Art in the Hellenic world is what we recognize as Greek art today. It embodied exuberance, cheerful sensuality, and coarse with. Marble statues and reliefs depicted human greatness and sensuality.
A notable achievement is the rise in architecture of the Doric and Ionic columns. In the Hellenistic world, art became less "art" and more "commodity. Sculpture of the period emphasize extreme naturalism and unashamed extravagance, rather than the former idyllic beauties and perfect Davids. The arts of this time were supported by many wealthy patrons, who used art for show rather than pursue it for its own pleasure.
The architecture of this period also reflected the inherent materialism of art, emphasizing grandeur and luxuriance. However, some architectural achievements include the first lighthouse, the citadel of Alexandria, and the Corinthian column.
The Hellenic world witnessed the birth of many of the world's most well-known ancient scientists and theories. In astronomy, Thales predicted a solar eclipse. In math, Pythagorean invented his theorem.
Aristotle engaged in metaphysics and syllogism. It was science as we know it today: systematic investigation coupled with rational inquiry, in the pursuit of the truths of the universe. In medicine, many scientists used philosophy rather than science. Most "doctors" considered that regularities divorced from supernatural causes created illness and health i.
However, this period also witnessed the achievements of Hippocrates, who is considered the "father" of modern medicine and invented the practice of bleeding patients to release the toxins.
The Hellenistic world, unlike its faults in many of the other arts, actually built upon the foundation laid by Hellenic scientists. Considered the First Great Age of science, intellectual inquiry was supported by wealthy patrons who helped the sciences to thrive.
The elements of geometry, physiology, and Archimedes' principle of specific gravity are only few of the many achievements of the period. In medicine, achievements also continued: including describing the brain, determining pulse and its meaning, and determining that the arteries only contain blood. Religion in the Hellenic world derived from the debates of philosophers. There were debates over the goals of existence, which mostly led to some kind of intellectual cultivation and the search for the highest good.
The Ancient Greek pantheon of gods had been developed by this time, but the nature of the pantheon left humans able to question and debate the significance of the gods and their actions. The Hellenistic period witnessed some major developments in religion.
Zoroastrianism arose as one of the first documented monotheistic religions, with Ahura-Mazda as the single god and the intercession of magi priests on earth. Mystery cults also permeated the period, stressing ecstatic mystical union and otherworldly salvation. Customer: An excellent object, certainly. But what is your particular branch of knowledge? What is the art which you profess? Diogenes: I am the liberator of mankind, and the healer of the passions.
In a word, I profess myself the apostle of truth and plain speaking. Customer: Well, apostle, if I buy you, what will be your method of teaching me? Diogenes: First, I will take you and strip off your habits of luxury, and immediately confine you to poverty, and put a ragged cloak upon you. Then I will force you to toil and labor, to sleep on the ground, to drink nothing but water, and eat anything that comes to hand; and if you have any money, you will throw it into the sea at my bidding.
You must care nothing for wife, or children, or country; all such things must be empty vanity in your eyes. You will leave your father's house, and live in some tomb or deserted tower, or even, perhaps, in a tub. Your wallet will be full of lupines, and parchments covered with writing on both sides. In this condition you will declare that you live in more happiness and enjoyment than any Eastern ruler; and if anyone should whip or torture you, you are not to look on this as anything painful or distressing.
Customer: What do you mean? Not feel pain if I am beaten! My good man, do you think I have a shell like a tortoise or a lobster? Diogenes: You can adapt that verse by Euripides, you know, and make it your own [i. Your way of speaking must be rude, and your voice discordant and disagreeable like a dog's; your face must look harsh and rigid, and your gait must match it; in short, your whole manner and appearance must be brute-like and boorish.
As for modesty, or decency, or moderation—away with anything of the sort —such a thing as a blush you must utterly banish from your face. Then you must seek out the most frequented places, and when you are there, make a point of being solitary and unsociable; you must let neither friend nor stranger approach you, for that sort of thing is the rain of your dominion.
Then you must boldly do in public what most people would be ashamed to do in private; your love affairs, again, must be of the most ridiculous character; and in the end you may die, if you like, by choking yourself with a raw octopus or a squid. This is the life of happiness to which I will introduce you. Customer: Be off with you! This system of yours is absolutely revolting and unnatural.
Diogenes: All the same, it is an easy one, my good man, and anybody can easily shine in it. You see, you don't need culture, or learning, or rubbish of that sort; so it is a fine short cut to distinction.
Even supposing you are absolutely without education—-a tanner, say, or a salt-fish huckster, or a carpenter, or a money-changer—there nothing to prevent your gaining fame and admiration, only you have shamelessness and brazen impudence, and a happy knack of indiscriminate abuse.
Customer: Well, I 'm afraid I can make no use of you as an instructor. But perhaps someday you would do as a boatman or an under-gardener; and if they will sell you for two obols, I will give that for you, but no more. Hermes: Please, take him on any terms you like. We are quite glad to get rid of him; he is so troublesome, roaring and shouting and insulting everybody all round, and calling us all names.
Hermes: Now, Epicurus, I'll call you. Who'll buy this one? He is a disciple of that laughing fellow there [i. His knowledge is superior to theirs in one point however, for he is more of an unbeliever.
As for his other qualities, I may say he is a pleasant companion and a great lover of good living. Customer: There you are, but, by the way, you might let me know what he likes best to eat? Hermes: Oh, anything sweet and tasting like honey. Figs in particular. Customer: Well, there is no difficulty about that. I will get him slabs of those cheap pressed figs from Caria. Zeus: Now call up another, that one with the cropped head, I mean the ugly-looking fellow that came from the Painted Porch, you know.
Hermes: That is a good idea, for I think quite a number of people have come here on purpose to buy him, and are only waiting till we come to him. Now, gentlemen, here is the choicest and most perfect lot of all. I offer you Virtue itself for sale—nothing less. Who wants to have all knowledge for his sole possession? Hermes: I mean that you have before you the only wise man.
He alone is handsome, just, or noble; he is the only true king, orator, rich man, lawgiver, or anything else. Customer: Then am I to understand that he is also the only true cook? By Jove, perhaps he is also the one leather worker or carpenter, and, in short, the one tradesman of any kind? Customer: Well, come now, my good man, since I propose to buy you, tell me what sort of person you are, and in the first place whether you do not bitterly resent being put up for sale as a slave?
Not at all. These things are not in our power, and if a thing is not in our power, it follows that it is a matter of indifference,. Chrysippus: What? Don't you understand that of such things some are relatively preferable, while others, again, are the reverse? Chrysippus: Very likely you don't, because you are not accustomed to our phraseology, and, moreover, you lack the faculty of apprehension. But the virtuous man, and he who has mastered the theory of logic, not only knows all this, but can also tell the nature of symbama and parasymbama, and how they differ from one another.
Customer: Dear me! I beg you, in the name of philosophy herself, do not refuse to tell me one thing more. What exactly are symbama and parasymbama? Somehow I find an extraordinary charm in the mere sound of these two words. Chrysippus: I will tell you with pleasure. Suppose a lame man would strike his lame foot against a stone, and so receive a wound. Then his lameness is a symbama, and the wound he gets in addition is a parasymbama. Customer: Heavens, what extraordinary acuteness of mind!
What other wonderful things do you know? Chrysippus: I understand the art of weaving meshes of words in which I entangle those who converse with me, and hedge them in. In fact, I reduce them to silence by fairly muzzling them. The means by which I accomplish this is the famous device of the Syllogism. Customer: Good gracious, what an irresistible and powerful instrument! Chrysippus: Suppose a crocodile were to catch him playing around a river bank and carry him off, and then promise to return him to you on condition that you guess correctly what he really means to do, that is, whether to give back the child or not.
What would you say he had determined on? Customer: That is a hard question. Indeed, I am at a loss to see how I could possibly answer. Please, in Heaven's name, answer for me and save my child, otherwise the crocodile will eat him up before the answer is given. Still, I think I will buy you. How much do you want for him? Hermes: The Sceptic here. You, Pyrrho, come out and let me put you up for sale.
Look sharp, for the attendance is getting thin, and there will only be a few to offer. Well, gentlemen, which of you will buy this lot? Pyrrho: I mean that I do not feel certain that anything has any existence. Customer: My goodness! But what have you got these scales for? Pyrrho: I weigh the arguments on both sides of a question in them. When I see they are exactly alike, and equally poised, then I find myself absolutely uncertain as to which of them contains the truth.
Customer: But how about ordinary things? Is there anything else you can do? Customer: That's likely enough since you do look a bit dull and slow. But to what is the aim of your teaching tend? Pyrrho: Yes, and to being without judgment, or perception, and, in fact, to differ in no respect from an earthworm.
Customer: Well, this certainly makes you worth buying. How much is he supposed to be worth? Customer: Here it is. Well, friend, what do you say? Have I bought you or not? Pyrrho: I must suspend my judgment on that point, and make inquiry into it. Customer: The salesman there, and the mina I paid, and all here present?
Customer: I'll send you to the grinding mill this very day, and convince you by that argument that your master really does exists. Hermes: Now then, give up resisting, and go with your purchaser. Gentlemen, we invite you to attend again tomorrow, when we will offer a miscellaneous assortment of uneducated persons, mechanics and other ordinary people of that sort.
Introduction: Most philosophers of the ancient world believed in some type of divine being or spiritual realm, even if their conceptions were not entirely traditional. An exception to this, though, was Epicurus and his followers who held to a strictly materialistic view of the cosmos that ruled out human and divine spirits.
The selections below on this subject are by the Roman Epicurean philosopher Lucretius c. Come now, that you may be able to learn that the minds and the light souls of living things have birth and death, I will hurry to present verses long sought out and found with willing effort, worthy to guide your life.
It is your choice to link both of these in a single name, and when, to choose a case, I continue to speak of the soul, proving that it is mortal, suppose that I speak of mind as well, inasmuch as they are at one each with the other and compose a single thing. First of all, I have shown that the soul is finely made of tiny bodies and of first-beginnings [i. For, it far surpasses them in speed of motion, and is more prone to move when struck by some slight cause.
For indeed the soul is moved by images of smoke and cloud. Even when dreaming in sleep, we see altars breathing steam on high, and sending up their smoke. Undoubtedly, these are image particles eidola that are carried to us.
Now, when containers are shattered, you see the water flowing away on every side, and the liquid parting this way and that, and since cloud and smoke disperse into air. For indeed, the body, which was the container of the soul, so to speak, cannot hold it together, when by some chance it is shattered and made thinner, since the blood is withdrawn from the veins. How, then, could you believe that the soul could be held together by any air, which is thinner than our body and can contain it less?
Further [and secondly], we feel that the understanding is created along with the body, and grows together with it, and along with it comes to old age. For as children totter with feeble and tender body, so a weak judgement of mind goes with it. Then when their years are ripe and their strength hardened, greater is their sense and increased their force of mind. Afterward, when now the body is shattered by the stern strength of time, and the frame has sunk with its force dulled, then the reason is maimed, the tongue raves, the mind stumbles, everything give way and fail at once.
We see, then, that the mind is born with the body, grows with it, and, as I have shown, at the same time becomes weary and worn with age. Thus, it is natural that the entire nature of the mind should also be dissolved, just as smoke is dispersed into the high breezes of the air.
For whoever attempts to alter the mind, or seeks to change any other nature, must indeed add parts to it or transfer them from their order, or take away some small piece at least from the whole. But what is immortal does not permit its parts to be transposed, nor that any part should be added or depart from it.
For whenever a thing changes and passes out of its own limits, immediately this is the death of that which was before. So whether the mind is sick, it gives signs of its mortality, as I have proved, or whether it is changed by medicine. So surely is true fact seen to run counter to false reasoning, and to shut off retreat from him who flees, and with double-edged refutation to prove the falsehood. What cause has spread the notion of the existence and power of the gods across the wide nations of the earth?
This notion has filled cities with altars and led solemn sacred rites to be instituted which rites now flourish and are performed on all important occasions and in all distinguished places. This terror pervades mortals, a terror which raises new temples of the deities throughout the whole globe of the earth, and drives men to celebrate their worship on feast days. It is not so difficult, as it may seem, to explain. In those early times of which we speak, the tribes of mortals saw in their minds, even when awake, glorious images as of gods, and saw them even more distinctly in their sleep, and of an extraordinary size.
To these, therefore, they attributed life, because they seemed to move their limbs, and to utter majestic words, suitable to their distinguished appearance and mighty strength. They also assigned to them an immortal existence, because their appearances came in constant succession, and their form remained the same. But they might certainly have believed them immortal for another reason. They might have considered that beliefs, possessing such apparent strength, could not easily be overpowered by any destructive force.
They thought of the gods as perfectly happy, because the fear of death could not trouble any of them. Also, in their dreams they saw them do many and extraordinary actions, and it seemed that they experienced no difficulty when performing them. Further, they observed the revolutions of the heavens, and the various seasons of the year, go around in a certain order. Yet they could not understand by what causes these effects were produced.
Thus, they would seek a refuge by handing over all things to the gods and supposing all things to be guided by their will. They placed the homes and realms of the gods in the sky, because night and moon are seen to roll through heaven.
That is, moon, day, night, the grand constellations of night, the nightly luminaries of the heavens, the flying meteors, the clouds, the sun, the rain, the snow, the winds, lightning, hail, and the violent noise and loud threatening murmurs of the thunder. But observe how the race of men are unhappy when, in addition to attributing such acts to the gods, they also ascribe bitter wrath to them.
What sorrow did they then create for themselves, and what sufferings for us! What fears have they passed down to later generations! Further, there is nothing pious for a man to be seen with his head veiled, turning towards a stone, and drawing near to every altar; or to fall face down on the ground, and to stretch out his hands before the shrines of the gods; or to sprinkle the altars with the profuse blood of four-footed animals, and to add vows upon vows.
Rather, it is piety to be able to look at all things with a mind at peace. We may look up to the celestial regions of the vast world above, and contemplate the night sky studded with glittering stars, and reflect upon the revolutions of the sun and moon. When we do this, an anxiety might awaken within our hearts about the possibility that an almighty power of the gods is above us, which guides the stars in their various motions an anxiety that might have otherwise remained buried under the weight of other worries.
Lack of reasoning, and ignorance of natural causes, upsets our minds with doubts about whether there was any birth or beginning to the world, or whether there is any limit of time until which the walls of the world, and the silent movements of the heavenly bodies, can endure its continuous activity; or whether the heavens, divinely endowed with an imperishable nature, can, as they roll along time's eternal course, defy the mighty power of endless age.
Besides, whose heart does not shrink at the terrors of the gods? Whose limbs do not shudder with dread, when the scorched earth shakes with the terrible flash of lightning, and when the roars of thunder fill the vast sky?
Do not people and nations tremble? Do not proud rulers, filled with fear of the deities, quiver in every nerve, in the event that the dreaded time may come to pay the penalty for some foul action, or arrogant word?
Consider likewise when the mighty force of a furious wind, raging over the sea, sweeps the commander of a fleet over the waters, along with his powerful legions and elephants.
Does he not seek with vows the peace of the gods, and fearfully implore them with prayers for a lull in the winds and a favorable breeze? Unfortunately, he implores them to no purpose. Frequently, seized by a violent hurricane, he is nevertheless swept away to the shoals of death. Thus some unseen power, apparently, bears upon human things, and seems to trample down proud symbols of authority, and make them merely a sport for itself. Further, when the whole earth totters under our feet, and cities, shaken to their foundation, fall or threaten to fall, what wonder is it, that the nations of the world despise and humble themselves, and admit the vast influence of the gods over the world, and their stupendous power to govern all things?
Please answer all of the following questions. For Epicurus, what are the three kinds of natural desires, and which kind best brings about happiness? Explain the Stoic metaphor of rolling a barrel down a hill and how this applies to the issue of free will.
According to Epictetus the Stoic, which types of things are within our control? According to Sextus Empiricus the Skeptic, how does skepticism lead to tranquility? For Plotinus, what are the three parts of the divine triad, and what does each of them create?
According to Plotinus, how do we gain the proper eyesight to see the beauty of the One? According to Lucretius, what are some of the naturalistic and psychological explanations for why people believe in the gods? Short essay: pick any one of the following views in this chapter and criticize it in a minimum of words.
Cynics: defying social convention. Epicureans: atoms in a vacuum; free will and the slight swerve; death is nothing to us; not fearing the gods; pleasure through moderation. Stoics: the law of bivalence; the eternal recurrence; resigning oneself to fate. Skeptics: tranquility through suspension of judgment; balancing competing arguments; moral relativism.
Neoplatonists: the One as undifferentiated unity; reality as emanations from the One; evil as the absence of good; the human soul returning to the divine nature. Hipparchia the Female Cynic While women were members of all philosophical schools, living on the street like a homeless bum was for the most part a guy thing among the early Cynics.
Epicurus describes the basic features of the atoms here: The atoms are in a continual state of motion. This claim drew criticism from other early philosophers, such as the following by the Roman eclectic philosopher Cicero, who felt that there is no place in science for an uncaused event: The swerving is itself an arbitrary fiction; for Epicurus says the atoms swerve without cause. His solution is that free will is the result of the slight swerve: What causes this free will for living things all over the earth?
Image-Particles and Perception Like the earlier Atomists, Epicurus held that the human mind is a purely physical thing, constructed of atoms, and that perception results from image-particles peeling off of objects and hitting our sense organs. Epicurus describes the way in which image-particles fly off objects into the surrounding air: There are image-particles whose shapes resemble the solid bodies which we see, but are much thinner than them.
As they shed from objects, they are immediately replaced with others and thus do not trim down the objects themselves: One must not forget that the production of the image-particles is as rapid as thought. However, Epicurus believes that the image-particle is a much better explanation of perception: It is difficult to conceive that external objects can affect us through the medium of the air which is between us and them, or by means of rays, whatever emissions proceed from us to them, so as to give us an impression of their form and color.
The gods, he says, are entirely different than how people commonly imagine them: We know there are Gods, since we have distinct knowledge of them. He writes, Accustom yourself to think that death is a matter that should not concern us. He writes, When we say that pleasure is the chief good, we are not speaking of the pleasures of the degenerate person, or those which involve sensual enjoyment, as some think who are ignorant or oppose our opinions, or else distort them.
Stoic philosophers offered various analogies to explain how these three parts are related, such as these: They compare philosophy to an animal, likening logic to the bones and sinews, physics to the fleshy parts, and ethical philosophy to the soul.
Logic: Conviction, Connectives, Argument Forms There are many elements to Stoic logic, but we will examine three particularly interesting ones.
Zeno picturesquely explained the different degrees of conviction by slowly clenching his fist, as described here: Zeno illustrated this by the action of his hand. This short sentence contains an argument and, according to the Stoics, the underlying structure of it is this: If Plato is alive then Plato must be breathing.
Physics: God and Fate Stoic theories of physics and cosmology are as detailed as any accounts offered by Epicurus, Aristotle, or the Presocratics.
A short summary of the Stoic position on cosmology is this: The Stoics teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind, and Fate, and Jupiter, and by many other names besides. One Stoic philosopher explicitly used the law of bivalence as a proof that all things are fated: Now, every proposition is either true or false.
Ethics: Natural Law and Free Will The central theme of Stoic ethics is to live according to nature and resign oneself to what is fated in the world around us. To live ethically, then, is to live according to this ordering principle as it appears in both human nature and nature as a whole: In his treatise On Human Nature , Zeno was the first writer who said that the chief good was to live according to nature.
Another part of this, though, involves following the laws of human society, for the ordering principle of the cosmos is so thorough that it even shapes human laws: This also means doing none of those things which the common law of humankind typically forbid. Ultimately, it is through the use of our human reason that we discover the rational law in nature, ourselves, and society: We are to do everything in such a way that the capacity of each individual is in harmony with respect to the will of the universal governor and administrator of all things.
One Stoic philosopher explained this with the following analogy: It is like a man who pushing a cylinder gives it a principle of motion, but not immediately that of revolution.
Epictetus: Accepting what we Cannot Control This understanding of free will leads to the third component of Stoic ethics, namely, that we should adjust our attitudes to accept the things outside of us over which we have no control. He makes this important distinction here: Some things are in our control and others not.
He answers this with an analogy of a broken cup: With regard to whatever objects give you delight, are useful, or are deeply loved, remember to tell yourself of what nature they are, beginning from the most insignificant things. Wait until it is your turn to be served, and try to ignore what other people are getting: Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Epictetus writes, Consider when someone has learned to understand the government of the universe and has realized that there is nothing so great or powerful or all-inclusive as this frame of things wherein humans and God are united, and that from it come the seeds from which are sprung not only my own father or grandfather, but all things that are born and that grow upon earth, and rational creatures in particular; for these alone are by nature designed to share in the community of God, being connected with Him by the bond of reason.
Skepticism and Tranquility Sextus argues that there are essentially three kinds of philosophies. He defines true skepticism as follows: Skepticism is an ability to place appearances in opposition to judgments in any way whatever. Sextus writes, Suspension of judgment occurs by placing things in opposition to each other. The Ten Methods Early on in the development of Pyrrhonian skepticism, philosophers of this school formulated different arguments to show that everything imaginable can and should be doubted.
Sextus lists the ten Methods here: Certain Methods were commonly handed down by the older Skeptics, by means of which suspension of judgment seems to take place. More formally, the argument structure here is this: 1 An object appears to have quality X to a dog. For example, Method two regarding the differences between people is this: 1 An object appears to have quality X to me. The sculptures were static with little or no motion at all, the bodies were mostly rigid.
Emotionless figures with no expression in the eyes or face can be noticed in almost every figure. The Discuss Thrower is one of the examples of this period. Art is an expression that speaks ounces of the times lived, it encapsulates the whole essence of life at that point of that. The reflection of society can be seen through art and it comes with the power to influence the minds even after centuries.
The evolution of art forms can be observed through the two periods in Greek art history, Classical art, and Hellenistic art, one continued the other. The Classical period saw the rise in sculptures of godly, idealized figures.
It started in the 5th century BC and the style kept on evolving, the faces were with blank expressions and the body postures were static. The Hellenistic period saw advancement in sculpture making, the subjects were inspired by common people from different strata from the then society, the style was naturalistic and dynamic, the subjects exhibited emotions in the face as well. The Hellenic period saw the rising and falling of the polis while Hellenistic period was plagued by warfare among the remaining dynasties.
In this greatly expanded Greek world, Hellenistic art and culture emerged and flourished. This culminated at the Battle of Corinth in BC, a crushing Roman victory in the Peloponnese that led to the destruction of Corinth and ushered in the period of Roman Greece. Hellenistic Greece. Upload; Login; Signup; Submit Search. Throughout history there have been many great empires, but … Current Page: Home Shop. Travel lovers spend each vacation in different parts of the globe so they can experience diverse cultures, lands and people on this fantastic planet.
Chapter 4 Quiz 26 Terms. The Hellenic Age is significantly different from the Hellenistic Age. The verb forms in Koine are more regular. Custom Jewelry. SlideShare Explore Search You. Hellenistic Greece is the historical period of the country following Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in BC and the annexation of the classical Greek Achaean League heartlands by the Roman Republic.
This all comes from the Ancient Greek word Hellas, which was the original term to refer to what is now called Greece. The new civilization was a mixture of Greek … So remember Hellenic Greece is ancient Greece and Hellenistic Greece is … It operates as an interdisciplinary hub of the University abroad that links the Harvard community to local academic institutions, authorities and other organizations and communities, uniting the humanistic pursuits of its twin institution, CHS in Washington, DC CHS US , with the homeland of Hellenism.
The Hellenic and Hellenistic age both represent the golden age of ancient Greece also known as the Classic Greek period. Describes Hellenistic Greek Culture, includng aesthetics, philosophy, and intellectual history.
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