Greek Culture and Its Hellenistic Diffusion 57terns. Growth and dissolution were inevitable, but no
providential order existed of the sort claimed by the
Stoics. In the absence of such an order, the greatest
good from the human point of view was pleasure, and
the search for pleasure should be the philosopher’s pri-
mary goal. By pleasure, Epicurus meant peace of
mind and the absence of pain, not the active pursuit of
dissipation. He sought a quiet life, removed from the
troubles of the world and governed by the principle of
moderation in all things. Even the gods were not to be
feared but emulated in their Olympian detachment
from the things of this world. Epicureanism, too, had
its followers, but detachment from the world did not
always recommend itself to those with practical
responsibilities.
Like all philosophical schools, Stoicism and Epi-
cureanism appealed primarily to the educated. The
mass of people in the Hellenistic world found solace in
religion. This in itself was a relatively new develop-
ment, at least among the Greeks, for the gods of Olym-
pus had offered little to their worshipers beyond a
conditional protection from their wrath. In the classical
age, while the learned took refuge in philosophy, ordi-
nary men and women had resorted to superstition and a
helpless resignation to tyche,or fate.
Hellenistic religions were different. Many, though
not all, had Eastern or Egyptian roots, and most were
what are called mystery religions. That is, they claimed
to guarantee personal immortality, often through the
intervention of a god or goddess who came to Earth in
human form and suffered for the sins of humankind.
Among the more important were the cult of Serapis,
encouraged by Ptolemy I, and the far more ancient ven-
eration of Isis.The Jews in the Hellenistic World
Hellenistic culture, for all its richness and sophistica-
tion, was not universally admired. Among those who
resisted it most persistently were the Jews. The disper-
sions of the sixth century B.C.had created a vast Jewish
exile population. The largest of these communities
were in Egypt and Babylon, but virtually every city in
the ancient world had Jewish residents. Most were arti-
sans or small tradesmen. While some were eventually
submerged in the local population, others gathered to-
gether in close-knit communities to preserve their reli-
gious and cultural identity.
In Palestine, a remnant of impoverished peasants
held on, reinforced after the Persian conquest of Baby-
lon by small numbers of the devout who sought to re-Illustration 3.6
Hellenistic Realism. This life-size statue of a poor shep-
herdess is part of an important Hellenistic genre that portrayed
the life of the poor, and particularly of poor women, with a
sympathetic but unflinching eye.
Unlike the teachings of the Cynics, Stoicism was
rooted in physical and epistemological principles de-
rived at some distance from Aristotle. It offered not
only an ethical code but also a means of understanding
and accepting an often hostile universe. Of all the
philosophical schools of late antiquity, it was the most
popular among educated people. It became the domi-
nant belief among the Roman upper classes and would
strongly influence the development of Christianity.
Stoicism’s chief rival was Epicureanism. Epicurus
(341–270 B.C.) was born to an Athenian family on the
island of Samos and established a school at Athens that
was notable among other things for being open to
women. He argued, as Leucippus and Democritus had
done, that the universe was composed of atoms that
combined and recombined in an infinite variety of pat-