Within schools, colleges, and the older universities there continues inexhaustible interest in and glamorisation of Athenian democracy. It is the first true democracy (not true), the originator of modern thinking and modern life (absurd), the home of philosophy (what of ancient Mesopotamia and the speculations of Hebrews, Egyptians and Canaanites). The Book of Job touches on many of the issues dealt with in Greek philosophy. Many ancient kingships may not have been quite as powerful as they now appear, but exhibit dynastic propaganda, such as colossal pyramids and palaces.
It is still a risk to raise the above points, leaving a writer open to disapproval, even ridicule. Ancient Greece, in particular ancient Athens, is supposed to be the spiritual and intellectual home of European civilisation. Our fixation with Greece, for example, prevents consideration of other cultures that engaged in similar political experiments in the Near East, Africa and other parts of Europe. We have selected Greece to be iconic. In fact, Greece's advantage was to be geographically close to the Near East from where it obtained stimulation and instruction. Although Greece influenced many aspects of present European culture, influences came equally from the Near East and Central
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Most martial display was probably for internal competition and display. Evidence of chariot battles may merely indicate internal elite competition. Murals found at Santorini show a sea battle and armies advancing through cities, but this behaviour may have been restricted to Greece and the nearby islands. Armies were probably very small compared to those put in the field by Near Eastern cultures. Greece then, and later, evidenced in the Iliad, was a raiding military