Hellenism: summary, outline and characteristics

Summary, outline and characteristics of Hellenism, the historical and literary period following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

Hellenism

The period following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC is called the Hellenistic Age and extends up to the Roman conquest of Egypt following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.We distinguish a High Hellenism (from the death of Alexander the Great throughout the 3rd century), and a Low Hellenism which includes the 1st and 2nd centuries.

The earliest period is characterized by the formation of the Hellenistic kingdoms by Alexander’s generals and their successors:

Egypt: The Ptolemies
Syria: The Seleucids
Macedonia: The Antigonids

These were the three main kingdoms to which were added many minor kingdoms, the most important of which, on a cultural level due to its very important library, was the kingdom of Pergamon in Asia Minor .

Within the borders of the new kingdoms, new cities were formed and ancient urban centers prospered.

The use of the term Hellenism dates back to a nineteenth-century scholar, Droysen , who used it with a historical-cultural value to define the period from the death of Alexander to the battle of Actium . The starting point is offered by the Old Testament and by two passages from the Acts of the Apostles where the terms “ellenismos” (indicating the correct use of Greek) and “ellenistes” (to indicate the adoption of the Greek language and customs by the Jews) are found respectively. Droysen, on the basis of their meanings, used Hellenism and Hellenistic with the aim of identifying that period in which, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek culture spread enormously in the eastern territories.

Hellenism in Greece

From the first interferences of Philip of Macedon to the amazing conquests of Alexander between 336 and 334, the cultural horizons of Greece had expanded and transformed, with the Macedonian hegemony the independent polis were replaced with the creation of a vast territorial state subject to the central power of an absolute sovereign and equipped with a capital city. After the death of Alexander some Greek cities thought they could regain their freedom but the rebellions cost the people many failures and harsh repression.

In addition to the political change, there was also a cultural change ; Alexander’s exploits opened up geographical, cultural and intellectual horizons, thus also broadening the thinking and self-awareness of Greek man.

Greek culture was in relation with the higher cultures, the world of Greek speakers expanded beyond measure and took in an immense quantity of non-Greeks, the self-sufficient universe of the polis was diluted in the broad spatial and cultural perspectives opened up by the conquest; gradually but profoundly the mentality, the intellectual attitude, the points of reference and the perspectives changed. However, one must not forget to underline the elements of continuity with the polis: social life within the city continued to develop and the Greek cities continued their relatively autonomous policy of alliances and alignments.

Greek culture: centers of diffusion

The political and cultural geography of the Hellenistic age is characterized by the different kingdoms that arose from the dismemberment of Alexander the Great’s conquests: the area of Greek culture expands enormously and literature also reveals a rich and varied polycentrism .

It is a varied phenomenon of the diffusion of Greek civilization and integration with other cultures.

There is no doubt that the powerful unifying factor was language: that form of Greek called koine dialektos (common language) which spread throughout the Mediterranean basin and in vast areas of the Middle East and became the principal literary language of the Hellenistic age.

The polycentrism of Hellenistic cultural geography is due to the emergence of new cultural centers (this does not mean that the ancient cultural centers lost their importance, Athens continued to maintain a great role and great prestige), among which Alexandria of Egypt stands out, which became a cultural center in various sectors of culture with the Ptolemies, Pergamon which was for a certain time the rival of Alexandria, Carthage, Cyrene, Antioch, Rome.

An important factor in the proliferation of cultural centers was the particular attitude of the rulers called euergetism ; each ruler, in order to celebrate himself, his city and his kingdom, invested resources in construction, urban planning but above all by calling artists, writers and craftsmen to court.

Literary genres in the Hellenistic age

Hellenistic intellectuals are aware of having behind them a grandiose tradition of art and thought, which constitutes the heritage of their culture. The awareness of this imposing heritage produced various phenomena in the Hellenistic age: on the one hand the effort to conserve the texts consecrated by tradition, on the other an attitude of competitive comparison with past models. The phenomenon of learned poetry that characterizes the Hellenistic age is an organic synthesis of these two aspects: the poet-philologist interprets the greats of the past and from these draws nourishment and spirit to compose in competition with the ancient and authoritative model; Callimachus and Apollonius Rhodius are the two major exponents of this new way of making poetry.

Typical of the period is also the transformation and contamination of literary genres in search of their own originality , the traditional system of literary genres relied on a consolidated set of structural, linguistic and metric compositional rules , now the genres are profoundly transformed and sometimes even mixed, they become structures open to experiments and innovations. In the Hellenistic age the civilization of the book is definitively consolidated; in the archaic age and for part of the classical age literature was enjoyed orally; with the Hellenistic age literary communication is entrusted to individual reading, for the civilization of the book literature is addressed to a limited and elitist public.

Thus a high culture is differentiated from a popular culture that continues to develop along its own paths in traditional forms, society is increasingly divided into two strata : a privileged wealthy class and an economically weak lower middle class on the margins of socio-political and cultural life.

Little remains of the literature of the Hellenistic age: most of the preserved poems are from the 3rd century , from the 1st and 2nd centuries we have very little.

The theatre is represented by Menander , as regards poetry, epigram and elegy flourish , the learned poetry of Callimachus, the new epic of Apollonius of Rhodes , the bucolic poetry of Theocritus . One of the most relevant and new phenomena is Alexandrian philology which in the Hellenistic age experiences its exceptional season. In the field of historiography we have Polybius and Diodorus , the sciences experience an important season and philosophy sees the birth of two fundamental schools, the Stoic and the Epicurean.

The authors of the new comedy

As regards the comedy Nea we have numerous short fragments and conspicuous papyrus finds that have brought to light a large part of Menander’s comedies, fortune has not been as favorable for other playwrights like him whose works have come down to us in short fragments through indirect tradition. Before Menander are Philemon and Dephilus , after him are Apollodorus of Carystus and Macon .

Menander

He was born into a noble Athenian family and lived in the turbulent years of the loss of political autonomy due to the establishment of Macedonian rule. A few years after his birth (341-342) the battle of Chaeronea took place , with which Philip gained control of Greece.

For a certain period Lycurgus held power in Athens trying to improve the situation, but at the death of Alexander the Great the Athenians attempted to rebel against Macedonia but were defeated and the domination by Antipater became more heavy. His teacher was Alexis, a playwright of middle comedy. Menander made his debut as a playwright in 321 in the Lenaian contest with the comedy entitled “Wrath” and won, a second victory at the Lenaia he obtained in 316 with “Dyskolos”. After the death of Antipater in 319 Demetrius Phalereus went to govern the city and established an oligarchic regime on the support of the middle class, Menander was a friend of his as he was also of Epicurus. In 307 Athens was conquered by Demetrius Piliorcetes , Demetrius Phalereus fled and a political trial was brought against Menander. Menander died around 290.

Menander is the author whose papyrus has been found in the greatest number after Homer, a sign of the abundant circulation of copies, however the comedies did not stand up to the test of the Byzantine age and ceased to be copied, and a few decades ago nothing was known except a few fragments that had come down to us through indirect tradition and a collection of 877 maxims in iambic trimeters known as gnomai monostikoi. Papyrological research has instead given excellent results: parts of 5 comedies have been found thanks to a papyrus from the 5th century found in Cairo in 1905, the referee, the shorn girl, Samia and the hero. The papyrus sheets dating back to the 3rd century and belonging to the private collection of the Swiss Bodmer have expanded our knowledge on Samia and have returned the Dyskolos almost entirely and the shield in a fragmentary way. The cartonnage of an Egyptian mummy has brought to light fragmentary parts of the Sicyonian man. A papyrus from Oxyrhynchus from the 4th century has returned part of the comedy The Hated One.

The best preserved comedies

Dyskolos “difficult”: it refers to the elderly protagonist who opposes the marriage between his daughter and Sostrato, only an unforeseen circumstance will make him aware of the value of disinterested human affections.
Dating back to 316, it is the oldest of the best preserved Perikeiromene “the shorn girl”: it tells the story of the young Glycera whose jealous lover cuts her hair to punish her for a treacherous kiss. R
It dates back to 314 Apsis “the shield”: personified tuke frames the motif of the plan of two young people to get married, hindered by the aims of a greedy old man who is opposed by a faithful servant who follows the interest of his master who makes the old man believe that Cleostratus died in battle. The old man Smicrine seems close to marrying his sister when Cleostratus arrives, this shows how tuke is superior to the doing of men.
Samia “the woman of Samos”: is based on an unexpected pregnancy and the misunderstandings that ensue.
Epitrepontes “the referee”: after 304, it takes its title from the two characters who resort to the arbitration of a third character to decide who should receive the markings found together on an exposed newborn.
Heros “the hero”.

The erudite literature

In the Hellenistic age, in addition to the usual literary genres , philology and grammar also gained ground ; attempts were made to resolve the problem of the correctness and accuracy of the texts of ancient authors that had been handed down; therefore, the need arose in a broad manner to interpret those works in the most complete and appropriate way.

Different areas of research were developed and the activities of text creation, interpretation and commentary of classical authors gave rise to the growth of entire literary genres: philology, grammar, lexicography, biography… what can be defined as erudite literature, aimed at deepening by every means the interpretation of the great authors of the past and their works.

The works of exegesis ( hupomnemata : commentaries that followed the text step by step, sungrammata: treatises on individual problems) are the typical products of the Alexandrian age together with lekdosis the edition, producing a new edition of a text involved both the work of correcting any errors produced in the transmission of the text and the choice between variants found in different copies (for such corrective interventions the term diorthosis is used ).

The Alexandrian edition consisted of writing a new copy with the text written out in full, then on an old copy the philologist made his textual interventions, eliminating verses, moving parts or changing linguistic forms.

The works of the grammarians of the Alexandrian and Imperial ages are mostly lost although collections of scholia (comments written by the grammarians at the side of the pages) have been published.

Philology in Pergamon

In Pergamon there was no tradition like the Alexandrian one and no school comparable to it in richness and duration was established, but erudite studies began under King Attalus I with Antigone of Carystus, Polemon of Ilium and Demetrius of Sceptis .

The most fruitful period occurred during the reign of Eumenes : Crater of Mallo, a philosopher of the Stoic school who transferred his philosophical ideas into the analysis of texts; the ancient allegorical interpretation continued in the philosophical field and was adopted by the Stoics to interpret myths; this idea was rejected and criticized by the Alexandrians.

Cratere also took up the Stoic concept of “anomaly”, according to which in the conception of language the ratio of the analogical norm was contrasted with the freer development dictated by the consuetudo; he also dealt with lyric theatre and Hesiod.

Callimachus

The biography of Callimachus is reconstructed with many doubts and uncertainties thanks to the Byzantine lexicon of the Suda and information found in Callimachus’ own writings.

He was born in the last years of the 4th century in Cyrene, an ancient Greek colony on the Libyan coast of Africa, a family of noble origins that boasted among its ancestors the founder of the city named Batto. Although he was originally of noble origins his family was poor so that Callimachus had to start working as an elementary school teacher in Alexandria; a decisive turning point in his life when he came into contact with the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus taking on an internal position at the museum remaining there also in the first part of the reign of his successor Ptolemy III Euergetes but never held the highest office. The poet’s relations with the court are witnessed by frequent encomiastic references to the sovereigns, and he must have enjoyed considerable favor at the court of Euergetes who married Berenice daughter of the king of Cyrene so that the Libyan city returned under Ptolemaic power, this event was very important for Callimachu

Lost works:

Some works of mythological nature
The poem Ibis full of invectives against a character unknown to us
Writings on literary, linguistic, antiquarian, historical-geographical subjects
The pinakes or tables in 120 rolls, was a catalogue of the book heritage collected in the library of Alexandria
Table and review of theatre producers in chronological order and from their origins

Preserved works and fragments

The list of the Suda is missing all the works that have come down to us, namely the Hymns (6), Aitia, Iambs, Hecale the mythological poem, the Epigrams (60).

For the first time the author was also the editor of his own texts, a philologist of himself; Callimachus composed his poetic texts over time, as inspiration occurred, and later collected them, ordered them and arranged the compositions in books according to a formal or thematic criterion. The edition opened with the Aitia and continued with the poems in iambic and lyric meters and with the short poem Hecale; a concrete trace of Callimachus’ editorial intervention is constituted by the epilogue of the Aitia with a metaphor the poet says he is about to pass from the winged poetry of the Aitia to the pedestrian poetry of the Iambics .

The Hymns and a good number of Epigrams have come down to us as late collections of poetry, even though the majority of Callimachus’ works did not survive the Byzantine era: the serious gap is filled by indirect tradition and by papyrus findings.

The hymns:

The Byzantine manuscript tradition has preserved for us 6 Hymns dedicated to divinities and religious festivals (a hymn is a composition in hexameters whose fundamental characteristic was the praise of a divinity or a hero on the occasion of a religious festival).

The first four hymns have traditional characteristics, being composed in the epic-Ionic dialect and having a cletic content and structure (invocation to the divinity), these first four hymns revolve around the divinities of Zeus and Apollo and the human figures who were connected to them, poets and kings. These hymns are:

: The Hymn to Zeus: king of the gods symbol of royal power, opens the consideration of the privileged relationship between Zeus and just sovereigns and introduces the praise of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Apollo is celebrated through the recollection of his functions including that of protector of archers and bards and that of divinity who presides over the foundation of new cities. In this context, the memory of the foundation of Cyrene is placed. Then the hymn ends with the contrast between long and short poetry (text 7). To Artemis, there is the mythical tale of the attributes of the goddess, sister of Apollo. The poet imagines the child goddess on her father’s lap while she asks him to be able to assume the divine attributes and attitudes, and that wild lifestyle that will remain typical of her figure is dedicated to Delos and has the aim of celebrating the Apollonian cult practiced on the island of the ego starting from when Leto gave birth to her children there. From that day on, the island stopped wandering on the sea. At the heart of the hymn is the praise of Ptolemy Philadelphus, whose birth Apollo prophesies from his mother’s womb.

The fifth and sixth hymns differ in language, here we have the Doric dialect, and in structure, and metrics, in fact these two hymns are in elegiac couplets:

for the baths of Pallas tells of the professional moment in which the statue of Athena was led to the river bank and here stripped, washed and dressed. the mythical episode to which the hymn refers is the bath of the goddess fatal to Tiresias who became blind for having involuntarily seen the naked body of the goddess, later moved to pity by the prayers of his mother Athena gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy. hymn to Demeter dedicated to a particular moment of the cult: the procession that accompanies the goddess in the temple of the sacred basket full of the first fruits of the fields; at the center of the composition is the episode of Erysichthon who has cut down a poplar sacred to her and condemns it to an insatiable hunger.

Callimachean hymns do not have a ritual effect in themselves, they are born as literary texts intended for reading by a cultured public, they are texts detached from the concrete and circumstantial occasion of worship that linked the ancient hymns to characteristics of structure and content. The innovative attitude with respect to tradition emerges in the linguistic variety and in the metrical innovations.

Aitia

It is a collection of elegies composed in different periods, then connected and arranged in four books and published by Callimachus himself. The title alludes to the common feature of all these compositions: showing the origin of religious festivals, myths, cults, institutions, cities, names according to a taste that is both poetic and erudite. The etiological interest was an aspect of Alexandrian research aimed at explaining the causes of cultural phenomena and the formation of traditions. The etiological elegies were composed in different periods and in his later years Callimachus arranged them editorially as an organic collection in view of publication, with the division into 4 books, the insertion of the elegies within a general framework and the composition of a prologue and an exodus.

The elegies are contained within a framework represented by the poet’s meeting and dialogue with the muses. In a dream he asks the muses some questions and receives timely answers. The goddesses, personifications of knowledge, allude to the cultural heritage preserved and studied in Alexandria.

The third and fourth books of the aitia were conceived and arranged as a relatively distinct pair from the first, defined by their own structure and themes, both addressed to Queen Berenice, composed no earlier than 246 BC and in a key position in the collection. The epinicium to Berenice has come down to us in very incomplete form, it is in elegiac couplets unlike the custom, Callimachus transported the theme of the epinicium into the form of the elegy and is one of those games of refined erudition and poetic experimentation in the contamination of genres.

The last aition of the collection is still a tribute to Berenice. The text is incomplete but we can complete it thanks to the imitation made by the poet Catullus.

Iambs

These are compositions inspired by the archaic, lively and aggressive style of the poetry of Archilochus and Hipponax. Callimachus draws inspiration from them but modifies the metric, formal and content characteristics, adopting a variety of metres and subjects unknown to the giambographers of the archaic age.

17 compositions are attributed to Callimachus’ collection, although some scholars have thought of excluding the last 4, considering them excessively distant in form and content. Furthermore, iamb 13 is suitable to be kept as a conclusion since it contains, like the first iamb, a declaration of poetics. However, other scholars believe that all 17 compositions are part of the collection because the further one advances in the collection of iambs, the more Callimachus distances himself from the archaic iamb, increasing the level of novelty, which would explain such a large difference between the first 13 and the last 4. Carmi 1-10-12-. 13 are in iambic and trochaic meters, the remaining ones in lyric meters, some compositions retain the Ionic, others are written in Doric; the themes are varied, ranging from carmi characterized by an aggressive tone and addressed to the characters of the time, to carmi that deal with themes usually reserved for elegy or epigram.

Iambs 1 and 13 contain statements of poetics:

1-declares, through the ironic figure of Hipponax, the abandonment of the harsh and aggressive tones typical of the archaic iamb, and it is a clever game put in place by the poet to express his own original position.
13-constitutes a response by Callimachus to those who criticize him for the variety of forms, in fact he declares that he adheres to the Homeric position by assimilating his poetic art to a new château: “no one criticizes the craftsman if he builds tools of a different shape”.

Epigrams

In the epigrammatic collection of the Palatine anthology under the name of Callimachus, 63 epigrams are handed down, and we have some other compositions from other sources. The themes treated are the usual ones of the genre: sepulchral, votive and erotic, important are those of literary subject and in particular those that deal with poetic questions.

We read a sepulchral epigram by Callimachean in which he makes his father speak about himself.

The Hecale

It is a short poem in hexameters with mythological content, which is connected to the epic tradition but innovates its form and content and in particular gives space to marginal and little-known episodes of the myth.

Plot : Theseus has come to Athens to kill the bull that is infesting the city and receives hospitality in the house of the old and humble Hecale, the next day he defeats the bull and returns to the house to thank the old woman, but finds her dead.

In his honor he then established a new deme with his name and founded the sanctuary of Zeus Hecaleius.

In the poem there is a change of point of view, the hero Theseus takes a back seat and the real protagonist is Hecale who, despite being very humble, offers hospitality to the hero and dies before he can receive her gratitude. The attention is focused on the simple and humble heroism of the old woman, this aspect is the most significant novelty of the poem.

It represents the epic according to the taste of Callimachus , devoid of heroic connotations and characteristic elements of the traditional epos; rather it is oriented towards the etiological elegy.

The poem also contains long realistic descriptions of the peasant world, an emblem of the fusion of epic and elegiac elements.

Callimachean poetics

The awareness of being the creator of individual choices that the further they move away from traditional poetics, the more valuable they are and one of the cornerstones of this poetics is the aversion to composition in long-winded verses and the preference for a short and stylistically light poem.
His model is Hesiod because he is the first creator of a truthful poetry, that is, inspired by the truth of content, in implicit contrast to Homer.
A fundamental requirement for Callimachus is the aristocratic exclusivity of poetry, he declares that he does not like poetry that meets the easy taste of the masses, the learned and erudite character constitutes in itself the elitist aspect.
Callimachus also claims the freedom to practice different forms of poetry following his personal creativity, he sees in his poetic product an art with its own rules and characteristics.
the etiological taste is a trait of his poetics: etiological compositions appear in the Aition, the Iambics, the Hymns and the Hecale

Language and style

Callimachean poetic language follows the Homeric tradition but with copious and evident innovative elements: his hexameter involves new rules and greater rigidity compared to the Homeric one, in Callimachus’ language he adds forms of the koinè with experimental taste and in the Iambs also dialectal elements.