The idea of progress is new. Before the enlightenment, human civilizations throughout history viewed the past as being glorious and did not expect the future to be better than the present but to resemble and repeat the past. Man did not think highly of themselves until after Kant declared the motto "Sapere aude" ?" dare to think for yourself. Since then, our attitudes towards the past changed. But the question remains: what is in our distant past that made the ancients behold it with such impressiveness?