欧洲文化的起源

Origins of European culture

Some time ago I have re-read《The Ancient Greek Myth and Legend》the origins of European culture, and then had a strong interest in the origins of European culture ! When talking about the origins of European culture, it will always be reminiscent of ancient Greek culture. Indeed, Europe is the cultural which can date back to the ancient Greek culture and the Hebrew culture.

Here is a simple example on the word "Europa", from the word we can obviously see that ancient Greek culture and European culture are inextricably linked, she used to refer to a princess of the eastern Mediterranean in ancient Phoenicia, Zeus transformed himself into a bull and then brought her to Crete Island. Since then people named her landing continent Europe!

And after thousands of years of change and development, the European culture is not just simply the ancient Greek culture and the Hebrew culture’s extending. Today, if you want to have a simple Western culture’s summary, then, it is more inclined to a combination of Greece philosophy, Roman law and Christian morality.

It seems complicated, but if we were staging of European history, the result is clear. Who ruled the continent of Europe, who will play a decisive impact on the intrinsic value of European culture.

So, Greek philosophy, Roman law and the Christian faith are the three basic components of Western culture.

Now, we first take a look at Greek philosophy. Greek philosophy is the origin of Western philosophy, The word "philosophy" comes from the ancient Greek “philo –

sophia”. Greek philosophy started from the consideration of the nature. People are not satisfied with view of the myth world and started to philosophize about the world. As we all know, the Greek culture is "marine culture." In the process engaged in maritime activities, people discover the laws of nature are something that can be tracked, when obtained the experience by observing the law, people began to think and summarize the law of the nature.

The law is also the important component of culture, in the Western world, all legal culture, the first comprehensive compilation law is considered as" Justinian corpus juris civilis" that is issued by the Roman Emperor Justinian in Constantinople in 533.This law is the foundation of the European legal systems of. Including the "Napoleonic Code" ,and most Code of Modern European continent can be regarded as more or less modified and updated based on this.

Western Christianity originated in the early first century AD ,it was taken by the Jew and then spread in Roman . The Roman Empire was described as extremely strong. But people living in this country still feel sad, unfortunately, because of the lack of morals and beliefs. And legal force can not maintain the stability of a country. When the fair was being lost and the good and evil was being confused, force and law can only aggravate unfortunate. Christian guide people to evil from the good, to protect the weak, help the poor. Therefore, the Christian spread in Roman Empire in the lower level of the people, and also affects the upper and eventually became the state religion of the Roman Empire.