influenced by an already existing pictorial tradition or the artist of this gem was inspired by the
Argonautica. What is clear, however, is that the cross-pollination of literature and the visual arts was
more fruitful during the Hellenistic Period than at any other time in Greek history.

Figure 72 Plaster impression of an engraved garnet gemstone set in gold ring, inscribed “created by
Gelon,” showing Aphrodite holding a shield and spear; 29 × 24 mm, late third century BC. Boston,
Museum of Fine Arts, Francis Bartlett Donation, 21.1213.

Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA / Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912 /
Bridgeman Images.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Before we consider the remarkable accomplishments of the visual artists active during the Hellenistic
Period, however, we need to take account of the position that such artists held in the cultural life of the
ancient Greeks. We are today inclined to think of literature and the visual arts as parallel, and equally
valid, forms of artistic expression, so that “Hellenistic Literature and Art” would seem to us a natural
coupling. The Greeks, however, did not think of sculptors and architects as on the same level as poets and
dramatists. For the Greeks, such artists were rather artisans, craftspeople who worked with their hands
and who, therefore, occupied a less elevated status than literary artists, who were regarded as possessing
a certain intellectual and moral authority. Sculptors and painters were considered comparable to