After the Greek Dark Age, from 1200 BC to 800 BC, a period known as Classical Greece started. During this time, many books were written and the practice of Philosophy began. The Greeks were one of the first civilizations made up of independent city-states instead of a centralized government. Greeks also held the first Olympic Games, which were a main part of society and often associated with religion. Players would sacrifice animals before performing and winning was one the highest valued things one could do apart from being a warrior. In fact, champions were thought to achieve divine status.
Greece is significant because it was one of the first civilizations prosperous enough to be able to focus on anything other than survival. Greek philosophers discussed reason and the purpose of humans on earth. In early classical Greece, the Pre-Socratic philosophers were simpler, with many of them believing that all life came from the four main elements: Earth, Fire, Air, and Water.
For example, Thales of Miletus (624-546 BC) thought that since all life needed water to survive, like plants, animals, and humans, that everything must have come from water. He also believed that the earth was a discus suspended on a pool of water. Some philosophers were more interested in materialistic things, like the Atomists, who thought that all matter, including humans, were just floating atoms with no purpose and that truth and morals did not exist.
Overall, many of the Pre-Socratic philosophers subscribed to many of the same things as Socrates himself. The Greek civilization is significant because they held some of the first beliefs that Western nations did a thousand years later.
