Transcript Preconditions for the Emergence of the Hellenistic World

Preconditions for the Emergence of
the Hellenistic World
“The world of Hellenism was a changed and
enlarged world. Though the particularism of
the Greek city-state was to remain vigorous
enough in fact, it had broken down in theory; it
was being replaced by universalism and its
corollary, individualism. The idea emerges of an
oecumene or ‘inhabited world’ as a whole, the
common possession of civilized men.”
W.W. Tarn, Hellenistic Civilization
“The 380s are a turning point. Till that decade
the main lines of division in Greek society had
remained constant for nearly a century, while
the dominant patterns of social articulation had
been stable for nearly 300 years.
Thenceforward all the elements in this picture
undergo rapid change. New centers of political
and military force arise and impinge strongly
on events: monarchy, cavalry, and mercenaries
all assume far greater importance; and changed
attitudes, beliefs, and tastes substantially
modify the social institutions of the states.”
J.K. Davies
The Creation of Classical Greece
Aeschines, 2.74
“The political speakers…got up
and…bade you gaze upon the
Propylaea of the Acropolis, and to
recall the sea battle at Salamis and
the tombs and war trophies of your
ancestors.”
Plutarch, Moralia 841f (on Athenian law
of the 330s)
“…that bronze statues of the poets
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides be
erected, that their tragedies be written out
and kept in the public depository, and that
the secretary of the city should read them
through for comparison to the actors; it
should be unlawful to depart from the
authorized text in acting.”
Logos over Mythos
Reason and Secularism in the Fourth
Century
Plato, Republic, 10.607a
cf. Plato’s Ion on rhapsodes and poetic
inspiration
“For if you grant admission to the honeyed
Muse in lyric or epic, pleasure and pain
will be the lords of your city instead of law
and that which shall from time to time
have approved itself to the general reason
as the best.”
F.W. Walbank on Eratosthenes of Cyrene
(275-194 BCE)
“His most striking accomplishment was to
measure the earth’s circumference by recording
the angle of shadow cast by a stick at Alexandria
(7 1/3 degrees) on the day of the summer solstice,
when there was no shadow at Syene (Aswan),
which he assumed to lie on the same line of
longitude as Alexandria.”
Cult and Ritual
Personal Salvation, Mysteries, and
Hero Cult of the Living
Plutarch, Lysander, 18
“The general of noble Greece
Who came from wide-ranging Sparta
We shall hymn. O ie paian!”