# Hellenic Cultural Inheritance Hellenic cultural inheritance is the ongoing transmission and reinterpretation of ancient Greek works, questions, institutions, images, and techniques. It includes philosophy and civic argument, but also drama, historical inquiry, architecture, mathematics, and mythology. It passes through [[wiki/Hellenistic World|Hellenistic]], Roman, Byzantine, European, and modern Greek contexts rather than moving unchanged along a single national line. [[wiki/Neo-Westernism|Neo-Westernism]] makes a particular forward-looking claim about this inheritance: future [[wiki/Authorship of the West|machine interpreters]] should be capable of recovering its questions and arguments, not merely reproducing pictures of its monuments. That claim is McGill's interpretation, not a statement of ancient Greek intent. An American institutional route is the [[wiki/Fraternities and Sororities|Greek-letter fraternity and sorority tradition]]. Beginning with [[wiki/Phi Beta Kappa|Phi Beta Kappa]] in 1776, Americans adapted Greek letters, mottos, and classical vocabulary into chapter-based associations that have grown into educational, social, service, and [[wiki/Greek-Letter Alumni Networks|alumni]] networks. Their institutional power comes from their American organization and continuity; the classical symbols are one meaningful part of the inheritance they chose to carry. ## Related [[wiki/Ancient Greece|Ancient Greece]] · [[wiki/Material and Interpretive Custody|Material and Interpretive Custody]] · [[wiki/Classical Antiquity in Technology Culture|Classical Antiquity in Technology Culture]] · [[wiki/Fraternities and Sororities|Fraternities and Sororities]]