Was Greek civilization derived from Egypt

by makhyy

Architecture mathematics even philosophy are derived from Egypt and near east, so what is original from Greece?

toxictaliban111

Civilisation is one of those loose terms that, the more we think about it, the harder it is to define. I'm assuming you mean the general sense of identity/values/aesthetics/social structures and so on that we consider to be 'Greek.' The answer really isn't simple.

Firstly, to say there was a single Greek civilisation is a bit over simplistic. When most people think of Greece they think of Athenians, with their forums and philosophers, but Athens was not all of Greece nor was it often the most important. Sparta is the obvious counterpoint, but there's also Corinth, Thebes, and hundreds of other city-states with their own social structures and values. The point being that ancient Greeks were unified by a shared language (although divided by dialect) and a general region, but were not some unified cultural group by a long shot.

Okay, so let's just take a general Athenian-esque sense of Ancient Greece. Did it draw from Egypt and the Near-East? Yes, absolutely. Herodotus thanks Egypt for teaching Greece things like geometry and mathematics. Did Greece take everything? No, of course not. Its language, Athenian democracy, Greek hoplite warfare, literary/oratory works like those of Homer, or great architectural achievements like the Parthenon. Egyptians and Babylonians didn't make those. Greeks did.

There's also the fact that 'philosophy' is a very broad term. French post-modernism, Chinese Confucianism, and European renaissance humanism are all philosophises of their own but are very distinct things. Humans seem to be hard-wired to question their own existence and societies. The Egyptians were among the first, but it's by no means uniquely theirs. 'Architecture' is a similarly diverse thing. Peru's Machu Pichu is a feat of architecture just like Rome's Colosseum or Beijing's Forbidden Palace, but each one is a unique reflection of their societies and time periods using different material and methods. The same is true for Greek architecture as opposed to Egyptian or Babylonian - the Pyramids are not the Parthenon.

Cultures are not discrete nor do they exist in a vacuum. Each one builds on what came before and redefines it for its own needs. Cultural transmission is not a case of X culture meeting Y and taking all of Y's ideas. Y's ideas might take root in culture X, but culture X's unique perspectives and uses can and almost always will produce an entirely new thing Z. Think of how tea is a cornerstone of British culture despite originally being Indian, or how rice has integrated itself into Persian cuisine despite only making it to the region in the 13th century or so. Just because something comes from somewhere else, that doesn't mean a culture can't make it their own. The premise that if one culture found something first then it's forever theirs is just not appropriate. By that logic, everything is African since the basic tenants of society like language and fire was first utilised by the earliest humans spreading from the continent.

I know this answer has been more broad reaching that just Greece of Egypt, but I think taking a step back and addressing the basic assumptions implicit in the question are important.

As for some basic things that were original? I mentioned a few, but we can list more. Greek mythology, perhaps the first histories as we'd understand them from those like Herodotus or Thucydides, democracy, the Greek language and its derivatives, theatre, winches and cranes, etc etc. Of course, these ideas have changed over time. Modern democracy is not the same as ancient Athenian democracy, but that's the whole point - humanity builds on what came before and what came from elsewhere. We always have and we always will.