Hellenistic Culture Chapter 8, Lesson 4

Hellenistic Arts During the Hellenistic Era, philosophers, scientist, poets, and writers moved to the new Greek cities of Asia and Egypt. Alexandria was one of these locations. Considered Greeks capital in Egypt Its library attracted scholars which contained more than 500,000 scrolls. Its museum attracted those interested in research Its location on the Mediterranean Sea and its reputation contributed to its economic growth. It remains a vital city today, where close to 4 million people live and work.

Building and Statues Greek architects served an important role in expanding Alexander’s empire. Planned public building projects for new and old cities. Hellenistic kings wanted them to resemble Athens and other cultural centers of Greece. They spent huge amounts of money to realize this seeking to line the streets with Greek temples, theaters, and baths. Hellenistic kings and other wealthy citizens would hire sculptors who created thousands of statues for towns and cities. These sculptors proved to be just as skilled as those from the Golden Age. They did however develop new styles that portrayed people in a more realistic style instead of those that appeared ideally beautiful or harmonious They also made statues that looked angry or sad.

Winged Victory

Hellenistic Writers Talented writers were supported by Hellenistic rulers. This resulted in large amounts of literature during the Hellenistic Era. Very little of the writing has survived today. Argonautica by Appolonius of Rhodes is one of the works that survived. The poem is about Jason and his band of heroes. (The modern version is known as Jason and the Argonauts) They seek a ram with golden fleece as they sail the seas having many adventures along the way. Another poet was Theocritus who wrote short poems about the beauty of nature.

Hellenistic Writers Athens remained the center for Greek theater. Writers mostly produced comedies, not tragedies and where known as Greek New Comedy. The comedies of the Hellenistic Era were different from those of the Golden Age. Greek New Comedy did not poke fun at political leaders instead telling the story of love and relationships of ordinary people. Menander (muh-NAN-duhr) was one of the best known playwrights who lived from 343 B.C. to 291 B.C.. He is considered to be the most important poet of Greek New Comedy.

Hellenistic Writers The temple of Apollo at Delphi had an inscription that read, “Know thyself.” He pokes fun of this saying “This ‘Know Yourself’ is a silly proverb in some ways; To know the man next door is a much more useful rule. His work would later be adapted by Roman writers. Through this work he also influenced the development of European comedy during the Renaissance and even comedy today.

Thinkers and Scientist During the Hellenistic Era, Athens continued to support philosophers. They attempted to answer questions such as, “What is a good life?” and “How can people find peace of mind in a troubled world?” Two of the most important philosophers were Epicurus and Zeno.

Who Was Epicurus Epicurus founded a philosophy known as Epicureanism. He taught his students that goal of life was finding happiness believing that the way to find happiness was to avoid pain. Today the term is used to mean the love of physical pleasure. Examples include good food or comfortable surroundings. For Epicurus, pleasure was spending time with friends and learning not to be upset with life’s problems. Epicureans would avoid being worried and reduced their wants and lived simply.

The Stoics Zeno, a Phoenician thinker, developed a philosophy called Stoicism. Lacking the funds to rent a lecture hall to teach, he taught at a building the “painted porch.” The Greek word for porch was stoa thus, the term “Stoicism” comes from the Greek term stoa. The Stoics claimed that those who lived live by their emotions lived unhappy lives. They believed happiness was a result of using reason. Also believed sound thinking should guide decisions. The word stoic has a different meaning today. Someone who seemed unaffected by joy or sadness. Unlike Epicureans, they believed they had a duty to serve the community and these ideas would later influence Roman thinkers.

Science and Mathematics Science was also flourishing during the Hellenistic Era. They used simple instruments, but performed many experiments and developed new theories. Aristarchus (ar-uh-STAHR-kuhs) claimed that the sun was at the center of the universe. He said the Earth circled the sun but his ideas were rejected by other astronomers at the time who believed the Earth was the center of the universe. Euclid taught others his theories about Geometry and if you are learning it today, you are learning the same topics studied by ancient Greeks.

Science and Mathematics Eratosthenes (ehr-uh-TAHS-thuh-neez) was the chief librarian at Alexandria. After study, he concluded that the world was round and used his known knowledge to measure the Earth’s circumference (the distance around a spherical object, in this case, the Earth). He would do this by placing two sticks on the ground far apart from each other and when the sun was directly over one stick he measured the distance of its shadow. By doing this he was able to calculate the curve of the Earth’s surface. He was pretty accurate too! He was only off by ~185 miles of the actual distance. Using similar experiments he tried to measure the distance from the sun and the moon and even though they weren’t accurate he concluded the sun was much larger than both the sun and Earth.

Science and Mathematics Euclid was advancing the field of mathematics in Alexandria. His best known book Elements described Plane Geometry. (branch of mathematics centered around measurement and relationships of points, lines, angles, and surfaces of figures on a plane.) When asked by Egypt's King Ptolemy I if there was a faster method to learn geometry, he replied with “there is no royal way to learn geometry.” His ideas still influence mathematics today.

Euclid painted in, “The School of Athens” by sixteenth century Raphael

Science and Mathematics The most famous scientist of the Hellenistic Era is Archimedes (ahr-kuh-MEE-deez) He is best known for his work on solid geometry (branch of mathematics about measurement and relationships of points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids in three-dimensional spaces.) He studied ball like shapes (spheres) and tube-like shapes (cylinders) He also discovered the value of pi, the number used to measure the area of a circle. Pi is represented with the Greek symbol

Science and Mathematics Archimedes was also an inventor. He invented machinery and weapons of war. He was known to be modest. However one story had him boasting “Give me a lever and a place to stand on… And I will move the earth.” The king of Syracuse heard of Archimedes’ boast and asked him to build a machine to defend the city. Archimedes proceeded to invent the catapult which could throw rocks, arrows, and spears across long distances.

Archimedes

Science and Mathematics When the Romans attacked Syracuse in 212 B.C. they were driven back with the catapults. It took them three years to capture the city and during the massacre that followed, Archimedes was killed. Hellenistic thought and culture had long-lasting effects. Hypatia (hy-PAY-shuh) lived in Alexandra around A.D. 400, more than 700 years after the Hellenistic Era and kept up the Greek tradition of studying philosophy and mathematics. Just like the Greek thinkers before her, she championed the use of reason over superstition "To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing." "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all."

Greece and Rome The four kingdoms that were once Alexander’s empire shared Hellenistic culture. Despite this, they were unable to work together and often fought wars with one another. Macedonia had power over Greece for some time but could not keep them under control forever. Sparta and a few others gained their independence. These city-states had Hellenistic cultures, but they did not have strong armies and remained free only for a short time.

Greece and Rome Rome was a city-state in central Italy. In the late 200s B.C., Rome conquered the entire Italian Peninsula. Greece lost its lands in southern Italy fearing Rome could take them over. The Greeks now feared that Rome would take control of Greece. The Greeks tried to stop Rome from attaining more power but ultimately failed. They began to support Rome’s enemies in various wars but they would win these conflicts. Over time, Rome gained control of the Greek mainland.