Hellenization Of Alexandria

Alexandria was a prosperous and significant city which was founded in 331 BC by Alexander the Great. Both the city’s people and king held an integrationist ideology, and accepted other religions and cultures. This ideology became a major component of the city’s success, as its citizens, of whatever race or creed, felt included, valued, and paramount to all, free. Although the citizens of Alexandria were authorized to practice and preserve their sacred religions, many ethnic groups adopted Greek practices, which they integrated into their pre-existing rituals. This process is known as Hellenization. There are many aspects which contribute to the very Greek essence of the city of Alexandria. The first is its literature. Greeks greatly valued …show more content…
Alexandria was a main centre of Hellenistic Judaism, and housed a large number of the Jewish population of the time. The Jews settled in Alexandria in the third century BC. and soon began to acculturate to the Greek culture that surrounded them. Although the Jews accepted much of Greek culture, and acknowledged its universal appeal, they could not embrace the polytheistic Greek belief system and were religiously rigid. Hence, they created their own variant of Hellenistic culture, one which embraced both Jewish and Greek values. Jews soon grew to be an important people in the city of Alexandria. Many became incredibly wealthy, working as moneylenders or merchants as well as having friendly relationships with the Greek royal court. Jews were able to accept Hellenization to a considerable extent due to the fact that much of Greek life did not interfere with Jewish values or the practice of their religion. For example, the first Greek gymnasium in the Jewish holy city of Jerusalem was commissioned by the Jewish high priest himself. Another sign of the acculturation of the Jews was the Greek symbols depicted in the ancient Alexandrian-Jewish synagogues. An ancient synagogue excavated outside of Alexandria, used the Greek god, Helios, to symbolize the sun. Similarly, a second synagogue located just outside of Chorazin exhibits a carving of the Greek monster, Medusa on a column, as well as many smaller carvings of Cupid, the god of love. Finally, one of the bases of Jewish-Hellenistic literature was the Septuagint. The Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible, and made Jewish culture accessible to more Hellenized Jews, who did not speak the biblical language of Hebrew. The ability of the Jews to successfully adopt Hellenistic culture and norms, was, in my opinion, due in large part to Greek society’s willingness to accept the continued practice of Judaism and