The Hellenistic Culture or Hellenism was the result of the fusion of elements of Greek Hellenic culture with Western culture, standing out with original and striking elements, which characterized the regions conquered by the Empire of Alexander the Great.
Hellas, a region between central and northern Greece, whose inhabitants, the Hellenes, lent their name to the Hellenistic civilization, which spread throughout the East, through not only a common language (koine ) but also through the practices of education, crafts, commerce and sculpture.
During 13 years Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) conquered Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia and reached India.
With Macedonia and Greece, these regions formed the largest known empire. Its conquests favored the emergence of a new culture inherited from the Greek, but different from it by the enormous dosage of oriental elements - called "Hellenistic Culture" or "Hellenism".
To learn more about other aspects of Hellenism besides culture, see:Hellenistic Period - Hellenism.
Art in Hellenistic Culture
Hellenism was characterized by presenting a more realistic art, expressing violence and pain, constant components of the new times of war.
Hellenistic Culture replaced the classical conception that "man is the measure of all things" with monumentalism, pessimism, negativism and relativism.
The main centers of diffusion of the values of Hellenism and Hellenistic Culture were:Alexandria (Egypt), Pergamum (Asia Minor) and the island of Rhodes, in the Aegean Sea.
Hellenism developed an architecture where luxury and grandeur prevailed, due to the majesty of the Macedonian Empire. Alexandria had numerous public and private buildings, marble palaces and temples, highlighting its monumental Library of Alexandria, with thousands of papyri.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, located opposite the city, on the Island of Pharos, and the Altar of Pergamum dedicated to Zeus (reconstituted in the Royal Museum in Berlin).
Hellenistic Culture stood out in the art of Sculpture, with its monumental works, among them, Laocoon and its children (Vatican Museum, Rome), the Venus de Milo, sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite, found on the Isle of Milo (Louvre Museum, Paris) and the Water Bearer (Capitoline Museum, Rome).
Philosophy in Hellenistic Culture
In Philosophy , Hellenism gave rise to new philosophical currents, such as:
- Stoicism:founded by Zeno of Cition, it defended happiness as an inner balance, in which it offered man the possibility to accept, with serenity, pain and pleasure, happiness and misfortune.
- Epicureanism:founded by Epicurus of Samos, who preached the attainment of pleasure, the basis of human happiness, and advocated alienation from the negative aspects of life.
- Skepticism:founded by Pyrrhus, characterized by negativism and defended that happiness consists in not judging anything, despised material things because it affirmed that all human knowledge is relative.
Science in Hellenistic Culture
In Mathematics of Hellenism, Euclid and Archimedes, who developed Geometry, stood out. Euclid used Geometry in his Physics studies. Physics (mechanics) also deserved special attention by Archimedes, making possible the invention of new weapons of attack and defense.
In Astronomy Aristarchus and Hipparchus stood out in their attempt to measure the diameter of the Earth and the distances of our planet from the Sun and Moon. Aristarchus launched the heliocentric hypothesis, that is, that the earth and planets revolved around the Sun, which was not accepted at the time.
The division of the Macedonian Empire that followed the death of Alexander and the successive internal struggles, resulted in political weakening, which made possible the Roman conquest, carried out during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. However, even conquering Greece, Rome had to bow to the splendor of Hellenistic Culture.