{"id":236,"date":"2011-12-14T09:58:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-14T16:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/?p=236"},"modified":"2014-01-08T13:54:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T20:54:22","slug":"hellenistic-poetry-and-philosophy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/2011\/12\/14\/hellenistic-poetry-and-philosophy\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellenistic Poetry and Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week we moved on from Herodotus and began to read selections of poetry from the Hellenistic period in Greece from around the fall of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. up until the eventual conquest of Greece by Rome in 146 B.C. The selections included Appollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica<\/em>, Theocritus’ Idylls<\/em>, and the Epigrams of Callimachus. With the exception of the Epigrams these poems did not hold a ton of interest for me personally. The Argonautica<\/em>\u00a0seems to me a relatively poor effort at epic poetry when compared with the great Homer, and Theocritus is equally ponderous to my taste. However that didn’t detract from class discussions too much since we were treated with many displays of Owen’s knowledge of Greek as he recited many of these passages from heart in the original ancient Greek. On top of that he even sang many of them to great effect.<\/p>\n

After we were finished with poetry we moved on to philosophy, which captured my interest quite a bit more. The schools covered for the latter section of the week included Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, Pyrrhonian Sceptcisim, Cynicism, Stoicism, and Epicureanism. Delving into these realms of thought produced a lot more participation both in class and in our discussion forums via CC’s prowl website. I was particularly interested in Cynicism, which does not have quite the same meaning as many people would think upon hearing the word cynic in a modern context. Greek Cynicism was a precursor to Stoicism, and although it has Socratic roots it is hard to call it a true “school” because it is so unconventional and anti-theoretical. What struck me the most about Cynicism was the emphasis on\u00a0ask\u0113sis, <\/em>or practice, and teach a way of life as a path to virtue, rather than preaching or explaining theoretical values that must be interpreted. I find this particularly powerful because I am a big supporter of experiential learning. I have always found that the best way to learn or achieve something is by doing it, not by talking about it, and in this way Cynicism presents to me a much stronger set of ideas than other schools of philosophical thought.<\/p>\n

Although there’s not much written by or even about the Cynics, there is one famous story regarding an interaction between Diogenes the Cynic (which in Greek translated to Dog) and Alexander the Great that really emphasizes the freedom that is emphasized in their way of life.\u00a0\u201cWhen he was sunning himself in the Craneum, Alexander came and stood over him and said, \u2018Ask of me any boon you like.\u2019 To which he replied, \u2018Stand out of my light\u2019\u201d (Diogenes Laertius,\u00a0Lives of Eminent Philosophers<\/em>, Book 6, Chapter 28). At another point, Alexander pronounces his rank to Diogenes of Sinope by saying, \u201cI am Alexander the Great King.\u201d Diogenes responds with his own rank, \u201cI am Diogenes the Cynic,\u201d which is to say \u201cDiogenes the Dog\u201d (Diogenes Laertius,\u00a0Lives of Eminent Philosophers<\/em>, Book 6, Chapter 60).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week we moved on from Herodotus and began to read selections of poetry from the Hellenistic period in Greece from around the fall of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. up until the eventual conquest of Greece by Rome in 146 B.C. The selections included Appollonius of Rhodes’ Argonautica, Theocritus’ Idylls, and the Epigrams … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hellenistic Poetry and Philosophy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,24,157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-block4","category-cl125","category-hy209","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1RtXj-3O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/blockfeatures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}