I thought it was well known that this was a symptom of their greco-roman surroundings. To say that our Chachamim were just pure chauvinists like the rest of the world would simply be unnacceptable.
Here are some quotes:
Diogenes Laertius, a contemporary of the Taanaim, writes,
“The story … is told by some of Socrates, namely, that he used to say there were three blessings for which he was grateful to Fortune: “First, that I was born a human being and not one of the brutes; next, that I was born a man and not a woman; thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian.”
Diogenes Laertius lived about three hundred years before the gemara that gives us the version that is now in our siddurim
“It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: A man is obligated to recite three blessings every day praising God for His kindnesses, and these blessings are: Who did not make me a gentile; Who did not make me a woman; and Who did not make me an ignoramus.”[6
The version actually found in our siddurim is based on a a few lines later in the gemara.
Feel free to do more research for the exact sources I don’t have the most time on my hands, but Chas Vashalom allow our sages to be trodden upon.
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