Why Were the Greeks So Clever?

[Queequeg]

Jared Diamond mentioned this in Collapse, a fantastic little anecdote. 

Mycenaean, roughly the Bronze Age version of Greek, was a written language, but all our examples of the language are lists of sacrifices to Gods or tribute or payment.  The written language appears to have had no popular usage, and died out very rapidly during the early part of the Greek Dark or Geometric period. 

But this is our first example of Ancient Greek is the famous inscription on Nestor's drinking cup, which is

ΝΕΣΤΟΡΟΣ:...:ΕΥΠΟΤΟΝ:ΠΟΤΕΡΙΟΝ
ΗΟΣΔΑΤΟΔΕΠΙΕΣΙ:ΠΟΤΕΡΙ..:AΥΤΙΚΑΚΕΝΟΝ
ΗΙΜΕΡΟΣΗΑΙΡΕΣΕΙ:ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΕΦΑΝΟ:ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΕΣ

Or

Nestor's cup I am, good to drink from.
Whoever drinks this cup empty, straightaway
the desire of beautiful-crowned Aphrodite will seize.

So while the Mycaneans (and basically everyone else up until the Greeks) used the written language exclusively for religious or clerical purposes, the first real usage of Greek we have is a really very clever introduction by a cup, warning that the person drinking will get beer goggles.  This is even funnier because Nestor's Cup plays an important part in The Illiad, so the first example we have of Greek is also our first example of literary satire. 

Why were the Greeks different?  Why did they do so much? Any thoughts? Opinions?

[MadImmortalMan]

Phoenicians taught them. Before that, they were just uppity Serbs on a seaside holiday.

[grumbler]

Wow!  That's quite a bit of extrapolation based on a single case and a shitload of assumptions about what an absence of evidence implies! 

[Sheilbh]

Gay.

[Queequeg]

Wow!  That's quite a bit of extrapolation based on a single case and a shitload of assumptions about what an absence of evidence implies! 

It was just the catalyst of me wondering why they were so special.  I find it to be a good example of the Greek break from previous peoples that is probably better illustrated by, say, the Philosophers of Miletus.  However, Nestor's Cup is funnier than Thales, and we all already know the military component of Greek awesomeness.

[Queequeg]

Gay.

A lot of the Indo-European peoples had gay inclinations.  And the Semitic peoples.  Compariatively speaking the Minoans were way gayer than all save the Thebans, and even among the Greeks the Celts had a reputation for loving gay sex.

[Razgovory]

I'm almost done with Guns, Germs, and Steel.  While the first parts are good his descriptions different levels of societies falls flat.  I think he is way to biased toward his beloved New Guineans.  Going so far as to say that they are the smartest people in the world.

[Eddie Teach]

Gay.

A lot of the Indo-European peoples had gay inclinations.  And the Semitic peoples.  Compariatively speaking the Minoans were way gayer than all save the Thebans, and even among the Greeks the Celts had a reputation for loving gay sex.

People throughout history and all over the world have accused their neighbors of gayness. The Greeks have kept the reputation due to its prevalence in their own writing about themselves.

[Martinus]

Short and simple but serious answer: long coastline and scarcity of natural resources and arable land.

Compare this to Egypt and draw your own conclusions.

[crazy canuck]

Short and simple but serious answer: long coastline and scarcity of natural resources and arable land.

Compare this to Egypt and draw your own conclusions.

Both were smart in their own ways?

[Alexandru H.]

I would say... competition.

The Greek world was a patchwork of small-knited "nationalist" city-state that competed in everything, from sports to military achievements, from poetry to architecture. Not every creation was valuable; but the sheer quantity of works ensured that at least some of them were pieces of genius. For example, we know of only three great tragic authors, all three living in that great period of 500 to 400. But the real number of tragic authors was huge: even some philosophers wrote tragedies. I would suspect that in each city housing an amphiteater there was some kind of local author trying to have his plays on the stage, between those of Sophocles and Eurypides.

In philosophy the situation is the same. Apart from some works, we have literally only a small handful of the ancient philosophical texts. Many of them were lost in time; but I suspect that most of them had no real value. Antiquity kept only the best (with some exceptions, of course).

[Valmy]

Both were smart in their own ways?

The Egyptians were sure smart but they were so conservative and so hostile to foreign and new ideas.

[Hansmeister]

Wow!  That's quite a bit of extrapolation based on a single case and a shitload of assumptions about what an absence of evidence implies! 

That's Jared Diamond in a nutshell.  He should've stuck to birdwatching.

[Ed Anger]

Both were smart in their own ways?

The Egyptians were sure smart but they were so conservative and so hostile to foreign and new ideas.

Until forced too, like having the Hykalos(*) occupy the Nile delta.

(*) if they really existed

[Martinus]

Both were smart in their own ways?

The Egyptians were sure smart but they were so conservative and so hostile to foreign and new ideas.

Yup. It's a classic comparison of a country built on trade (Greece) and on agriculture (Egypt). It's like comparing the Netherlands and Poland.