons) were to cities in ancient Greece (Corinth, Philippi and Thessaloniki) while the other half were to cities in Anatolia (modern Turkey, the cities being Galatia, Ephesus and Colossae). The Greek influence is all pervasive. Some of the words in the English language that have their origins in Greek are as follows:
Democracy: – from the Greek word demokratia, which literally means “rule by people”.
Tyranny: – from the word tyrannos, which at its inception meant a non-hereditary ruler who acquired power by unconstitutional means. Gyges, a Lydian (Lydia today would be located in Western Turkey. Turkey was then known as Anatolia) king who reigned from about 687 to 652 B.C, is generally regarded as the first person to be described as a tyrant.
Anarchy: – from the word Anarchia, which is actually two words, an meaning “without” and archon meaning “ruler”. In ancient Greece, the chief magistrates of the Greek city-states (City-states are independent political units consisting of a city and the surrounding countryside that comes under its rule) were known as Archon. The word probably has its origins in the chaos (itself a Greek word taken to mean complete disorder and confusion, which originally referred to the void state before the creation of the universe in the Greek creation myths) that followed the departure of the great king Solon of Athens (who lived from around 638 B.C to around 558 B.C) whose reforms are widely believed to have laid the foundation for Athenian democracy. The elections to choose his successor were marred by rioting.
Lesbian: – The word lesbian came to denote intimate relationships of a sexual nature between women as a result of the life of the Greek poet Sappho (630 B.C – 570 B.C) who was a citizen of the Greek island of Lesbos. In stark contrast to contemporary poets who tended to focus on public affairs, Sappho’s poetry focused almost exclusively on her love affairs with other women and emotional crises. She used the strong winds that routinely hit the coast of Lesbos as a metaphor for the intensity of her passions.
Thespian: – thespian means actor. This comes from Thespis who is generally regarded as the first credited actor.
Marathon: – From the legend of Philippides, who took part in the battle of Marathon, a battle between Athens and Persia (modern Iran) sometime in the year 490 B.C. The legend has it that Philippides ran all the way from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about 35-40 km (a modern marathon is about 42km), burst into the Greek assembly and shouted “we have won” before collapsing and dying.
Olympics: – These were religious and athletic festivals that took place at Olympia, the sanctuary of Zeus, the Greek god of the sky and thunder, and king of the Greek pantheon. The pantheon refers to the twelve major Greek deities.
Ostracism: – In ancient Greece, this was a system of sending people into political exile for up to ten years. The candidates for ostracism had their names written on potsherds known as “ostraka”.
So who were these people, the Ancient Greeks? Their beginnings can be traced to a group of settlers who arrived in a place called Crete around 7,000 BC. Crete is located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and is today, the largest island in Greece.
After some 4,000 years, there emerged from Crete one of Europe’s earliest advanced civilizations known as the Minoan civilization. The Minoans are reputed to have built Europe’s first palace and for building multi-storied palace complexes in general, particularly at Knossos, which is the most famous Minoan site. The palaces were equipped with impressive drainage systems suggesting that they had considerable hydraulic engineering skills. To stress the point, the queen at Knossos had a bath, running water and a flushing toilet (Recall we are talking about life around the year 2,700-1450 B.C. That is some 3000-1500 years before the birth of Christ).
As impressive as the Minoans were, they are child’s play compared to what was to come. I say this because it is not this period in history that came to have the outsized influence on western civilization up to this day. That period was to come later. Between 800-200 B.C., to be exact. This is the period that gave us the most famous names in Greek thought: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle…historians have come to generally acknowledge that something truly special was happening during this period and not just in Greece. The period was special enough to become dubbed the “Axial age”. This referred to events largely taking place in China, India, Israel, Iran and as previously mentioned, Greece. The events in question were, the emergence of political philosophy in China, starting with Confucius; the exposition of religious philosophy in India, particularly that of Buddha; the preaching of prophets like Isaiah in Israel, and the development of philosophy and science in Greece. Modern scholars generally agree that these different movements were being driven by similar mental and spiritual dispositions that continue to have a huge impact, up until present times.
Like I said earlier, it is really really hard to exaggerate the extent to which Greek culture has influenced Western civilization. The Roman Empire which would eventually conquer Greece assimilated so much of Greek culture and would spread it to the rest of Europe thus making it the foundation of Western culture in general. Actually assimilation is a bit of an understatement. Greek culture would become the core culture of the Roman Empire. Language, politics, education, science, philosophy and the arts are just some of the fields deeply influenced by ancient Greek civilization.
Ancient Greek science and philosophy laid the foundations for modern Western thought by establishing a reliance on rational inquiry, logical reasoning, mathematical deduction, and empirical observation, concepts that became central to the modern scientific method many centuries later. Some of the key contributions include the development of logic, geometry, atomism, and advancements in fields like medicine and astronomy. These breakthroughs directly influenced modern scientific theories, medical ethics, and educational systems. Figures like Plato and Aristotle introduced concepts of universal truth and forms of government that continue to shape ethical, political, and metaphysical thought.
The people responsible for the key contributions mentioned above were all Axial age figures. Perhaps we should look at each in turn:
Logic: – Aristotle’s (384-322 B.C.) development of formal logic provided a framework for deductive reasoning that was crucial for scientific thought for centuries.
Geometry: – Euclid (325-265 B.C.) and Pythagoras (570–495 B.C.) established foundational concepts in geometry and mathematics, which remain essential to scientific and engineering fields.
Atomism: – Democritus (460–370 B.C.) was the first to propose that atoms formed the fundamental building blocks of matter. His idea was a precursor to modern atomic theory.
Astronomy: – Aristarchus (310–230 B.C.), was the first to suggest that the Sun, not the Earth, was the center of the known universe. His heliocentric model was revived by Copernicus in the 16th century, sparking the Copernican Revolution. It paved the way for Galileo, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton to develop modern astronomy.
Medicine: – Hippocrates (460–370 B.C.), revolutionized medicine by shifting it from the realm of superstition and divine punishment to a systematic, observational science. His systematic and empirical approach to disease and treatments marked the foundation of modern medicine and introduced enduring ethical principles, such as the Hippocratic Oath.
Western thought has gone on to influence the rest of the world because of its stunning material success. To the degree that this has happened, the world owes a large debt to the Greek thinkers of the Axial age.