The Origins of Radical Criminology, Volume II by Stratos Georgoulas

Author:Stratos Georgoulas
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030676384
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

4 Literature

4.1 An Overview

The literature of the Hellenistic Period presents some general features that we should note for two main reasons: first, because they reflect the particular historical and cultural conditions in which this literature was developed and, second, because they distinguish it from the literature of other (historical) periods. Such a key feature is the dialogue of Hellenistic literature with that of the Classical Period, which is distinguished by the reaction to the moral and spiritual characteristics of classical literature, on the one hand, and by systematic, discreet, and skillful borrowing, on the other hand. Hellenistic literature, for example, is generally characterized by a rejection of the heroic element that primarily characterizes the archaic epic and by a departure from the continuous narrative of the epic and tragedy. As we shall see later, the literature of the Hellenistic Period focuses on everyday life, the humble, even the anti-heroic, while cultivating shorter and subtler literary forms than those of archaic and classical literature, such as romance or epigraphy. However, the ingredients for creating this anti-classical literature are to a great degree classical. Hellenistic literature is full of logos, icons/representations, metaphors derived from archaic and classical literature. Similarly, historiographers of the Hellenistic Period differ from Thucydides, both in the choice of the content of their history and in style, as their focus is wider, chronologically and geographically, than that of Thucydides; they include—apart from historical and political events—a multitude of anecdotes, myths, and local traditions, while they have a particularly sophisticated style influenced by rhetoric. In philosophy, next to the Academy of Plato and the Peripatetic School of Aristotle, new schools were being created: the Garden of Epicurus and the Stoa Poikile introduced by Zeno, as well as the Cynics and Skeptics, whose schools were distinguished by a strong reaction to Plato and Aristotle’s classical philosophy.

This new cultural reality had an important political character. The appreciation and use of the previous literature were promoted by the monarchs of the Hellenistic states, in principle for political reasons, so as to advance Hellenism and underline their relationship with their ancestor Alexander. These monarchs ensured that the capitals of their states, such as Antioch, Pergamum, and Alexandria, would become centers of culture and education, equipped with libraries and intellectual institutions that hosted and supported artists, scientists, and writers. Typical was the creation by the Ptolemies in Alexandria of an unparalleled center of scientific and artistic creation, the Museum, where important intellectuals of the time studied with royal support. It is characteristic that at that time the first systematic attempts to study and make philological editions not only of the Homeric epics but also of lyric poetry and tragedy were made by scholars of the prestige of Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus, who were dealing with the authenticity and the correctness of the texts that had come down to them, thus creating essentially a new science, that of philology. This science was part of a cultural renaissance. It is noteworthy that some of the most

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