Hellenic studies

Hellenic studies (also Greek studies) is an interdisciplinary scholarly field that focuses on the language, literature, history and politics of post-classical Greece. In university, a wide range of courses expose students to viewpoints that help them understand the historical and political experiences of Byzantine, Ottoman and modern Greece; the ways in which Greece has borne its several pasts and translated them into the modern era; and the era's distinguished literary and artistic traditions.

"Hellenic" refers to a period in Ancient Greek history between 507 BCE (the date of the first democracy in Athens) and 323 BCE (the death of Alexander the Great). This period is also referred to as the age of Classical Greece and should not be confused with The Hellenistic World, which designates the period between Alexander's death and the Roman Empire's conquest of Greece (323/146/31 BCE). The Hellenic World of ancient Greece consisted of the Greek mainland, Crete, the islands of the Greek archipelago, Cyprus, Pontus, the coast of Asia Minor primarily (though mention is made of cities within the interior of Asia Minor) and the colonies in southern Italy. This is the great Golden Age of Greece and, in the popular imagination, resonates as 'ancient Greece'.

The great law-giver, Solon, having served as Archon of Athens for 22 years, retired from public life and saw the city, almost immediately, fall under the dictatorship of Peisistratus. Though a dictator, Peisistratus understood Solon's wisdom, carried on his policies and after his death, his son Hippias continued this tradition (though maintaining a dictatorship that favored the aristocracy). His younger brother was assassinated (inspired, according to Thucydides, by a love affair gone wrong and not, as later thought, politically motivated) Hippias then became wary of the Athenians, instituted a rule of terror and was finally overthrown by the army under Kleomenes I of Sparta and Cleisthenes of Athens. Cleisthenes reformed the Athenian constitution and established democracy in the city during 507 BCE. He also followed Solon's lead, but instituted new laws that decreased the artistocracy's power, raised the status of the common people and attempted to join the separate tribes of the mountain, the plain and the shore into one, unified people under a new form of government. According to Will Durant, "The Athenians themselves were exhilarated by this adventure into sovereignty...they knew the zest of freedom in action, speech and thought; and from that moment they began to lead all Greece in literature and art, even in statesmanship and war".^{[citation needed]} This foundation of democracy, of a free state consisting of men who "owned the soil that they tilled and who ruled the state that governed them", stabilized Athens and provided the groundwork for the Golden Age.

The list of thinkers, writers, doctors, artists, scientists, statesmen and warriors of the Hellenic World important contributions to western civilization: The statesman Solon, poets Pindar and Sappho, playwrights Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus and Aristophanes, the orator Lysias, historians Herodotus and Thucydides, philosophers Zeno of Elea, Protagoras of Abdera, Empedocles of Acragas, Heraclitus, Xenophanes, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, writer and general Xenophon, physician Hippocrates, sculptor Phidias, statesman Pericles, generals Alcibiades, Themistocles, Leonidas, Cimon, Agesilaus II, Epaminondas, Philip, Alexander the Great and many more lived during this period. The Golden Age, according to the poet Shelley, "is undoubtedly...the most memorable in the history of the world" for the accomplishments and advancements made by the people of that time. Herodotus considered his own age as lacking in many ways and looked back to a more ancient past for a paradigm of a true greatness. The writer Hesiod, an 8th-century BCE contemporary of Homer, claimed precisely the same thing about the age Herodotus admired and called his own age "wicked, depraved and dissolute" and hoped the future would produce a better breed of man for Greece.

Major city-states and sacred places of pilgrimage in the Hellenic World were Argos, Athens, Eleusis, Corinth, Delphi, Ithaca, Olympia, Sparta, Thebes, Dodona, Dion, Pella, Aigai, Thrace and Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. The gods played an important part in the lives of the people; so much so that one could face execution for questioning - or even allegedly questioning - their existence, as in the case of Protagoras, Socrates and Alcibiades (the Athenian statesman Critias, sometimes referred to as `the first atheist', only escaped condemnation because he was so powerful). Great works of art and beautiful temples were created for the worship and praise of the various gods and goddesses of the Greeks such as the Parthenon of Athens, dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin) and the Temple of Zeus (listed as an Ancient Wonder) at Olympia (both works to which Phidias contributed). The temple of Demeter at Eleusis was the site of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries and is considered the most important rite in ancient Greece. In his works, The Iliad and The Odyssey, immensely popular and influential in the Hellenic World, Homer depicted the gods and goddesses as intimately involved in the lives of the people. The deities were regularly consulted in domestic matters as well as affairs of state. The Oracle at Delphi was considered so important at the time that people from all over the known world came to Greece to ask advice or favors from the god. It was considered vital to consult with the supernatural forces before embarking on any military campaign.

Among the famous battles of the Hellenic World were the Battle of Marathon (490 BCE), the Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis (480 BCE), Plataea (479 BCE), and the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE) where the forces of the Macedonian King Philip II commanded, in part, by his son Alexander, defeated the forces of a Greek coalition led by Athens and Thebes and unified the Greek city-states into the Hellenic League. After Philip's death, Alexander conquered the world of his day, becoming Alexander the Great. His campaigns brought Greek culture, language and civilization to the world and, after his death, left the legacy that came to be known as the Hellenistic World.

Brown University's Committee of Modern Greek Studies sponsors the Department Of Classics Language instruction began in 1972. Instruction in Modern Greek literature and history began in 1995.

Columbia University offers Hellenic Studies with an undergraduate curriculum in Modern Greek and Greek Diaspora Studies. Students are encouraged to study abroad in Greece to further their academic studies and professional work.