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Do you have a reference for this? While Greece was strongly influenced by the cultures of the Near East and Egypt, it entirely misstates the situation to say t
by elliptic 10y ago
Do you have a reference for this? While Greece was strongly influenced by the cultures of the Near East and Egypt, it entirely misstates the situation to say that "most of their culture was handed to them."
Edit - Walter Burkert has an excellent, short book on this - The Orientalizing Revolution
- Herodotus38 10y agoAt least in the specific case of Herodotus, in his Histories, he has several theories about Greek customs borrowed from other cultures. He also has a relatively open mind about different cultures having customs that are better. For example, he talks at one point how he thinks the Persians (who were often enemies with different city states) have a good custom of raising young children (males) separate from the parents until a certain age so if they should die it is less of a hardship.
- civilian 10y agoHerodotus was fantastic because he was the first historian, but he is seriously lacking as a historian if you judge him by modern standards. That doesn't detract from him as a great man and an intellectual pioneer, but it does mean we should be skeptical of his theories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus#Egypt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus#Egypt
- Herodotus38 10y agoFor sure, everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt. I was just giving an example of a specific Greek who had some of the ideas the OP was requesting.