SPREAD OF HELLENISTIC CULTURE

LEARNING AND COMMERCE

  • Brought Greek culture to many areas—Nile Valley, S.W. Asia, borders of India
  • Society contained a small wealthy class and a large group of poor
  • In between was a small middle class which prospered during the Hellenistic era
  • Trade was based in major cities and trade routes linked China, India and Arabia to Hellenistic world
  • Library of Alexandria—thousands of papyrus scrolls—much of the knowledge and literature of Hellenistic world
  • As people grew more wealthy—education became more widespread
  • Old values were replaced with freer lifestyles for some groups
  • Women appeared in public and won new rights regarding property
  • Old Greek bias towards barbarians disappeared because everyone was “Greek”

RELIGION ANDS PHILOSOPHY

  • Greek concept of polis declined
  • Many felt they had lost control over their lives
  • Many turned to new religions and philosophies—focused on satisfying people’s need for sense of belonging
  • Hellenistic kings encouraged practice of ruler-worship—provided a sense of civic duty
  • People found comfort in these figures for guidance
  • Many turned to cults—introduced secret teachings and mysteries
  • Secrets of life after death and immortality
  • Provided felling of unity, security and personal worth
  • 4 schools of Philosophy existed in Hellenistic Era
  • Cynicism—believed people should live simply and naturally w/o regard for pleasure, wealth, or social status
  • Best known Cynic was Diogenes
  • Skeptics—believed the universe is always changing, all knowledge is uncertain
  • Pyrrho is founder
  • Stoicism—divine reason directs the world—accept fate w/o complaints
  • Everyone had a “spark” of the divine within—could only achieve happiness by following the “spark”
  • Influenced Roman and Christian Thinking
  • Zeno established philosophy in Athens
  • Epicureanism—aim of life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain—limit your desires to avoid suffering
  • Epicurus is founder

SCIENCE IN THE HELLENISTIC AGE

  • Scientist learned using very simple instruments
  • Showed little interest in labor saving devices—had slave labor

MATH AND PHYSICS

  • Euclid—developed geometry—showed how geometric statements flow logically from one to another
  • Book Elements is basis for modern Geometry books
  • Archimedes
  • Greatest scientist of period
  • Calculated value of Pi—ratio of circumference to diameter in a circle
  • Invented Archimedes screw to draw water upwards

MEDICINE

  • Alexandria was center of medical science
  • Learned Egyptian art of embalming and cataloguing of body parts
  • To learn about anatomy they studied bodies of executed criminals
  • Herophilus concluded the brain was the center of the nervous system
  • These advancements allowed doctors to perform delicate surgeries

ASTRONOMY AND GEOGRAPHY

  • Used principles of geometry to track movement of stars and planets
  • Aristarchus believed that the earth and planets revolved around the sun
  • Hipparchus used trigonometry to predict eclipses
  • Used movement sun and moon to calculate length of year
  • Eratosthenes—calculated distance around the earth accurately
  • Given job as head of Library of Alexandria as reward