I’m so sick of anti-Greek trolls calling Greece a ‘fake country’ that steals everything. The point of this post is not to claim EVERYTHING is Greek. No, it’s to explain to a few dumbasses that Greeks lived in and built many cosmopolitan merchant communities around the Mediterranean where cultural exchange would have occurred. In addition, the post Hellenistic-culture of the Greek peninsula (and Anatolia) was very multicultural – both the Byzantine and Ottoman.
Countries all over the Mediterranean have had significant historical interactions with Greece due to proximity and historical events like the Ancient Greek colonisation, and Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, leading to shared cultural elements in areas like cuisine, music, language, and traditions.
Cultural exchange is a complex and reciprocal process, and it’s not accurate to say one culture simply copies another. Each culture has developed its own unique identity while also being influenced by and influencing neighboring cultures.
These interactions are a normal part of cultural evolution, especially in regions with such rich and diverse histories as the Southern Europe, Balkans, the Middle East, and Greece. These intertwined histories go back THOUSANDS of years. It’s a testament to the long-standing interactions and exchanges among people in these areas.
People seem to forget that Greece conquered the entire known world way before the Romans did. The Greek culture was Europe’s only successful civilization and colonized much of Italy and Asia Minor or modern Turkey. So yes, we were the FIRST. In fact, the Greek language was to the ancient world as English is to our modern world. If you wanted to conduct business in the Mediterranean basin, you needed to know Greek. The New Testament was not written in Aramaic or Latin, but Greek for this reason. In fact, the Latin language derived from Greek.
I know everyone wants to think that their culture is the best and I agree! Where ever you hail from is a wonderful culture and full of rich traditions. But don’t get butthurt when Greeks proudly recite actual FACTS about how ours was the culture Europe was built upon. No spin, just facts.