Hellenization

See also: Hellenism

Hellenization (or Hellenisation) is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon. The result of Hellenization was that elements of Greek origin combined in various forms and degrees with local elements, which is known as Hellenism. In modern times, Hellenization has been associated with the adoption of modern Greek culture and the ethnic and cultural homogenization of Greece.^[1][2]

Historic usage

Classical period

The term is used in a number of other ancient historical contexts, starting with the Hellenization of the earliest inhabitants of Greece such as the Pelasgians, the Leleges, the Lemnians, the Eteocypriots in Cyprus, Eteocretans and Minoans in Crete (prior to Classical antiquity), as well as the Sicels, Elymians, Sicani in Sicily and the Oenotrians, Brutii, Lucani, Messapii and many others in territories constituting Magna Graecia.

Hellenistic period

Map of the Alexandrian Empire, circa 323 BC

Main article: Hellenistic civilization

See also: Hellenistic Judaism

During the Hellenistic period, following the death of Alexander the Great, considerable numbers of Assyrians, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, Parthians, Armenians and a number of other ethnic groups along the Middle East and Central Asia were Hellenized. The Bactrians, an Iranian ethnic group who lived in Bactria (northern Afghanistan), were Hellenized during the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and soon after various tribes in northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent (modern Pakistan) during the Indo-Greek Kingdom. There also was Hellenization of Thracians, Dardanians, Paeonians and Illyrians^[3][4][5][6] south of the Jireček Line and even Getae.^[7]

Hellenization during the Hellenistic period, however, had its limitations. Case in point, areas of southern Syria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailed Seleucid urban centers where Greek was commonly spoken. The countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected since most of its inhabitants spoke Syriac and continued to maintain their native traditions.^[8] Moreover, Hellenization did not necessarily involve assimilation of non-Greek ethnic groups since Hellenistic Greeks in regions such as Asia Minor were conscious of their ancestral lineages.^[9]

Middle Ages

Hellenization can also refer to the medieval Byzantine Empire and Constantine's founding of Constantinople (Eastern Roman Empire that was Hellenized). Moreover, it can refer to the primacy of Greek culture and the Greek language after the reign of Emperor Heraclius in the 7th century.

Ottoman rule

Hellenization is also the result of the higher status which the Greek culture and the Greek Orthodox Church enjoyed among the Christian Orthodox population of the Balkans during Ottoman rule.

Modern usage

In 1909, a commission appointed by the Greek government reported that one third of the villages of Greece should have their names changed because of their non-Greek origin.^[1] The process of the change of toponyms in modern Greece has been described as a process of Hellenization.^[1] A modern use is in connection with policies pursuing "cultural harmonization and education of the linguistic minorities resident within the modern Greek state" (the Hellenic Republic), i.e. the Hellenization of minority groups in modern Greece.^[2] The word nowadays has a strong negative meaning in certain circles in Greece as it means (possibly illegally) giving citizenship to non-Greek immigrants.^[10]

"Hellenistic" is also, of course, still used to refer to the religion of the people who follow this religion today.

References

Citations

1. ^ ^{a b c} Zacharia 2008, p. 232.
2. ^ ^{a b} Koliopoulos & Veremis 2002, pp. 232–241.
3. ^ Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, et. al. 1977, p. 263: "It seems that the original home of the Albanians was in Northern Albania (Illyricum) rather than in the partly Hellenic and partly Hellenized Epirus Nova."
4. ^ Hammond 1976, p. 54: "The line of division between Illyricum and the Greek area, 'Epirus Nova', in terms of Roman provincial administration ran somewhere between Scodra and Dyrrachium and then eastwards on the north side of the Shkumbi and Lake Ochrid..."
5. ^ Lewis & Boardman 1994, p. 423: "Through contact with their Greek neighbors some Illyrian tribe became bilingual (Strabo VII.7.8. diglottoi) in particular the Bylliones and the Taulantian tribes close to Epidamnus."
6. ^ Pomeroy et al. 2008, p. 255.
7. ^ Webber & McBride 2001, p. 14: "Reconstruction of the procession drawn on the lunette (back wall) of the 3rd century BC Sveshtari tomb; the original is in charcoal, as the tomb was unfinished. It shows a Hellenised king of the Getai being crowned by the Thracian mother goddess."
8. ^ Boyce & Grenet 1975, p. 353: "South Syria was thus a comparatively late addition to the Seleucid empire, whose heartland was North Syria. Here Seleucus himself created four cities—his capital of Antiochia-on-the-Orontes, and Apamea, Seleucia and Laodicia—all new foundations with a European citizen body. Twelve other Hellenistic cities are known there, and the Seleucid army was largely based in this region, either garrisoning its towns or settled as reservists in military colonies. Hellenization, although intensive, seems in the main to have been confined to these urban centers, where Greek was commonly spoken. The country people appear to have been little affected by the cultural change, and continued to speak Syriac and to follow their traditional ways. Despite its political importance, little is known of Syria under Macedonian rule, and even the process of Hellenization is mainly to be traced in the one community which has preserved some records from this time, namely the Jews of South Syria."
9. ^ Isaac 2004, p. 144: "Apparently the best and most pleasing compliment one could pay to a Hellenistic establishment in Asia Minor was to insist on the lineage of its ancestors: they were not a city of nondescript migrants but of Greeks and Macedonians of true blood. Once again, we see that such views were very common, but there were critics."
10. ^ Lambropoulos, Vasilis G. (22 August 1999). "Οι παράνομες ελληνοποιήσεις και τα κόλπα της ρωσικής μαφίας". ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ Online. http://www.tovima.gr/default.asp?pid=2&artid=113644&ct=75&dt=22/08/1999. Retrieved 9 December 2009. ^{[unreliable source?]}

Sources

• Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, et. al. (1977). American Journal of Philology, Volumes 98-99. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=gfw7AAAAMAAJ. 
• Boyce, Mary; Grenet, Frantz (1975). A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. 3: Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill. ISBN 9004092714. http://books.google.com/books?id=MWiMV6llZesC. 
• Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1976). Migrations and Invasions in Greece and Adjacent Areas. Park Ridge, New Jersey: Noyes Press. ISBN 0815550472. http://books.google.com/books?id=_VBoAAAAMAAJ. 
• Isaac, Benjamin H. (2004). The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691125988. http://books.google.com/books?id=jfylyRawl8EC. 
• Koliopoulos, John S.; Veremis, Thanos M. (2002). Greece: The Modern Sequel: From 1831 to the Present. New York, New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0814747671. http://books.google.com/books?id=DRsh7gWUVZEC. 
• Lewis, D. M.; Boardman, John (1994). The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 6: The Fourth Century B.C.. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521233488. http://books.google.com/books?id=vx251bK988gC. 
• Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert (2008). A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195372352. http://books.google.com/books?id=6NMrAQAAIAAJ. 
• Webber, Christopher; McBride, Angus (2001). The Thracians, 700 BC - AD 46. Oxford, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1841763292. http://books.google.com/books?id=5FHuDZYFrbcC. 
• Zacharia, Katerina (2008). Hellenisms: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity from Antiquity to Modernity. Surrey, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing, Limited. ISBN 9780754665250. http://books.google.com/books?id=H1fGJRxUG6wC. 

Further reading

• Goldhill, Simon (2002). Who Needs Greek?: Contests in the Cultural History of Hellenism. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521011760. http://books.google.com/books?id=ylQBwT8PFlUC. 

External links

• Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies
• Richard Bulliet - History of the World to 1500 CE (Session 8) on YouTube is a 74 minute video primarily exploring the issues of Hellenization.