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ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL
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ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL . Under this See also:title are generally included certain strongly marked tendencies in literature, See also:science and See also:art, which took their rise in the See also:ancient See also:Egyptian See also:city of See also:Alexandria. That city, founded by See also: Among these appears to have been a portion of the See also:Septuagint. Euergetes (247–222) largely increased the library by seizing on the See also:original See also:editions of the dramatists laid up in the Athenian archives, and by compelling all travellers who arrived in Alexandria to leave a copy of any work they possessed. The intellectual See also:movement so originated extended over a See also:long See also:period of years. If we date its rise from the 4th See also:century B.C., at the time of the fall of Greece and the See also:foundation of the Graeco-Macedonian See also:empire, we must look for its final See also:dissolution in the 7th century of the See also:Christian era, at the time of the fall of Alexandria and the rise of the See also:Mahommedan See also:power. But this very long period falls into two divisions. The first, extending from about 306 to 30, includes the time from the foundation of the Ptolemaic See also:dynasty to its final subjugation by the See also:Romans; the second extends from 30 to A.D. 642, when Alexandria was destroyed by the See also:Arabs. The characteristic features of these divisions are very clearly marked, and their difference affords an explanation of the variety and vagueness of meaning attaching to the See also:term " Alexandrian School." In the first of the two periods the intellectual activity was of a purely See also:literary and scientific nature. It was an See also:attempt to continue and develop, under new conditions, the old Hellenic culture. This direction of effort was particularly noticeable under the See also:early See also:Ptolemies, Alexandria being then almost the only See also:home in the world for pure literature. During the last century and a See also:half before the Christian era, the school, as it might be called, began to break up and to lose its individuality. This was due partly to the See also:state of See also:government under some of the later Ptolemies, partly to the formation of new literary circles in See also:Rhodes, See also:Syria and elsewhere, whose supporters, though retaining the Alexandrian peculiarities, could scarcely be included in the Alexandrian school. The loss of active See also:life, consequent on this See also:gradual dissolution, was much increased whgn Alexandria See also:fell under See also:Roman sway. Then the See also:influence of the school was extended over the whole known world, but men of letters began to concentrate at See also:Rome rather than at Alexandria. In that city, however, there were new forces in operation which produced a second See also:grand outburst of intellectual life. The new movement was not in the old direction—had, indeed, nothing in See also:common with it. With its See also:character largely determined by Jewish elements, and even more by contact with the dogmas of See also:Christianity, this second Alexandrian school resulted in the speculative philosophy of the Neo-Platonists and the religious philosophy of the Gnostics and early See also: Even in the later schools of philosophy proper there is found a community rather of tendency than of definite result or of fixed principles. I. Literature.—The general character of the literature of the school appears as the necessary consequence of the state of affairs brought about by the fall of See also:Greek See also:nationality and independence. The great works of the Greek mind had formerly been the See also:pro-ducts of a fresh life of nature and perfect freedom of thought. All their See also:hymns, epics and histories were See also:bound up with their individuality as a See also:free See also:people. But the Macedonian See also:conquest at See also:Chaeroneia brought about a See also:complete dissolution of this Greek life in all its relations, private and See also:political. The full, genial spirit of Greek thought vanished when freedom, with which it was inseparably united, was lost. A substitute for this originality was found at Alexandria in learned See also:research, extended and multifarious knowledge. Amply provided with means for acquiring See also:information, and under the watchful care of a great monarch, the Alexandrians readily took this new direction in literature. With all the great objects removed which could excite a true spirit of poetry, they devoted themselves to See also:minute researches in all sciences subordinate to literature proper. They studied See also:criticism, See also:grammar, See also:prosody and See also:metre, antiquities and See also:mythology. The results of this study constantly appear in their productions. Their works are never national, never addressed to a people, but to a circle of learned men. Moreover, the very fact of being under the See also:protection and, as it were, in the pay of an See also:absolute monarch was damagl'hg to the character of their literature. There was introduced into it a courtly See also:element, clear traces of which, with all its accompaniments, are found in the extant works of the school. One other fact, not to be forgotten in forming a general estimate of the literary value of their productions, is, that the same writer was frequently or almost always distinguished in several See also:special sciences. The most renowned poets were at the same time men of culture and science, critics, archaeologists, astronomers or physicians. To such writers the poetical form was merely a convenient vehicle for the exposition of science. The forms of poetical See also:composition chiefly cultivated by the Alexandrians were epic and lyric, or elegiac. Great epics are wanting; but in their See also:place, as might almost have been expected, are found the See also:historical and the didactic or expository epics. The subjects of the historical epics were generally some of the well-known myths, in the exposition of which the writer could exhibit the full extent of his learning and his perfect command of See also:verse. These poems are in a sense valuable as repertoires of antiquities; but their See also:style is on the whole See also:bad, and See also:infinite See also:patience is required to clear up their numerous and obscure allusions. The best extant specimen is the Argonautica of See also:Apollonius Rhodius; the most characteristic is the Alexandra or See also:Cassandra of See also:Lycophron, the obscurity of which is almost proverbial. The subjects of didactic epics were very numerous; they seem to have depended on the special knowledge possessed by the writers, who used verse as a form for unfolding their in-formation. Some, e.g. the lost poem of Callimachus, called A7ria, were on the origin of myths and religious observances; others were on special sciences. Thus we have two poems of See also:Aratus, who, though not See also:resident at Alexandria, was so thoroughly imbued with the Alexandrian spirit as to be with See also:reason included in the school; the one is an See also:essay on See also:astronomy, the other an See also:account of the signs of the See also:weather. See also:Nicander of See also:Colophon has also See also:left us two epics, one on remedies for poisons, the other on the bites of venomous beasts. See also:Euphorion and Rhianus wrote mythological epics. The spirit of all their productions is the same, that of learned research. They are distinguished by See also:artistic form, purity of expression and strict See also:attention to the See also:laws of metre and prosody, qualities which, however See also:good in themselves, do not compensate for want of originality, freshness and power. In their lyric and elegiac poetry there is much worthy of admiration. The specimens we possess are not devoid of See also:talent or of a certain happy art of expression. Yet, for the most See also:part, they either relate to objects thoroughly incapable of poetic treatment, where the writer's endeavour is rather to expound the See also:matter fully than to render it poetically beautiful, or else expend themselves on See also:short isolated subjects, generally myths, and are erotic in character. The earliest of the elegiac poets was See also:Philetas, the sweet See also:singer of See also:Cos. But the most distinguished was Callimachus, undoubtedly the greatest of the Alexandrian poets. Of his numerous works there remain to us only a few hymns, epigrams and fragments of elegies.' Other lyric poets were See also:Phanocles, See also:Hermesianax, Alexander of See also:Aetolia and Lycophron. Some of the best productions of the school were their epigrams. Of these we have several specimens, and the art of composing them seems to have been assiduously cultivated, as might naturally be expected from the See also:court life of the poets, and their See also:constant endeavours after terseness and neatness of expression. Of kindred character were the parodies and satirical poems, of which the best examples were the Silli of See also:Timon and the Cinaedi of See also:Sotades. A considerable fragment of his epic See also:Hecate has been discovered in the Rainer pap}-rus. Dramatic poetry appears to have flourished to some extent. There are still extant three or four varying lists of the seven great dramatists who composed the See also:Pleiad of Alexandria. Their works, perhaps not unfortunately, have perished. A ruder See also:kind of See also:drama, the amoebaean verse, or bucolic See also:mime, See also:developed into the only pure stream of genial poetry found in the Alexandrian School, the Idylls of See also:Theocritus. The name of these poems preserves their original See also:idea; they were pictures of fresh See also:country life. The most interesting fact connected with this Alexandrian poetry is the powerful influence it exercised on Roman literature. That literature, especially in the Augustan See also:age, is not to be thoroughly understood without due appreciation of the character of the Alexandrian school. The historians of this period were numerous and prolific. Many of them, e.g. See also:Cleitarchus, devoted themselves to the life and achievements of Alexander the Great. The best-known names are those of See also:Timaeus and See also:Polybius. Before the Alexandrians had begun to produce original works, their researches were directed towards' the masterpieces of ancient Greek literature. If that literature was to be a power in the world, it must be handed down to posterity in a form capable of being understood. This was the task begun and carried out by the Alexandrian critics. These men did not merely collect works, but sought to arrange them, to subject the texts to criticism, and to explain any allusion or reference in them which at a later date might become obscure. The complete philological examination of any work consisted, according to them, of the following processes: fiiopOwvis, arrangement of the See also:text; avayvwver, See also:settlement of accents; r xvn, theory of forms, syntax; E ilynvis, explanation either of words or things; and finally, apLaIS, See also:judgment on the author and his work, including all questions as to authenticity and integrity. To perform their task adequately required from the critics a wide circle of knowledge; and from this requirement sprang the sciences of grammar, prosody, lexicography, mythology and See also:archaeology. The service rendered by these critics is invaluable. To them we owe not merely the See also:possession of the greatest works of Greek See also:intellect, but the possession of them in a readable state. The most celebrated critics were See also:Zenodotus; See also:Aristophanes of See also:Byzantium, to whom we owe the theory of Greek accents; See also:Crates of Mallus; and See also:Aristarchus of See also:Samothrace, confessedly the See also:coryphaeus of criticism. Others were Lycophron, Callimachus, Eratosthenes and many of a later age, for the See also:critical school long survived the literary. See also:Dionysius Thrax, the author of the first scientific Greek grammar, may also be mentioned. These philological labours were of great indirect importance, for they led immediately to the study of the natural sciences, and in particular to a more accurate knowledge of See also:geography andhistory. Considerable attention began to be paid to the ancient See also:history of Greece, and to all the myths See also:relating to the foundation of states and cities. A large collection of such curious information is contained in the Bibliotheca of See also:Apollodorus, a See also:pupil of Aristarchus who flourished in the znd century B.C. Eratosthenes was the first to write on mathematical and See also:physical geography; he also first attempted to draw up a See also:chronological table of the Egyptian See also:kings and of the historical events of Greece. The sciences of mathem,atics, astronomy and See also:medicine were also cultivated with assiduity and success at Alexandria, but they can scarcely be said to have their origin there, or in any strict sense to form a part of the peculiarly Alexandrian literature. The founder of the mathematical school was the celebrated See also:Euclid (Eucleides); among its scholars were See also:Archimedes; Apollonius of See also:Perga, author of a See also:treatise on Conic Sections; Eratosthenes, to whom we owe the first measurement of the See also:earth; and See also:Hipparchus, the founder of the epicyclical theory of the heavens, afterwards called the Ptolemaic system, from its most famous expositor, See also:Claudius See also:Ptolemaeus. Alexandria continued to be celebrated as a school of See also:mathematics and science long after the Christian era. The science of medicine had distinguished representatives in Herophilus and Erasistratus, the two first great anatomists. AUTHORITIES—Muller and See also:Donaldson, History of the Literature i of Ancient Greece; W. See also:Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur; See also:Mahaffy, Greek Life and Thought from the Age of Alexander to the Roman Empire; Couat, La Poesie alexandrine; and especially Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit. See also:Nicolai's Griechische Literaturgeschichte, though somewhat out of date, is useful for bibliography.
II. Philosophy—Although it is not possible to See also:divide literatures with absolute rigidity by centuries, and although the intellectual life of Alexandria, particularly as applied to science, long survived the Roman conquest, yet at that period the school, which for some time had been gradually breaking up, seems finally to have succumbed. The later productions in the See also: The Jewish ideas of divine authority and their transcendental theories of conduct were peculiarly attractive to the Greek thinkers who found no inspiration in the dry intellectualism into which they had fallen (see NEO-PYTHAGOREANISM). At the same time the Jews of the See also:Dispersion had to some extent shaken off the exclusiveness of- their old political relations and were prepared to compare and contrast their old territorial theology with See also:cosmopolitan culture. Further, when the two sides came to consider the results of their intellectual See also:inheritance they found that they had sufficient common ground for the initial See also:compromise. Thus the Hellenistic See also:doctrine of See also:personal See also:revelation could be combined with the Jewish tradition of a complete theology revealed to a special people. The result was the application of a purely philosophical system to the somewhat vague and unorganized corpus of Jewish theology. The matter was Jewish, the arrangement Greek. According to the relative predominance of these two eiements arose See also:Gnosticism, the Patristic theology, and the philosophical schools of Neo-Pythagoreanism, Neo-See also:Platonism and eclectic Platonism. The members of the school may be enumerated under three heads. (1) The beginnings of the eclectic spirit are, according to some authorities, discernible in the Septuagint (28o B.C.) (see See also:Frankel, Historisch-kritische Studien zur Septuaginta, 1841), but the first See also:concrete exemplification is found in See also:Aristobulus (c. 16o B.c.). So far as the Jewish See also:succession is concerned, the great name is that of See also:Philo in the first century of our era. He took Greek metaphysical theories, and, by the allegorical method, interpreted them in accordance with the Jewish Revelation. He dealt with (a) human life as explained by the relative nature of See also:Man and See also:God, (b) the Divine nature and the existence of God, and, (c) the great See also:Logos doctrine as the explanation of the relation between God and the material universe. From these three arguments he developed an elaborate See also:theosophy which was a See also:syncretism of See also:oriental See also:mysticism and pure Greek metaphysic, and may be regarded as, representing the See also:climax of Jewish philosophy. (2) The first purely philosophical phenomenon of the Alexandrian school was Neo-Pythagoreanism, the second and last Neo-Platonism. Leaving all detailed descriptions of these schools to special articles.devoted to them, it is sufficient here to say that their doctrines were a See also:synthesis of Platonism, Stoicism and the later Aristotelianism with a See also:leaven of oriental mysticism which gradually became more and more important. The world to which they spoke had begun to demand a doctrine of salvation to satisfy the human soul. They endeavoured to, See also:deal with the-ALEXANDRINE VERSE 575 problem of good and evil. They therefore devoted themselves to examining the nature of the soul, and taught that its freedom consists in communion with God, to be achieved by absorption in a sort of ecstatic See also:trance. This doctrine reaches its height in See also:Plotinus, after whom it degenerated into magic and theurgy in its unsuccessful combat with the victorious Christianity. Finally this See also:pagan theosophy was driven from Alexandria back to See also:Athens under See also:Plutarch and See also:Proclus, and occupied itself largely in purely historical work based mainly on the attempt to re-organize ancient philosophy in conformity with the system of Plotinus. This school ended under See also:Damascius when Justinian closed the Athenian schools (A.D. 529). (3) The eddies of Neo-Platonism had a considerable effect on certain Christian thinkers about the beginning of the 3rd-century. Among these the most important were See also:Clement of Alexandria and See also:Origen. Clement, as a See also:scholar and a theologian, proposed to unite the mysticism of Neo-Platonism with the practical spirit of Christianity. He combined the principle of pure living with that of free thinking, and held that instruction must have regard to the See also:mental capacity of the hearer. The compatibility of Christian and later Neo-Platonic ideas is evidenced by the writings of See also:Synesius, See also:bishop of Ptolemais, and though Neo-Platonism eventually succumbed to Christianity, it had the effect, through the writings of Clement and Origen, of modifying the tyrannical fanaticism and ultra-dogmatism of the early Christian writers. AuTxoRITIEs.—Matter, Histoire de l'ecole d'Alexandrie, 2nd ed. (3 vols., 1840–1844) ; See also:Simon, Histoire de l'ecole d'Alexandrie (2 vols., 1844–1845) ; See also:Vacherot, Histoire critique de l'ecole d'Alexandrie 3vols., 1846–1851); See also:Kingsley, Alexandria and her Schools (1854); See also:Gfrorer, Philo and See also:die Alexandrinische Theosophie (1835); Dahne, Geschicht. Darstellung der Jiidisch-Alexandrinischen Religionsphilosophie (1834) ; Histories of Philosophy by See also:Zeller, See also:Ueberweg, Windelband, &c., and Bibliography of CHURCH HISTORY, &c. 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