Using this as a foundation, the Ancient Greeks built a society in which women had few rights and were basically the property of men.

But women were only one aspect of Greek culture, a culture that seemed to be based on pessimistic beginnings. Hesiod's "The Five Ages of Man" describe a period in which the world slowly devolved from a paradise into the chaos and horror of the ancient world. The world went from a Golden Age, to a Silver Age, a Bronze Age, the Age of Heroes and finally the ancient world. And the fate of man deteriorated with each passing age. But not only was the world better in the past, the afterlife was also much better. Man went from a death that was little more than sleep, through several stages each more dire than the previous age, and finally to the horrors of Hades. The myth of...
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