What are five of the most important ideas or people to come from Ancient Greece? I believe the most important contribution from Ancient Greece is, from the information uncovered so far, that their education was less compartmentalized than what is found today. This meant that individuals had influence in more than one area, and their search for a set of rules that could use to apply to their areas of interest (page 108).
In modern society, Socrates is mostly remembered for and credited with founding Western philosophy, but we have accounts of his influence in other fields. His original profession was as a stonemason (page 98), but his influence can be found in law and ethics with his influence on his pupil Plato (page 100), in art by describing the idealization process to the painter Parrhasius (page 111), and his cross examination and inductive reasoning techniques are the basis for the Scientific Method (page 98). Socrates influence can also be found indirectly in Greek drama, as he was the subject of the comedy The Clouds written by Aristophanes.
Another person whose influence stretched over more than one field of study was Pythagoras. He is known as the father of pure mathematics and his major contribution is known to us as the Pythagorean Theorem (page 96). But his influence can also be felt is music because his study of ratios led him to understand that music is controlled by mathematical ratios (pages 96, 123). His views on proportion and symmetry not only influenced music, but also became the principles used in both architecture and sculpture (pages 96, 108).
Ideals which are important and have helped to shape modern Western civilization are the Hellenic and Hellenistic ideals of equality, individuality, and choice. The first direct democracy was in ancient Athens (page 80). Individual citizens had the right to vote and were directly responsible in shaping their own policies, and more importantly individual votes were equal to each other (page 81). Greek ideas about individuality in connection to the community (pages 81-83, 126) have been used and modified by governments and social movements in recent history, including the founding of the United States of America, during wartime (World War II, the outset of the current war in the Mideast), the Cold War era Peace Movement, and the advancement for social equality and the civil rights movement that came to prominence in America in the mid-1950s.
A very important contribution and legacy that comes down to us from the ancient Greeks is the Olympics, what they called the Panhellenic Festival (page 83). These games have been modified since their conception, games no longer last until someone gives up, loses consciousness or dies; but prowess and physical skill are still valued over cunning. Another difference is that the games are no longer held in the nude, and although women can officially compete in the Olympics, men and women complete separately. The Olympics are no longer held to honor gods, instead they are held to encourage international competition in something other than war.
The last great contribution from Greece was the defeat of Greece at the hands of Phillip of Macedonia (page 124). With the help of Phillip’s son, Alexander the Great, the fall of Greece led to the spread of Greek art, literature, and ideas beyond Greece, from Northern Africa to modern India, and culminated in the first large scale integration of cultures and societies (page 125). Greece would become the bar that later civilizations, such as Rome, would strive to reach and imitate (page 130).