1. Chapter 7: Part 2
Hellenistic Age

2. 1. Terminology What does “Hellenistic” mean? Hellade= Greece
“Hellenistic” refers to a culture predominantly but not totally Greek.
The term refers to the expansion of Greek civilization to the East and to the resulting mixture of Greek culture with other influences.

3. 2. Historical Overview Aegean Civilizations (ancestors of the Greeks)
Minoan BCE
Mycenaean BCE
Stages of Greek Civilization:
Archaic Period 6th century
Classical Period 5th-4th century
Hellenistic Period late 4th c. - 2nd c.
(323 BCE-146 BCE)

4. 2. Terminology

5. 2. Historical Overview
The Hellenistic period is the time between the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) and the Roman conquest of Greece (146 BCE)

6. 3. Alexander the Great Who was Alexander the Great?
a) an Athenian general
b) a Macedonian king
c) a Persian monarch
What are his achievements?

7. 3. Alexander the Great Son and heir to Phillip II of Macedonia
Phillip II had subjected the cities of Greece to Macedonian rule.

8. Battle of Issus against the Persian King Darius, 333 BCE
3. Alexander the Great
Alexander started a campaign against the Persians.
Battle of Issus against the Persian King Darius, 333 BCE

9. 3. Alexander the Great
He traveled as far as the Indus Valley conquering cities and founding new ones

10. 3. Alexander the Great

11. 3. Alexander the Great

12. 4. Alexander’s empire
When Alexander died his empire was divided between his lieutenants (Macedonian noblemen):
Antigonus: Macedonia/Greece
Seleucus: Asia Minor/ Persia
Ptolemy: Egypt

13. 4. Alexander’s empire

14. 5. Hellenistic society Nationalistic or cosmopolitan? Urban or rural?
Based on trade or agriculture?
Democracies or a monarchies?
What language(s) did they speak?

15. 5. Hellenistic society Cosmopolitan and eclectic:
A mixture of different cultures (Greeks, Macedonians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Persians, Arabs…) linked by trade.
Not a national culture.
Cult to the ruler unifies a population of different ethnic background.

16. 5. Classical Greek vs. Hellenistic society
During the Classical period…
were Athens or Sparta cosmopolitan?
how were foreigners treated in Athens or Sparta?
who was the most important deity of Athens?
was Athens ever as large as Alexandria?
what was characteristic of the Athenian government?

17. 5. Hellenistic society Urban:
Large metropolitan centers: Alexandria and Pergamum

18. 5. Hellenistic society Government: Ruled by (divinized) monarchs.
No democracy.

19. 5. Hellenistic society Language:
A form of colloquial Greek called Koine was spoken throughout the Hellenistic world.

20. 6. Alexandria Founded by Alexander the Great.
Population of about 1,000,000
Ruled by the Ptolemies
Cultural center

21. 6. Alexandria Library Museum (university) Theater Lighthouse
Public gardens
Tomb of Alexander

22. 7. Pergamum

23. Altar of Zeus at Pergamum, 170 BCE.

24. 9. Sculpture Motifs and purpose in Classical Greece?
Realism or idealism?
Way to represent the gods?
Emotions?
Individualism?
Social types?

25. 9. Sculpture In Classical Greece:
Study of the perfect representation of the human body
Subjects: gods (religious), idealized humans.
No individual traits, no emotion.

26. 9. Classical vs. 4th century sculpture

27. 9. Classical vs. 4th century sculpture

28. 9. 4th century sculpture Praxiteles (370-330 BCE) Praxitelian curve
First female nude: Aphrodite of Cnidus
Sensuality

29. 9. 4th century sculpture Lysippus (4th cent) Sculptor of Alexander
Psychological portrayal: emotion
Theatrical effects:
light and shade

30. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Laocoon Group, 150 BCE Gaul and wife, 220 BCE

31. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Emotion (pathos)
Agitated movement

32. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Dying Gaul, 220 BCE
Boxer, 225 BCE

33. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Sympathy (human compassion)
Different ethnic and social groups

34. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Jockey, 2nd c. BCE Old market woman ,2nd c BCE

35. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Different age groups
Realism
Special interest in children

36. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Aphrodite, Eros and Pan, 100 BCE Barberini Faun, 200 BCE

37. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Eroticism
Irreverent representation of the gods

38. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Nike of Samothrace, 190 BCE

39. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Theatrical effects

40. 10. Hellenistic Sculpture
Emotion (pathos)
Agitated movement
Sympathy (human compassion)
Different ethnic and social groups
Different age groups (Special interest in children)
Realism
Eroticism
Irreverent representation of the gods
Theatrical effects

41. 10. Classical period vs. Hellenistic period
Parthenon in Athens
Altar of Pergamum

42. 10. Religion Mystery cults: Dionysus Orpheus Isis Serapis Mithras
Cybele

43. 10. Religion Greek religion in the Archaic/ Classical Period:
Features of the gods?
Are the gods dreadful?
Are there national/ civic deities?
Individual/ collective cults?
Dogmatic or ritualistic?
Are the religious practices for everybody?
Afterlife?

44. 10. Religion In the Classical period:
Gods behave like humans (immoral)
Fear of the gods: need of prosperity
Religion of the poleis, collective.
Myths of foundation: ancestors
Civic rituals bringing the citizens together

45. 10. Religion Mystery cults:
“Mystery”: secrets revealed only to the initiates.
Initiation was mandatory (requiring a ritual).
A dogma to be believed and directions to be followed.
Belief in the immortality of the human soul.
Purity/ immortality of the soul contrasts with sin/degradation of the mortal body.
Sense of virtue and sin and reward and punishment in an afterlife.
Various concepts of immortality: transmigration of souls, rebirth, reincarnation, resurrection, and redemption.

46. Review: the Hellenistic world
Nationalistic or cosmopolitan?
Urban or rural?
Based on trade or agriculture?
Government?
Language?
Urbanism?
Sculpture?

47. Review: the Hellenistic world
Religion: Mystery cults
Are they civic deities?
Individual (sectarian) or collective (public) cults?
Dogmatic or ritualistic?
Afterlife?
Beliefs about soul?