Pythagoras was 6th century I believe.
Europe is controlled by a stiffling, aristocratic elite that imposes groupthink. Just as the Enlightenment thinkers paved the way for the American and French revolutions that deposed that aristocracy, so it may be Fox news by satellite and Rush Limbaugh via internet that opens European thought to new the new people and ideas it needs now.
Yes, it certainly can be extended back. And you can make the argument that the Greeks were the true inventors of literature, back in 10th century BC.
The argument has been made that although written Hebrew was earlier than written Greek, Greek was the first written language in which new literary texts could be widely read. The Hebrew Bible was not pointed in the early texts, so it was difficult or impossible to know how to pronounce or read it unless it was accompanied by an oral tradition of rabbis who could train up new generations to understand what it said.
With the Greek alphabet, on the other hand, you could write a new poem or a play, and anyone could pick it up, read it, and now how to pronounce it, without any oral guidance. That was the necessary prerequisite to the Greek Golden Age, and it happened centuries earlier.