Western Civilization

practical inventor. He may have devised the so-called

Archimedean screw, used to pump water out of mines

and to lift irrigation water, as well as a compound pul-

ley for transporting heavy weights. During the Roman

siege of his native city of Syracuse, he constructed a

number of devices to thwart the attackers. According

to Plutarch’s account, the Romans became so fright-

ened “that if they did but see a little rope or a piece of

wood from the wall, instantly crying out, that there it

was again, Archimedes was about to let fly some device

at them, they turned their backs and fled.”^4 Archime-

des’s accomplishments inspired a wealth of semilegen-

dary stories. Supposedly, he discovered specific gravity

by observing the water he displaced in his bath and

became so excited by his realization that he jumped

out of the water and ran home naked, shouting

“Eureka!” (“I have found it!”). He is said to have

emphasized the importance of levers by proclaiming to

the king of Syracuse, “Give me a lever and a place to

stand on, and I will move the earth.” The king was so

impressed that he encouraged Archimedes to lower his

sights and build defensive weapons instead.

Philosophy: New Schools of Thought

While Alexandria and Pergamum became the renowned

cultural centers of the Hellenistic world, Athens

remained the prime center for philosophy and contin-

ued to attract the most illustrious philosophers, who

chose to establish their schools there. Two entirely new

schools of philosophical thought reinforced Athens’s

reputation as a philosophical center.

EPICUREANISM Epicurus (ep-i-KYOOR-uss) (341–270B.C.E.),

the founder of Epicureanism (ep-i-kyoo-REE-uh-ni-

zum), established a school in Athens before 300B.C.E.

Epicurus’s famous belief in a doctrine of pleasure began

with his view of the world. Though he did not deny the

existence of the gods, he did not believe they played

any active role in the world. The universe ran on its

own. This left human beings free to follow self-interest

as a basic motivating force. Happiness was the goal of

life, and the means to achieving it was the pursuit of

pleasure, the only true good. But the pursuit of pleas-

ure was not meant in a physical, hedonistic sense:

When, therefore, we maintain that pleasure is the end,

we do not mean the pleasures of profligates and those

that consist in sensuality, as is supposed by some who

are either ignorant or disagree with us or do not under-

stand, but freedom from pain in the body and from trou-

ble in the mind. For it is not continuous drinkings and

revelings, nor the satisfaction of lusts, nor the enjoyment

of fish and other luxuries of the wealthy table, which

produce a pleasant life, but sober reasoning, searching

out the motives for all choice and avoidance, and banish-

ing mere opinions, to which are due the greatest disturb-

ance of the spirit.^5

Pleasure was not satisfying one’s desire in an active,

gluttonous fashion but rather freedom from emotional

turmoil and freedom from worry—the freedom that

came from a mind at rest. To achieve this passive pleas-

ure, one had to free oneself from public activity: “We

must release ourselves from the prison of affairs and

politics.” They were too strenuous to give peace of

mind. But this was not a renunciation of all social life,

for to Epicurus, a life could be complete only when it

was centered on the basic ideal of friendship: “Of all

the things which wisdom acquires to produce the bless-

edness of the complete life, far the greatest is the pos-

session of friendship.”^6 Epicurus’s own life in Athens

was an embodiment of his teachings. He and his

friends created their own private community where

they could pursue their ideal of true happiness.

STOICISM Epicureanism was eventually overshadowed by

another school of thought known asStoicism(STOH-i-

siz-um), which became the most popular philosophy of

the Hellenistic world and persisted in the Roman Empire

as well. It was the product of a teacher named Zeno

(335–263B.C.E.), who came to Athens and began to teach

in a public colonnade known as the Painted Portico (the

Stoa Poikile—hence,Stoicism). Like Epicureanism, Stoi-

cism was concerned with how individuals find happiness.

But Stoics took a radically different approach to the prob-

lem. To them, happiness, the supreme good, could be

found only in virtue, which meant essentially living in

harmony with the divine will. To the Stoics, following the

divine will meant abiding by the natural laws that the

gods established to run the universe.

Virtuous living, then, was living in accordance with

the laws of nature. This led to the acceptance of what-

ever one received in life, since the divine will was by its

very nature good. By accepting divine law, people mas-

tered themselves and gained inner peace. Life’s prob-

lems could not disturb such individuals, and they could

bear whatever life offered (hence, our wordstoic).

Unlike Epicureans, Stoics did not believe in the need

to separate oneself from the world and politics. Public

service was regarded as noble. The real Stoic was a

good citizen and could even be a good government offi-

cial. Because Stoics believed that a divine principle was

present throughout the universe, each human being

Culture in the Hellenistic World 89

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

`ˆÌi`Ê܈̅Ê̅iÊ`i“œÊÛiÀȜ˜ÊœvÊ

˜vˆÝÊ*ÀœÊ*Ê

`ˆÌœÀÊ

/œÊÀi“œÛiÊ̅ˆÃʘœÌˆVi]ÊۈÈÌ\Ê