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Hellenism.Pdf Hellenism Hellenism is a term that may be used in various scholars, artists, and scientists, and many were im- senses: it has sometimes been applied to the whole pressed by the superiority of the Greek achieve- of distinctively Greek culture, including that of the ment. Thus people everywhere were ready to learn days before Alexander the Great (336–323 B.C.); it the language and adopt the culture of the conquer- is more commonly employed, however, of the civ- ing Greeks. It became fashionable to adopt the ilization that spread through much of the ancient latest Greek fads. world in the wake of Alexander’s conquests. We The small city-state of earlier days seems to have shall here use it in this latter sense. been at the basis of the greatest Greek achieve- I. Introduction ments. At their highest and best, Greek art and Alexander’s conquests covered an immense area thought have never been surpassed in the minds and brought him sovereignty over many nations. of many. Names like Plato and Phidias conjure He proposed to solve the problems of ruling so het- up thoughts of an excellence of which any civiliza- erogeneous a group of people and bringing coher- tion might well be proud. The little city-states ence into his empire by eschewing a narrow nation- of ancient Greece produced a notable group of alism and imposing a culture that would transcend outstanding men. Curiously, this did not per- national boundaries, in which all people could be sist when Greece became one nation and devel- at home. Basically, this meant that the Greek way oped into a mighty empire. But although the city- of life would be extended to the non-Greeks, but in state produced the men and the ideas, it was by the process there ensued an amalgam of Greek and means of the empire that the ideas were effectively non-Greek ideas, so that the resulting Hellenism spread abroad among the greatest number of peo- was far from being purely Greek. Nevertheless, ple. Many factors were involved, but we shall con- Greek culture dominated the whole, and the result centrate only on the following. is not unjustly called Hellenism. II. Greek Language Sometimes Greek influence concerned more or less This was a potent force in the whole process. It be- surface matters like the wearing of Greek dress, or came fnown in most places, with the result that it athletic contests modeled after the Greek games. became a kind of lingua franca. It was a great con- Sometimes it penetrated deeply into the realms venience for the first Christian missionaries that of religion and philosophy. Hellenism was all- when they went abroad with the gospel they did embracing. Alexander encouraged a thorough mix- not have to learn another language. All over the ing of the conquerors and the conquered by inter- known world people were brought in contact with marriage. He himself set the example and many of one another by the medium of the Greek tongue; his officers and men likewise married women from a further advantage was that with Greek they had the conquered peoples. Alexander died too soon access to the treasures of Greek literature. to be able to accomplish his aim, but the policy of hellenization lived on after him. III. Cosmopolitanism We should not understand this as an unwelcome To a questioner who asked to what country he be- policy ruthlessly enforced from above. Doubtless longed, Socrates is said to have replied, “I am a it was this in some cases, and it was in this way citizen of the world”; and Diogenes gave his adher- that the Jews, for example, encountered it. Yet ence to the same concept when he called himself even they used the language and accepted some of kosmopolitex “world-citizen.” In the days of the the ideas, although many of them rejected the reli- city-state, people had tended to confine themselves gion and the immorality. On the whole, people ea- largely to local affairs; but with the stirring of the gerly welcomed Hellenism. The Greeks had notable pulses brought about by Alexander’s conquests and Grace Notes, a ministry of Austin Bible Church http://gracenotes.info/ Hellenism 2 the consequent contact with new lands and peoples, V. Literature people began to look down on narrow nationalism People were not interested only in scientific en- and to cultivate an outlook on life that deserved deavor, for the humanities thrived as well and lit- the name “cosmopolitan.” This did not mean that erature was popular. Poets like Callimachus of on occasion there might not be a concentration on Cyrene and Theocritus of Syracuse flourished, and purely local issues, but it did mean that merely lo- some poets wrote on more or less scientific themes. cal concerns were never allowed to dominate. Menander wrote widely acclaimed comedies. This caused trouble for “provincials” like the Jews Special mention should be made of the historians. and later the Christians. When people of every na- Hellenistic historians did not understand their task tion other than the Jewish found it quite possible in quite the same way as does the modern scientific to subject local customs and ideas to cosmopoli- historian, being more concerned with the dramatic tan ones, it was a mystery to cultured people why and the sensational. The abbreviator of Jason of the Jews could not. Specifically, the Jewish and Cyrene, who produced 2 Maccabees, tells us in well- Christian refusal to conform to custom by accept- known words: “We have aimed to please those who ing a mild form of idolatry did not make sense to wish to read, to make it easy for those who are the Hellenists, who did not take the gods very seri- inclined to memorize, and to profit all readers” (2 ously and could not see why these provincials did. Macc. 2:25). This was the kind of thing at which When we read of Jews or Christians who came into many historians aimed, and the results were var- conflict with those who embodied the Hellenistic ied. Some were too concerned with the pleasant spirit we should not understand this as a purely lo- and let the claims of literary form override respect cal clash. Nor, at least as far as the Hellenists were for the facts; others were too didactic. But the best concerned, was it a purely religious issue. For them of them produced valuable histories, e.g., Polybius, it represented a conflict between a small group with who is normally regarded as first-rate. Josephus a provincial outlook and many others who had a is another whose history is both well known and worldwide outlook. The cosmopolitans never could valuable. We owe a good deal to the historiogra- understand the obstinacy with which the provin- phers of the Hellenistic period, even if we must be cials clung to their narrow outlook. on our guard against attaching too much weight to IV. Greek Science the propagandizing and the striving for dramatic effect that characterizes some of them. The Greek spirit of free inquiry found outlet in many directions, and the scientific contributions of VI. Philosophy the age were impressive. In astronomy, the Ptole- Philosophy was, of course, a prime interest of cul- maic geocentric picture of the universe is notewor- tured Greeks. The great traditions of Plato and thy. In the pre-Ptolemaic period many Greeks had Aristotle were continued, although perhaps the quite different ideas, some thinking of the earth as a best-known school was that of the Stoics. Many sphere moving around the sun. R. H. Pfeiffer draws were attracted by its solutions of metaphysical attention to the work of Aristarchus of Samos, who problems and by its offer of peace of mind. Others gauged the sun’s volume to be three hundred times were followers of Epicurus, though one should bear that of the earth. He concluded from this and other in mind that in modern times his teaching has of- considerations that the earth rotates on its axis and ten been misrepresented. He taught that pleasure moves around the sun (HNTT, p. 112). With the is the aim of life, but he did not conceive of plea- acceptance of the Ptolemaic system, people came sure in merely sensual terms, since he held that to think of the earth as central to the universe and it is virtue that enables one to enjoy true plea- of the sun, moon, and planets as moving around sure. Other schools also flourished and philosophi- it. Another notable scientific feat was that of Er- cal views varied greatly, including some that were atosthenes of Cyrene, who calculated the circumfer- highly skeptical. It is clear that the Greeks of this ence of the earth at 252,000 stadia. This has been age took great delight in wrestling with profound worked out as 39,681 km (24,662 mi), not so very problems and in examining critically the solutions far from modern measurements. The mathematical others put forward. studies of Euclid and the discoveries of Archimedes in the physical sciences are so well known they They were not, however, concerned with only hardly need mentioning. It was a period when peo- purely theoretical issues. Many of them were pro- ple were discovering a great variety of things about foundly interested in ethics and made every effort their environment. to promote virtue. One reason why some philoso- Grace Notes, a ministry of Austin Bible Church http://gracenotes.info/ Hellenism 3 phers were not interested in religion was that the ing and rising again.
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