This, like ancient Greek philosophy in general, is an example of the "σποροι", or seeds of the Faith about which The Fathers wrote. These are found throughout human history and all over the globe. I find it fascinating the way God prepared mankind for The Faith and the coming of Christ from the earliest times.
I do too, Kolokotronis. Then again, we shouldn't be surprised that this is the case. After all, the Logos was in the beginning, by and for Whom was everything made. I imagine it has been completely effective since the very beginning, even before the Incarnation translated it directly "into the world."
I find it so fascinating that certain Greeks seemed to have anticipated parts of the Christian revelation in so many ways. Heraclitus, for instance, had developed the definite language of faith, hope, and charity -- pistis, elpis, and philia respectively -- a half-millennium before the coming of Christ. The idea of the helkein (a word that appears in John's Gospel), or the drawing of the soul/nous by the God "beyond" the cosmos in the meditative complex, was central to Plato's conception of the direct mutual participation of man in the divine, which is the true basis of the right order of the soul, and the source of its immortalization. Plus as Alamo-Girl has already pointed out, the Greek term Logos -- a multilayered symbol that comprehends the meaning of spoken word (i.e., the Word of the Beginning), and also of truth and reason, anticipates the opening declarations of the Gospel of John.
And all this several centuries before the Incarnation of the Logos, the Son of God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, the monogenes -- another Greek word denoting the "first-born Son of God." Before the coming of Christ, the monogenes referred to the Cosmos itself. After Christ, the monogenes was understood as the man Jesus....
Seems the Greeks did a whole lot of "spadework," preparing the cultural ground for the reception of Christ, just as John the Baptist prepared the pneumatic, or spiritual ground, for the eventual reception of our Lord.
I too find these things so fascinating! Thank you for your beautiful essay/posts, Kolokotronis!