Social, Cultural, and
Economic Life of the
Hellenistic World
April 4th, 2012
What Stays the Same
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Agriculture the mainstay of economic life.
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Slave labour common.
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Majority of populations lived in rural villages
engaged in subsistence agriculture.
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In rural regions outside Greece and Macedon
indigenous culture, language etc. continues as
usual.
What Changes
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Employment opportunities increase (i.e. military service; Royal
bureaucracies).
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Increasingly mobile populations (i.e. Opportunities for colonists; people
travel in search of work).
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Increasing prominence of women in the records; increasing opportunities
and greater gender equality.
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Social and political status determined in part by ethnicity.
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Greater cultural heterogeneity.
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Changes and opportunities found mainly in urban centers.
Hellenistic Culture is Urban Culture
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Cities = centers of hellenization.
Ptolemaic and Seleucid urban centers =
cultural crossroads where Greek meets
non-Greek.
Centers of trade.
Opportunities for conspicuous displays of
royal wealth and prestige.
Alexandria.
Strabo’s Description of Alexandria
(ca. 27 CE)
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“The site of Alexandria is advantageous for many reasons. For the city is bounded
by two seas, on the north by the so-called Egyptian Sea and on the south by Lake
Mareia, which is also called Mareotis. The Nile fills Lake Mareia through many
canals from both the south and the sides. Through these canals many more goods
are brought to Alexandria than arrive from the sea, and by it more goods are
exported from Alexandria than are imported into the city…Alexandria has many fine
public precincts and palaces, which occupy a fourth or even a third of the city’s
whole perimeter; for just as each of the kings added some adornment to its public
monuments, so each added his own residence to those already existing so that, in
the words of Homer, “one was on top of another.” All the palaces are connected to
each other and to the harbor, including those outside the harbor. The Museum forms
one portion of the palaces. It has a walkway, an arcade wit benches, and a large
building in which is located a dining hall of the scholars who belong to the Museum.
The faculty has both property in common and a priest, who was in charge of the
Museum and was formerly appointed by the kings and is now by Caesar (Augustus).
Also part of the palace complex is the building called the Sema, which is a circular
structure in which are the tombs of the kings and that of Alexander.” (Strabo,
Geography 17.7-8. Nagle & Burstein, 2007. pp. 272-3).
Social Status and Ethnicity
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Greece and Macedon ethnically homogeneous.
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Ptolemaic and Seleucid kingdoms more ethnically diverse.
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Colonial societies (i.e. Greco-Macedonian ruling class and
indigenous subjects).
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Certain degree of cultural tolerance.
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Evidence of substantial ethno-cultural discrimination and
tension.
The Synagogue of Alexandria
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“It has been taught, R. Judah stated. He who has not seen the double
colonnade of Alexandria in Egypt has never seen the glory of Israel. It was
said that it was like a huge basilica, one colonnade within the other, and it
sometimes held twice the number of people that went forth from Egypt.
There were in seventy-one cathedra [sc. Thrones] of gold, corresponding to
the seventy-one members of the Great Sanhedrin, not one of them
containing less than twenty-one talents of gold, and a wooden platform in
the middle upon which the attendant of the Synagogue stood with a scarf in
his hand. When the time came to answer Amen [sc. After the reader had
finished a prayer] he waved his scarf and all the congregation duly
responded. They moreover did not occupy their seats promiscuously, but
goldsmiths sat separately, metalworkers separately and weavers
separately, so that when a poor man entered the place he recognized the
members of his craft and on applying to that quarter obtained a livelihood
for himself and for the members of his family.” (Tractate Sukkha. Nagle &
Burstein, 2007. 290-91)
Cultural Heterogeneity:
Inscription in Praise of Isis
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“Demetrios, the son of Artemidoros, who is called Thraseas,
a Magnesian from Magnesia on the Maeander, an offering in
fulfillment of a vow to Isis. He transcribed the following from
the stele in Memphis which stands by the temple of
Hephaistos: I am Isis, the tyrant of every land; and I was
educated by Hermes, and together with Hermes I invented
letters, both the Hieroglyphic and the demotic…I am the
eldest daughter of Kronos. I am the wife and sister of King
Osiris. I am she who discovered the cultivation of grain for
men. I am the mother of King Horos…Languages I assigned
to Greeks and Barbarians…Hail Egypt who reared me.” (I.G.
12.14. Nagle & Burstein, 2007. pp. 281-2)
An Akkadian Cuneiform Decree of
Antiochus I at Borsippa (268 BCE)
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“I am Antiochus, the great king, the legitimate king, the king of the
world, the king of Babylon, king of all countries, the caretaker of the
temples Esagila and Ezida, the first (born) son of King Seleucus,
the Macedonian, king of Babylon. When I conceived of the idea of
(re)constructing Esagila and Ezida, I formed with my august hands
(when I was still) in the country of Hatti the first brick for Esagila and
Ezida with finest oil and brought it (with me) for the laying of the
foundation of Esagila and Ezida….O Nebo, lofty son, (most) wise
among the gods, splendid and worthy of praise, first-born son of
Marduk, child of Arua, the queen who fashioned all creation, do
look friendly upon me and may – upon your lofty command which is
never revoked – the overthrow of the country of my enemy….” (J.B.
Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old
Testament, 1969: 317. M.M. Austin, Doc. 189)
Letter of Complaint to Zenon from an Egyptian:
Papyrus (ca. 256-255 BCE)
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“…to Zenon greetings. You do well if you are keeping in good health. You
know that you left me in Syria with Crotus and that I carried out all of the
instructions with the camels and that I was blameless towards you. And when
you ordered to pay me my salary (Crotus) gave me nothing of what you had
ordered. And when I requested many times that Crotus should give me my
salary you had ordered but he gave me nothing at all and told me to go away, I
held out for a long time waiting for you, but when I ran out of necessities and
was unable to obtain these from any source, I was compelled to run away to
Syrian to avoid dying of hunger. I have therefore written to you to inform you
that Crotus is responsible. And when you sent me again to Philadelphia to
Jason, and I did everything I was told to, for nine months now he gives me
nothing of what you ordered, neither oil nor grain, except every two months
when he also pays (the allowance for) clothing. And I am in distress summer
and winter. And he tells me to accept ordinary wine for salary. But they have
treated me with contempt because I am a Barbarian. I therefore request you, if
you please, to order them to let me have what is owed to me and in future to
pay me regularly, so that I do not die of hunger because I do not know how to
speak Greek (hellenizein). You would therefore do well to treat me with
respect….”(P. Col. 66. M.M. Austin, Doc. 245)
Ethnic Tensions
Antiochus IV Tries to Hellenize the Jews
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“Shortly afterwards the king sent an old Athenian to compel the Jews to depart from the laws of
their fathers and to cease living by the laws of God; further, the sanctuary in Jerusalem was to be
polluted and called after Zeus Olympius, while the sanctuary at Gerizim was also to be called
after Zeus Xenius….Now this proved to be an altogether crushing visitation of evil. For the
Heathen filled the temple with riot and reveling, dallying with harlots and lying with women inside
the sacred precincts, besides bringing in what was forbidden, while the altar was filled with
abominable sacrifices which the law prohibited. A man could keep neither the Sabbath, nor
celebrate the feasts of the fathers, nor so much as confess himself to be a Jew. On the king’s
birthday every month they were taken…to share in the sacrifice, and when the festival of the
Dionysia came round they were compelled to wear ivy wreaths for the procession in honor of
Dionysus. On the suggestion of Ptolemy, an edict was also issued to the neighboring Greek
cities ordering them to treat the Jews in the same way and force them to share in the sacrifices,
slaying any who refused to adopt Greek ways….Two women for example were brought up for for
having circumcised their children; they were paraded around the city, with their babies hanging at
their breasts, and then flung from the top of the wall.” (Second Macabees 4: 6.11. D.B. Nagle &
S.M. Burstein, 2006)
Women in the Hellenistic World
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Hellenistic world still largely patriarchal.
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Women more prominent in sources (survival of docs?).
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More opportunities for a public life (for upper class women) than in
Classical and Archaic periods.
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Evidence for women in professional and political life.
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Most marriages still arranged with property/business in mind.
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Increasing marriages for love; increasing availability of divorce to
women. (cf. Antiochus and Stratonice, Nagle & Burstein, pp. 298300)
Hipparchia, A Women Philosopher
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“Hipparchia, a sister of Metrocles, also fell in love with [Crates’] teachings. Both
Hipparchia and Metrocles were from the city of Maroneia. She fell in love with the words of
Crates and his life and ignored all her suitors and their wealth, noble birth and beauty.
Crates became everything to her. She went even so far as to threaten her parents that
she would kill herself if they did not betroth her Crates. Crates, therefore, who had been
urged by her parents to discourage their daughter, tried everything. Finally, not having
persuaded her, he stood up, stripped off his clothes in front of her, and said, ‘This is your
bridegroom, this is his estate, make your choice from these facts.’ For she could not be his
mate if she would not also share his manner of life. The girl chose, and assuming the
same dress as he, went around with her husband, lived with him in public, and
accompanied him to dinners. And when she had attended a drinking party hosted by King
Lysimachus, she confounded Theodorus, the man known as the Atheist, by proposing the
following sophism: Whatever would not be called wrong if done by Theodorus would also
not be wrong if done by Hipparchia. If Theodorus struck himself, he would not commit a
wrong, nor, therefore, if Hipparchia struck Theodorus, would she commit a wrong. He did
not reply to what she had said but tried instead to rip off her cloak. Hipparchia, however,
was not frightened or upset as a woman would normally be. And when he said to her, ‘Is
this the woman who abandoned the shuttle and the loom?’ She replied, ‘I am that woman,
Theodorus; but do I seem to you to have made a mistake if I devoted to education the time
I would have spent on the loom?’” (Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers 6.7.
Nagle & Burstein 2007, p. 296)
Professional Women
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Epitaph (Athens, 4th century BCE): “Phanostrate…, the wife of Miletos, midwife
and doctor, lies here. In life she caused no one pain, in death she is regreted by all.”
(IG 2.3.6873. Nagle & Burstein, 2007. 297).
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Inscription (Delphi, 86 BCE): “Since Polygnota, daughter of Sokrates, a harpist
from Thebes, was staying at Delphi at the time the Pythian games were to be held,
but because of the present war, the games were not held, on the same day she
performed without charge and contributed her services for the day; and having been
asked by the magistrates and the citizens, she played for three days and earned
great distinction in a manner worthy of the god and of the Theban people and of our
city, and we rewarded her also with five hundred drachmas; with good fortune, the
city shall praise Polygnota, daughter of Sokrates, a Theban, for her reverent attitude
toward the god and her piety and her conduct with regard to her manner of life and
art; and there shall be given by our city to her and to her descendants the status of a
proxenos, priority in consulting the oracle, priority of trial, inviolability, exemption
from taxes, a front seat at the contests which the city holds, and the right to own land
and a house, and all other honors such as belong to other proxenoi and benefactors
of the city.” (SIG 3.738. Nagle & Burstein, 2007. 297)
Phyle, Wife of Thessalos:
Inscription, Priene (1st Century BCE)
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“Phyle, daughter of Apollonios and wife of
Thessalos, the son of Polydeukes, after
having been the first woman to hold the
office of crown bearer, paid for with her
own money a cistern for water and the
water pipes in the city.” (Inschriften von
Priene 208. Nagle & Burstein, 296)
Hellenistic Literature
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Stimulated by the creation of the inaugurated
under either Ptolemy I or II.
Scholars gathered from across Greece to study
and produce works of literary scholarship.
Literary criticism.
Increasingly humanistic; more deeply
psychological and emotional.
Learned and didactic.
Bucolic literature popular.
Theocritus (fl. 3rd Century BCE), Idylls 1.
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“THYRSIS
[1] Something sweet is the whisper of the pine that makes her music by yonder
springs, and sweet no less, master Goatherd, the melody of your pipe. Pan only
shall take place and prize afore you; and if they give him a horny he-goat, then a she
shall be yours; and if a she be for him, why, you shall have her kid; and kid’s meat’s
good eating till your kids be milch-goatds.
GOATHERD
[7] As sweetly, good Shepherd, falls your music as the resounding water that gushes
down from the top o’ yonder rock. If the Muses get the ewe-lamb to their meed, you
shall carry off the cosset, the ewe-lamb come to you.
THYRSIS
[12] ‘Fore the Nymphs I pray you, master Goatherd, come now and sit ye down here
by this shelving bank and these brush tamarisks and play me a tune. I’ll keep your
goats the while.” (Trans. J.M. Edmonds, 1912)
Theocritus, Idylls 26
(Trans. J.M. Edmonds, 1912)
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ACROTIME
[1] ‘Twas a neatherd like you carried off the wise Helen.
DAPHNIS
[2] Helen is more willing now, for she kisses her neatherd.
ACROTIME
[3] Soft, my satyr-boy, be not so sure; there’s a saying “nought goes to a kiss.”
DAPHNIS
[4] Even in an empty kiss there’s a sweet delight.
ACROTIME
[5] Look ye, I wipe my mouth o’ your kiss and spit it from me.
DAPHNIS
[6] Wipe thy lips, quotha? then give them hither again and have thee another.
ACROTIME
[7] ‘Twere rather becoming you to kiss your heifers than a maiden woman like me
DAPHNIS
[8] Soft you, be not so sure; your youth passes you by like a dream.
ACROTIME
[10] But the grape’s in the raisin, and dry rose-leaves may live.
DAPHNIS (kissing her cheek)
[9] Shall this be suffered to grow old, that is my milk and honey? Pray you come hither under those wild-olives; I would fain tell you a tale.
ACROTIME
[12] Nay, I thank you; you beguiled me before with your pretty tales.
DAPHNIS
[13]Then pray you come hither under those elms and let me play you my pipe.
ACROTIME
[14] Nay; that way you may pleasure yourself; scant joy comes of a sorry ting.
DAPHNIS
[15] Alackaday! you likewise, honey, must e’en fear the wrath of Dame Phaphian.
The Greeks Under Rome
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Greek history and culture does not end under the Romans.
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Greece continues to be a polis society under Roman hegemony.
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Greek culture has increasingly large impact on Roman culture from ca. 280
BCE on.
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Roman state fosters political regimes well-disposed to Rome.
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Local autonomy allowed in exchange for tribute and auxiliary troops when
asked for.
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Roman inferiority complex.