Everything about Hellenization totally explained
Hellenization (or
Hellenisation) is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture enriched with the influences from south-western Asia. Related to “Hellenism”, a term introduced in 19th century by German historian Johann Gustav Droysen (Geschichte Alexanders des Großen, 1833 and Geschichte des Hellenismus, 1836–1843). Most typically, it's used to describe the spread of the 'hellenistic' Greek
culture during the
Hellenistic period, following the conquest of the east by
Alexander the Great of
Macedon who spread Greek language, culture and religion to the lands he conquered. The result of Hellenization, elements of Greek origin combined in various forms and degrees with other local elements is known as
Hellenism.
Historic usage
The term is used in a number of other ancient historical contexts, starting with the hellenization of the earliest inhabitants of the Greece mainland, the
Pelasgians, the
Leleges, the
Lemnians, the
Eteocypriots in Cyprus,
Eteocretans and
Minoans in
Crete, prior to the
Classical antiquity period, as well as the
Sicels,
Elymians,
Sicani in Sicily and the
Oenotrians,
Brutii,
Lucani,
Messapii and many others in what was about to be known as
Magna Graecia.
During the classical period, there was the hellenization of the
Thracians,
Dardanians,
Paionians and
Illyrians, south of the
Jireček Line.
In the Hellenistic period, the Macedonians, during the short reign (336-323 BC) and following the death of Alexander III the Great, hellenized the
Assyrians,
Jews,
Egyptians,
Persians,
Armenians and a number of other smaller ethnic groups along the
Middle East and
Central Asia. 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. Even today there are several ethnic groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan that claim descent from the Greeks (see
Kalasha).
Hellenization can also refer to the influences of the Eastern Roman Empire, then called Romania, which is much later to be refered to as
Byzantine Empire, from
Constantine's founding of
Constantinople and the primacy of Greek culture and the
Greek language, and particularly after the emperor
Heraclius in the seventh century (see
Byzantine Greeks), that was expressed almost exclusively through the eastern Christianity.
Modern usage
A disputed 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), for example the Hellenization of minority groups in modern Greece.
De-Hellenization
De-Hellenization (or
De-Hellenisation) is another complex and debated term used to describe a cultural change in which something Greek becomes non-Greek (non-Hellenic). The process can either be voluntary, or, commonly, applied with varying degrees of force.
Through history, the term has been used in connection with the
Islamization and eventual
Turkification of some Greek populations in the Ottoman Empire, beginning with inhabitants of eastern thrace, and also of the Romanisation and Slavicisation (
slavicised) of the Greek speaking inhabitants, Greeks or previously Hellenized Macedonians, Poeonians, Dardanes, Ilirians and other numerous tribes in the
Balkans.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hellenization'.
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