To understand the Hellenic spirit from an organic perspective, you must begin with the environment they evolved within: sea faring, fluid, as opposed to moire terrestrial, fixed, enclosed peoples giving rise to more stringent, fixed, memes.
The reason why Greeks, to this very day, cannot establish a organized system is rooted in this inherited past.
The moment they dominate, they are no longer there.
They have forgotten, swept away to other shores.
They cannot build on their victories because they are always seeking new battles where the odds are stalked against them.
Let us ignore the Modern variant, infected by Abrahamic nihilism, thinking it is owes eternity, that it deserves paradise as compensation for its earthly suffering, the true Greek has forgotten what he won, what he earned, what he has.
Sacking Troy he must cast upon the tides, towards his homeland, with an unknown fate in the immediate distance.
Little time to wallow in accolades and conquered lands, like Alexander, he must return, closer to home, before he goes off again.
Unlike the Germanic spirit that consolidates, gathers, defends what has been gained, the Greek splurges his gains with his friends and loved ones, and then awakens with a hangover and empty coffers, forcing him to begin, once more.
Women were the only ones who kept the fires going.
Why do you think they had to return home when others carried with them their gains, collection them, dragging it with them across the deserts?
The sea was their home - the bounty of nature.
Their ships their only solid ground, floating on fluid turmoil.
Was this not their charm, their talent, their flexibility on the waves, dealing with tides and winds?
With no solid earth, nuder their feet, was not their spirit one of a mature child, playing, glad to be alive, for one more day, melancholic and nostalgic for a shore that will not hold them for long?
There is no army on the seas.
There are only a band of individuals, licking the salt from their brow, sharing the struggles with the ocean.