Hellenization[a] orHellenification is the adoption of Greekculture,religion,language, andidentity by non-Greeks. In theancient period,colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous people. In theHellenistic period, many of the territories which were conquered byAlexander the Great were Hellenized.
The first known use of a verb that means "to Hellenize" was in Greek (ἑλληνίζειν) and byThucydides (5th century BC), who wrote that theAmphilochian Argives were Hellenized as to their language by theAmbraciots, which shows that the word perhaps already referred to more than language.[1] The similar wordHellenism, which is often used as a synonym, is used in2 Maccabees[2] (c. 124 BC) and theBook of Acts[3] (c. AD 80–90) to refer to clearly much more than language, though it is disputed what that may have entailed.[1]
By the 4th century BC, the process of Hellenization had started in southwestern Anatolia'sLycia,Caria andPisidia regions. (1st century fortifications at Pelum inGalatia, on Baş Dağ inLycaonia and atIsaura are the only known Hellenistic-style structures incentral andeastern Anatolia).[4]
When it was advantageous to do so, places likeSide andAspendos invented Greek-themed origin myths; an inscription published inSEG shows that in the 4th century BC Aspendos claimed ties toArgos, similar toNikokreon of Cyprus who also claimed Argive lineage. (Argos was home to theKings of Macedon.)[5][6] Like theArgeads, theAntigonids claimed descent fromHeracles, theSeleucids fromApollo, and thePtolemies fromDionysus.[7]
TheSeuthopolis inscription was very influential in the modernstudy of Thrace. The inscription mentions Dionysus, Apollo and someSamothracian gods. Scholars have interpreted the inscription as evidence of Hellenization in inland Thrace during the early Hellenistic, but this has been challenged by recent scholarship.[8][9]
However, Hellenization had its limitations. For example, areas of southernSyria that were affected by Greek culture mostly entailedSeleucid urban centres, whereGreek was commonly spoken. The countryside, on the other hand, was largely unaffected, with most of its inhabitants speakingSyriac and clinging to their native traditions.[10]
By itself, archaeological evidence only gives researchers an incomplete picture of Hellenization; it is often not possible to state with certainty whether particular archaeological findings belonged to Greeks, Hellenized indigenous peoples, indigenous people who simply owned Greek-style objects or some combination of these groups. Thus, literary sources are also used to help researchers interpret archaeological findings.[11]
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Greek cultural influence spread into Anatolia in a slow rate from the 6th to 4th century. TheLydians had been particularly receptive to Greek culture, as were the 4th century dynasties ofCaria andLycia as well as the inhabitants of theCilician plain and of the regions ofPaphlagonia. The local population found their desires for advancement a stimulus to learn Greek. The indigenous urban settlements and villages in Anatolia coalesced, on their own initiative, to form cities in the Greek manner. The local kings of Asia Minor adopted Greek as their official language and sought to imitate other Greek cultural forms.[12]
The first properly Greek settlements in Anatolia originated shortly after the end of the Bronze age, around the 11th century BCE.[13]Mycenaean settlements atHalicarnassus,Miletus, andColophon existed before this, but Mycenaean colonization in the region was sporadic at best and not on the same scale as the later Greek colonization of Anatolia. These initial posts in the 2nd millennium BCE, however, were less colonies in the traditional sense and more akin to thefactories of theAge of Discovery; that is, that they were trading posts initially established to conduct trade with Anatolian locals. By the beginning of theArchaic period, settlement of Anatolia had begun to grow at a quick rate, and proper colonies in the traditional sense were established in the form of predominantly Greek city-states (πόλεις,póleis). Extensive trade between mainland Greece and the Hellenistic portions of Anatolia was underway by the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, with fish, grain, timber, metal, and often slaves being exported from the land. It is believed that this kind of contact with the spread of Hellenistic culture, religion, and ideas in Anatolia was a peaceful process.[14]
Worship of the Greek pantheon of gods was practiced in Lydia. Lydian kingCroesus often invited the wisest Greek philosophers, orators and statesmen to attend his court. Croesus himself often consulted the famous oracle at Delphi-bestowing many gifts and offerings to this and other religious sites for example. He provided patronage for the reconstruction of the Temple of Artemis, to which he offered a large number of marble columns as dedication to the goddess.[15][16]
It was in the towns that Hellenization made its greatest progress, with the process often being synonymous with urbanization.[17] Hellenization reachedPisidia andLycia sometime in the 4th century BC, but the interior remained largely unaffected for several more centuries until it came under Roman rule in the 1st century BC.[18]Ionian,Aeolian andDoric settlers along Anatolia's Western coast seemed to have remained culturally Greek and some of theircity-states date back to theArchaic Period. On the other hand, Greeks who settled in the southwestern region of Pisidia and Pamphylia seem to have been assimilated by the local culture.[19]
Panticapaeum (modern dayKerch) was one of theearly Greek colonies in Crimea. It was founded byMiletus around 600 BC on a site with good terrain for a defensiveacropolis. By the time theCimmerian colonies had organized into theBosporan Kingdom much of the local native population had been Hellenized.[20] Most scholars date the establishment of the kingdom to 480 BC, when theArchaeanactid dynasty assumed control of Panticapaeum, but classical archaeologistGocha R. Tsetskhladze has dated the kingdom's founding to 436 BC, when theSpartocid dynasty replaced the ruling Archaeanactids.[21]
The HellenisticSeleucid andPtolemaic kingdoms that formed after Alexander's death were particularly relevant to the history ofJudaism. Located between the two kingdoms, Judea experienced long periods of warfare and instability.[22]Judea fell under Seleucid control in 198 BC. By the timeAntiochus IV Epiphanes came to rule Judea in 175 BC,Jerusalem was already somewhat Hellenized. In 170 BC, both claimants to the High Priesthood,Jason andMenelaus, bore Greek names. Jason had established institutions ofGreek education and in later years Jewish culture started to be suppressed including forbiddingcircumcision and observance of theSabbath.[23]
Hellenization of members of the Jewish elite included names and clothes, but other customs were adapted by the rabbis, and elements that violated thehalakha andmidrash were prohibited. One example is the elimination of some aspects of Hellenistic banquets, such as the practice of offeringlibations to the gods, while incorporating certain elements that gave the meals a more Jewish character. Discussion ofScripture, the singing of sacred songs and attendance of students of theTorah were encouraged. One detailed account of Jewish-style Hellenistic banquets comes fromBen Sira. There is literary evidence fromPhilo about the extravagance of Alexandrian Jewish banquets, andThe Letter of Aristeas discusses Jews dining with non-Jews as an opportunity to share Jewish wisdom.[24]
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Pamphylia is a plain located between thehighlands ofLycia andCilicia. The exact date of Greek settlement in the region is not known; one possible theory is that settlers arrived in the region as part ofBronze Agemaritime trade between theAegean,Levant andCyprus, while another attributes it to population movements during the instability of theBronze Age Collapse. The Greek dialect established inPamphylia by the Classical period was related toArcado-Cypriot.[25]
Mopsus is a legendary founder of several coastal cities in southwestern Anatolia, includingAspendos,Phaselis,Perge andSillyon.[25][26] A bilingualPhoenician andneo-HittiteLuwian inscription found atKaratepe, dated to 800 BC, says that the ruling dynasty there traced their origins to Mopsus.[19][25] Mopsus, whose name is also attested to inHittite documents, may originally have been an Anatolian figure that became part of the cultural traditions of Pamphylia's early Greek settlers.[25] Attested to inLinear B texts, he is given a Greek genealogy as a descendant ofManto andApollo.[26]
For centuries the indigenous population exerted considerable influence on Greek settlers, but after the 4th century BC this population quickly started to become Hellenized.[19] Little is known about Pisidia prior to the 3rd century BC, but there is quite a bit of archeological evidence that dates to theHellenistic period.[27] Literary evidence, however, including inscriptions and coins are limited.[19] During the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, native regional tongues were abandoned in favour ofkoine Greek and settlements began to take on characteristics of Greekpolis.[19][27]
TheIron AgePanemoteichos I may be an early precursor to later regional Hellenistic settlements includingSelge,Termessos andSagalassos (believed to be the three most prominent cities of Hellenistic Pisidia).[19][27] The site is evidence of "urban organisation" that predates the Greekpolis by 500 years. Based on Panemoteichos I and other Iron Age sites, including thePhrygianMidas şehri and theCappadocian fortification ofKerkenes, experts believe that "behind the Greek influence that shaped the Hellenistic Pisidian communities there lay a tangible and important Anatolian tradition."[27]
According to the writings ofArrian the population ofSide, who traced their origins toAeolianCyme, had forgotten the Greek language by the time Alexander arrived at the city in 334 BC. There arecoins and stone inscriptions that attest to a unique script from the region but the language has only been partially deciphered.[25][19]
The latest dateable coins found at the Phrygian capital ofGordion are from the 2nd century BC. Finds from the abandoned Hellenistic era settlement include imported and locally produced imitation Greek-styleterracotta figurines and ceramics. Inscriptions show that some of the inhabitants had Greek names, while others had Anatolian or possiblyCeltic names.[28]ManyPhrygian cult objects were Hellenized during the Hellenistic period, but worship of traditional deities like the Phrygian mother goddess persisted.[29] Greek cults attested to includeHermes,Kybele, theMuses andTyche.[28]
Greek art and culture reachedPhoenicia by way of commerce before any Greek cities were founded in Syria,[30] but the Hellenization of Syrians was not widespread until it became aRoman province. Under Roman rule in the 1st century BC, there is evidence of Hellenistic style funerary architecture, decorative elements, mythological references, and inscriptions. However, there is a lack of evidence from Hellenistic Syria; concerning this, most scholars view it as the case that the "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".[31][32]
TheBactrians, an Iranian ethnic group who lived inBactria (northernAfghanistan), were Hellenized during the reign of theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom and soon after various tribes in northwestern regions of theIndian subcontinent underwent Hellenization during the reign of theIndo-Greek Kingdom.
Theperiodization of theHellenistic Age, between the conquests ofAlexander the Great up toOctavian's victory at theBattle of Actium, has been attributed to the 19th-century historianJ. G. Droysen. According to this model the spread of Greek culture during this period made the rise ofChristianity possible. Later, in the 20th century, scholars questioned this 19th-centuryparadigm for failing to account for the contributions ofSemitic-speaking and otherNear Eastern cultures.[1]
The twentieth century witnessed a lively debate over the extent of Hellenization in theLevant, particularly among the ancientJews, which has continued until today. Interpretations on the rise ofEarly Christianity, which was applied most famously byRudolf Bultmann, used to seeJudaism as largely unaffected by Hellenism, and the Judaism of the diaspora was thought to have succumbed thoroughly to its influences. Bultmann thus argued that Christianity arose almost completely within those Hellenistic confines and should be read against that background, as opposed to a more traditional Jewish background. With the publication ofMartin Hengel's two-volume studyHellenism and Judaism (1974, German original 1972) and subsequent studiesJews, Greeks and Barbarians: Aspects of the Hellenisation of Judaism in the pre-Christian Period (1980, German original 1976) andThe 'Hellenisation' of Judaea in the First Century after Christ (1989, German original 1989), the tide began to turn decisively. Hengel argued that virtually all of Judaism was highly Hellenized well before the beginning of the Christian era, and even the Greek language was well known throughout the cities and even the smaller towns of Jewish Palestine. Scholars have continued to nuance Hengel's views, but almost all believe that strong Hellenistic influences were throughout the Levant, even among the conservative Jewish communities, which were the most nationalistic.
In his introduction to the 1964 bookMeditations, Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound influence ofStoic philosophy on Christianity:
Again in the doctrine of the Trinity, the ecclesiastical conception of Father, Word, and Spirit finds its germ in the different Stoic names of the Divine Unity. ThusSeneca, writing of the supreme Power which shapes the universe, states, 'This Power we sometimes call the All-ruling God, sometimes the incorporeal Wisdom, sometimes the holy Spirit, sometimes Destiny.' The Church had only to reject the last of these terms to arrive at its own acceptable definition of the Divine Nature; while the further assertion 'these three are One', which the modern mind finds paradoxical, was no more than commonplace to those familiar with Stoic notions.[33]
TheGreek East was one of the two main cultural areas of the Roman Empire and began to be ruled by an autonomous imperial court in AD 286 underDiocletian. However, Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts of the empire, and Latin was the state language. When theWestern Empire fell and theRoman Senate sent the regalia of the Western Emperor to the Eastern EmperorZeno in AD 476,Constantinople (Byzantium inAncient Greek) was recognized as the seat of the sole Emperor. A process of political Hellenization began and led, among other reforms, to the declaration of Greek as the official language.[34]
In 1909, a commission appointed by the Greek government reported that a third of the villages ofGreece should have their names changed, often because of their non-Greek origin.[35] In other instances, names were changed from a contemporary name of Greek origin to the ancient Greek name. Some village names were formed from a Greek root word with a foreign suffix or vice versa. Most of the name changes took place in areas populated by ethnic Greeks in which a stratum of foreign or divergent toponyms had accumulated over the centuries. However, in some parts of northern Greece, the population was not Greek-speaking, and many of the former toponyms had reflected the diverse ethnic and linguistic origins of their inhabitants.
The process of the change of toponyms in modern Greece has been described as a process of Hellenization.[35] A modern use is in connection with policies pursuing "cultural harmonization and education of the linguistic minorities resident within the modern Greek state" - the Hellenization of minority groups in modern Greece.[36] The termHellenisation (or Hellenization) is also used in the context of Greek opposition to the use of theSlavic dialects of Greece.[37]
In 1870, the Greek government abolished all Italian schools in theIonian islands, which had been annexed to Greece six years earlier. That led to the diminution of the community ofCorfiot Italians, which had lived inCorfu since the Middle Ages; by the 1940s, there were only 400 Corfiot Italians left.[38]
Arvanites are descendants ofAlbanian settlers who came to the presentsouthern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century. With participation in theGreek War of Independence and theGreek Civil War, this has led to increasing assimilation amongst the Arvanites.[39] The common Orthodox Christian faith they shared with the rest of the local population was one of the main reasons that led to their assimilation.[40] Other reasons for assimilation are large-scaleinternal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population. Although sociological studies of Arvanite communities still used to note an identifiable sense of a special "ethnic" identity among Arvanites, the authors did not identify or never identified a sense of 'belonging to Albania or to the Albanian nation'.[41] Many Arvanites find the designation "Albanians" offensive as they identify nationally and ethnically as Greeks and not Albanians.[42] Because of this, relations between Arvanites and other Albanian-speaking populations have diverged over time. During the onset of the Greek war of Independence, Arvanites fought alongside Greek revolutionaries against Muslim Albanians.[43][44] For example, Arvanites participated in the 1821Tripolitsa Massacre of Muslim Albanians,[43] while some Muslim Albanian speakers in the region of Bardounia remained after the war, converting to Orthodoxy.[44] In recent times, Arvanites have expressed mixed opinions towards recent Albanian settlers within Greece. Other Arvanites during the late 1980s and early 1990s expressed solidarity with Albanian immigrants, due to linguistic similarities and being politically leftist.[45] Relations too between Arvanites and other Orthodox Albanian-speaking communities such as those of GreekEpirus are mixed, as they are distrusted regarding religious matters due to a past Albanian Muslim population living amongst them.[46]
There are no monolingual Arvanitika-speakers, as all are today bilingual in Greek. However, while Arvanites are bilingual in Greek and Arvanitika, Arvanitika is considered anendangered language as it is in a state ofattrition due to the large-scale language shift towards Greek among the descendants of Arvanitika-speakers in recent decades, becoming monolingual Greek speakers in the end,[47] and since Arvanitika is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also no longer have practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media.
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