Section 4: The Spread of Hellenistic Culture

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Section 4 The Spread of Hellenistic Culture

• The Changing Hellenistic society created by
  Alexander the Great produced great achievements
  in the arts and sciences. Hellenistic
  philosophers and scientists learned a great deal
  about the natural world using very simple tools.
  The scientist and inventor Archimedes displayed
  this new confidence in his famous saying, Give
  me a lever and a place to stand on and I will
  move the earth.

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I. Learning and Commerce

• The conquests of Alexander the Great spread
• Greek culture to Egypt, Southwest Asia, and
• India

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I. Learning and Commerce
Trade routes linked the Hellenistic world and
connected to China, India, and Arabia
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I. Learning and Commerce
Many cities built by Alexander became centers of
learning and trade
The great library of Alexandria made Egypt one of
the most important centers of learning in the
ancient world. The library formed part of the
research unit that is known as the Museum, or
Alexandrian Museum. The library and museum were
both destroyed in A.D. 200 during a civil war.
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I. Learning and Commerce
Education spread and new values brought freer
lifestyles - women won new rights
Greek Women at the public fountain
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II. Religion and Philosophy
As the concept of the polis declined, many people
turned to new religions and philosophies
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II. Religion and Philosophy
As kings encouraged ruler-worship, the peoples
role of duty to the polis was replaced by duty
the monarch
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II. Religion and Philosophy
Some turned to mystery religions which gave a
sense of unity, self-worth, and security
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II. Religion and Philosophy
Others turned to one of the four chief schools of
philosophy in search of understanding
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II. Religion and Philosophy
The Cynics taught that people should live simply,
without seeking pleasure, wealth, or status
Diogenes was not known merely as one of "The Dog
Philosophers," his personal nickname was "The
Dog" and Plato referred to him as "Socrates gone
mad." He denied all physical wealth and pleasure
he lived in a barrel and his only possessions
were a robe to cover himself and a walking stick.
He used to stroll through the Agora with a torch
at full daylight. When asked about it, he would
answer "I am just looking for an honest man".
Diogenes of Sinope
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II. Religion and Philosophy
Followers of Skepticism, founded by Pyrrho,
believed that all knowledge is uncertain because
the world is always changing
The skeptics were a group of philosophers who
questioned whether it was possible to arrive at
the truth.  There were two main schools - The
Academics were a group of skeptics living around
the time of Plato (3rd century BC) who took their
starting point from Socrates' dictum, "All I can
know is that I know nothing." They argued that
there is no way to distinguish between true
perceptions and illusions.  The only thing that
human beings could have certainty about was that
they couldn't be certain of anything. The
Pyrrhonians were even more extreme, denying that
human beings could have any certainty at
all...even about  the impossibility of certainty
itself.
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II. Religion and Philosophy
Stoic philosophy, established by Zeno, believes
divine reason directs the world, so people should
accept their fate without complaint
Zeno taught in Athens at the Stoa Poecile Greek
painted porch his followers therefore came to
be known as Stoics, and his school as the
Porch. He said that nature had given man two
ears and one mouth, which meant that one should
listen twice as much as one should speak
Zeno of Citium
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II. Religion and Philosophy
Epicurean philosophy taught that the aim of life
is to avoid pain and seek pleasure - one could
avoid suffering by limiting desires
Epicurus taught that the point of all one's
actions was to attain pleasure (conceived of as
tranquility) for oneself, and that this could be
done by limiting one's desires and by banishing
the fear of the gods and of death.
Epicurus 341-270 BCE
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III. Mathematics and Physics
Euclid helped develop geometry by showing how
geometric statements flow logically
Euclid 325BC-265BC
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III. Mathematics and Physics
Archimedes calculated the value of pi (p),
explained how levers work and invented the
Archimedes screw and compound pulley
"Give me a place to stand and rest my lever on,
and I can move the Earth."
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IV. Medicine
Alexandria, Egypt was the center of medicine and
doctors learned to examine and catalog parts of
the human body
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IV. Medicine
Herophilus is known as the father of anatomy and
concluded that the brain is the center of the
nervous system
Herophilus was born in 335 B.C. and died in 280
B.C. He was the first to base his conclusions on
dissection of the human body. He distinguished
the motor from the sensory nerves and accurately
described the eye, brain, liver, and pancreas and
the salivary and genital organs. He was first to
recognize that the arteries contain blood, not
air. His works, which include commentaries on
Hippocrates and a treatise on anatomy, were lost.
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V. Astronomy and Geography
In astronomy, scientists used geometry to track
the movements of stars and planets
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V. Astronomy and Geography
Aristarchus believed that the earth and planets
moved around the sun
Aristarchus figured out how to measure the
distances to and sizes of the Sun and the Moon.
Because he deduced that the Sun was so much
bigger than the moon, he concluded that the Earth
must therefore revolve around the Sun
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V. Astronomy and Geography
Hipparchus used trigonometry to predict eclipses
and calculate the length of the year
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V. Astronomy and Geography
Eratosthenes calculated the distance around the
earth by finding the angle of the suns rays from
different points