Ancient Greece is not a monolithic whole. The "Greeks" were divided by ethnos, yes? There were the Myceneans, the Ionians, the Dorians, the Achaens. Now, if the climate, the environment, the food, and the religion were all the same---what made for the differences amongst them, I ask?

Doric culture is very different from Ionian culture. We notice the effects---what is the cause if religion, climate, environment were all the same? Is there not ethnos/racial differences between Ionians and Dorians?

To think and write about Classical Greece, it is necessary to keep in mind its ethnic/racial differences?

Dear Wheeler, We can not attribute everything to some external cause (race, gender, climate, etc). The most important factor is a person's will and freedom - which is equal with God, as the Fathers say. We become what we want to become, and people with similar will are gathered together. "God always leads the same to the same", as Homer says. Difference and similarity in personal will is the most important factor to let us understand the formation of nations, groups, etc. Personal will can not be attributed to any other factor except for itself. A person wants this and not that, because he wants it - that's all. Plato even says that a soul chooses her destiny before she comes in this world.