How did Classical Era Greece become so predominant with regards to its culture and military?

by TangledEarbuds61

So I'm aware of how the major root of classical Greece is Egypt by means of Minoan and Mycenaean cities. I guess what I'm wondering is why and how did places like Athens and Argos become so ahead of the curve, especially related to their parent civilizations.

TheWizznijch

Whoa there friend. Greek culture in virtually any capacity was not derived from Egypt. Yes, Bronze Age Greek civilizations (2500-1000 BCE) like the Mycenaeans had lots of contact with Egypt, but the Egyptians are Afro-Semitic peoples and the Mycenaeans were Indo-European, two distinct cultural groups.

While Greek culture did find itself influenced by eastern cultures following the Bronze Age collapse and the reestablishment of contact across the eastern Mediterranean, they were still distinct cultures. Furthermore, Egyptian culture “survived” the Bronze Age collapse and continued on in relative states of sovereignty until Alexander.

It’s worth noting that when historians talk about “Classical Greek” civilization, they are generally referring to a collective of sovereign city states with a shared language, pantheon, and culture to an extent that began to flourish around the year 750 BC.

Athens came to prominence among the other Greek cities around the year 500 BC after leading an alliance in victory against Persia and establishing an empire-style structure of alliances with weaker cities.

The region of Greece and especially the big cities like Athens Sparta and Thebes were still sort of backwater on a geopolitical scale, compared to places like Egypt and the Persian Empire, both massive, wealthy kingdoms to the east.

Alexander the Great changed this by conquering both and installing Greeks into the positions of power there and just all around leading to a spread of Greek culture, which better connected these parts of the world together and then, with the coming of the Romans, really connected all of these places together in both cultural discourse and trade.

I hope I got to the core of your question, but if I didn’t, I think you would really appreciate listening to the history of Ancient Greece podcast, or finding yourself a good book on the chronology of inhabitation of the region that we call Greece through history.