The Rise of Hellenism
In regards to the Hellenistic Age, I learned about the history in Hellenistic civilization. Hellenism is the term typically to describe the spread of culture from the Greek civilization that developed after the reign of Alexander the Great. The Classical Age, referred to as Hellenic Greek, began in 507 B.C.E. and concluded in 323 B.C.E. The Hellenistic Age began in 323 B.C.E. and concluded in 31 B.C.E. after the reign of Alexander the Great. The Classical Age was ruled by the Greek civilization in Greek city states and their territories. How does the Hellenistic Age differ from the Classical Age? The Hellenistic Age established a great deal in the culture and Greek language around the places in Mediterranean, Middle East,
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As we take a glimpse on religion, we observe the difference between the Hellenistic Age and Classical Age. The religious of the Hellenistic Age and Classical Age were contrasted when it appears to religious beliefs. During the Classical Age, the people were vastly superstitious on their religious beliefs and they worshipped a numerous of Greek gods and goddesses. The religious of the Hellenistic Age came from the Greek civilization. The impact of Hellenistic religion influence to the Greek civilization and the Roman Empire. During the time of the Hellenistic Age, they worshipped the numerous of Greek gods and goddesses includes ancient rituals. People in the Hellenistic Age provided with the emphasis of happiness to the people based on their religious beliefs. The Hellenistic religion endures to spread around the world includes Egypt and Syria. The major religion for the people of Classical was polytheism and they worshipped numerous of Olympian gods. These gods were Zeus and other twelve gods. The people of the Classical Age symbolized numerous gods as the justice and wisdom on their own characteristics. The major religion for the people of Hellenistic were Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. The Zoroastrianism was one of the world’s oldest and dominant religion of Persia and they integrated both dualism and monotheism. Ahura Mazda, ‘Wise Lord’, is a god which was worshipped by the Zoroastrians. The Mithraism was a cryptic religion and they were touched by the people of Persia. Mithra, the god of light, is a god which was worshipped by the people of Mithraism. Meanwhile, the religious beliefs of Hellenistic Age appear with the slump of Greek religion due to the surge in atheism, skepticism and
Many authors have employed the religious beliefs of their cultures in literature. The deities contained in Homer’s Odyssey and in the Biblical book of Exodus reflect the nature of the gods in their respective societies. Upon examination of these two works, there are three major areas where the gods of the Greek epic seem to directly contrast the nature of the God of the Israelites: the way problems are solved, the prestige and status that separates the divine from the masses, and the extent of power among the immortal beings.
The Hellenistic culture was founded from the Hellenic culture. The Hellenic culture was born with Philip of Macedon. Philip of Macedon was a king in Macedonia at the beginning of the fourth century. Philip was known for his great organizational skills and his prowess in battle as a warrior. Philip had a dream of making an empire and surpassing everyone’s expectations he succeeded. It took seven years for Philip to unite the once Greek city-states into a unit, but once he gained control of them he had a battle tested army. Philip of Macedon led his army into Asia Minor and defeated the Persian army. The defeat of the Persian army brought the collapse of the Persian Empire which was unimaginable because at the time Persia ruled the world. Unfortunately, as Philip turned to conquer the rest of the world he died. Luckily he left behind a son.
Religion has been a major focal point in any society and in any culture. Starting from the first civilizations in Sumer and Ur to the vast metropolitans of today like New York and London, religion has been around and played a key part in lives of people. Possibly two of the oldest religions in the world, Judaism and Zoroastrinism share distinct qualities that are still alive today. Both religions are practiced but Zoroastrianism is not as popular as it once was. Meanwhile, Judaism is one of the world’s largest religions. These two religions are similar in the way that they are designed and practiced throughout history.
Greek mythology is thought to be very fascinating to many people; I personally wanted to learn more about it and the Hellenistic period. A new cultural age was led by Alexander the Great when he took over Egypt and the Near East, historians refer to this period as Hellenistic.
With the formation Hellenistic civilization, came new forms of religion. Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Skepticism came into play for those that were considered intellectuals. While those less philosophically inclined, chose to worship fortune, or lean towards the more emotional religions of Oriental origin. The Orphic and Eleusinian mystery cults because more popular than ever before, while the worship of Isis, the Egyptian mother-goddess, seemed for a time to almost become a world religion.
The power and leadership of the Greco-Macedonian ruling groups would gradually be undermined by the diffusion of knowledge and professional expertise to non-Greeks. The fact that the Greeks were a minority, meant that eventually, the larger numbers of people of Asiatic or near-Eastern background would increase their influence. Thus, in a very gradual manner, without distinct historical events to mark the way, the unique hellenistic culture would fade away. Greek practices would, however, make a permanent mark upon the composite culture of the civilized world.
Throughout the many stories in the Greek religious mythology Hellenism, which meant to teach lessons and explain how the world works, there are a vast number of characters. One that has become quite known today through the media, and even teachings in school, is the gorgon Medusa. The name gorgon is derived from the Greek word gorgos, meaning “fierce”, “terrible” or “dreadful”. A gorgon is traditionally a repulsive creature with an innate hatred towards men and the ability to turn people to stone with a single look into their eyes. Some stories even write that their ability extended to not just humans and other animals, but also plant life in the sea. Greek literature and art often depict the gorgons as having scaly skin, large talons, wings, and the tusks of a boar; even when these additional attributes are not present, Medusa and her sisters possess horrid visages framed by nests of live, venomous snakes. Among the three sisters, Medusa, Stheno and Euryale, only Medusa was mortal, and thus the only one able to die.
The Ancient Greeks held their religion to be a personal experience, to be practiced by the common man on a daily basis. Thus, it comes as no surprise to read in the historical works of the period that the people also relied on religion to aid them in military matters. This paper will give historical examples of the people's reliance on
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
In ancient times, the Greeks had absolute and undeniable respect for their gods. They demonstrated their admiration by putting in place many rituals and celebrations to reverence the gods that they loved and feared in order to ensure harmony with them. In particular, the focus will be on the religious beliefs of the Greeks, including prayer and sacrifice, as well as on festivals and the arts, such as the ancient Olympic games and theatre. These aspects of their culture made a significant contribution to their quality of life. Moreover, these topics will be examined in relation to the twelve Olympian gods and their associates.
What is Christianity and why has it been able to develop into a continuously growing and evolving religion?
Because of the under development of science, Ancient Greeks used mythologies and associated to the gods anything that they could not explain or understand, which also have revealed many aspects of their culture and society, including their views toward gods. Through the survived works of ancient Greeks, one can see that the concept of exchange plays a center role in the relationship between human beings and gods; and that the ancient Greeks had absolutely and undeniably respect for their gods, who are human-like and demand to be glorified.
How did people revere their gods differently among three civilizations? Did they worship with the same general intent? What were gods’ role(s) in people’s lives? A brief exploration into the religions of Egypt, Greece, and the Hebrew people may bring insight to these questions. Although the main idea of higher beings remains constant throughout societies’ religion, their form of presence in people’s lives varies. I will present the relationship between the leaders and the gods, as well as resemblance to monotheism and systems of government.
In Ancient Greece, the lives of the multi-religious yet cognitive people were structured accordingly to their religious practices. Althought there was no dominant set of religious beliefs or dieties, the Greeks believed in what rather seems to be a pantheon of gods all similar in each definitive culture that seem to come together and reign supreme as the polytheistic religion of the Greek people. These beliefs came about from cultural diffusion between different religions and are reflected majorly in Roman polytheistic beliefs which transpired into the beliefs of many other cultures. It is believed that the Ancient Greek religion was comprised of ideologies from philosphers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, and that it became significant through the poetry of the epic writer Homer. The Greek beliefs influenced the cultures and minds of people in many city states throughout Ancient Greece especially Athens, Sparta, and the Minoan civilization and served as a foundation for the culture of these civilizations.
Both the Greek and the Roman civilization were polytheistic. Greeks were a very religious people. In Greece each city-state had a patron god or goddess that protected their city. Greeks believed that their Gods appeared in human form but had superhuman strength and ageless beauty. Many of the Gods are depicted on various painted scenes on vases, and stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures by themselves or in mythological scenes interacting with humans and lesser Gods (Realign and Death). Rome’s Gods and Goddesses were from a blend of a variety of cultures including Greece. They too believed the gods were actively involved in their everyday life, so much so that they held sacred meals for their Gods during religious festivals in which the invitations were sent in the God’s name and a place was set for them at the table. The oldest male in the family preformed religious rituals for the whole household to the family God, while the state employed priests and Priestesses to worship at the temple. Though they could not predict the future the priests were the one who could read signs to see if the Gods were happy or angry with the people. In the first century a new religion was born in the Rome that spread all throughout the empire and corners of the world, Christianity (Life in