Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of european civilization for a reason. But I wouldn't go so far as to say much of our law, literature, politics, ethics,

Ancient Greece is considered the cradle of european civilization for a reason. But I wouldn't go so far as to say much of our law, literature, politics, ethics, and aesthetics comes from them. Certainly, we borrowed a lot of words and ancient greece laid the foundations for modern society but most of what we have today doesn't come from ancient greece. Ancient greece contributed to architecture but I wouldn't say most of our architecture today comes from ancient greece. Ancient greece didn't have skyscrapers. The greeks gave us the foundations of mathematics but most mathematics we have today do not come from the greeks. This goes for ethics ( we don't force people to take hemlock ), literature, politics ( don't own slaves ), aesthetics, etc. If anything, the thinkers of the enlightenment probably influenced modern society the most. But of course, they themselves were influenced by the ancient greeks, romans, etc.