Alexandrian school

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the scholarly tradition of ancient Alexandria. For the Alexandrian school in Christian theology, see
Catechetical School of Alexandria
.

The Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in

Roman periods.[1]

Alexandria was a remarkable center of learning due to the blending of

Ptolemies ruling over Egypt, in the final centuries BC. Much scholarly work was collected in the great Library of Alexandria during this time. Large amounts of epic poetry and works on geography, history, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and medicine
were composed in Alexandria during this period.

Alexandrian school is also used to describe the religious and philosophical developments in Alexandria after the 1st century. The mix of

soul, and sought communion with God. The two great schools of biblical interpretation in the early Christian church incorporated Neoplatonism and philosophical beliefs from Plato's teachings into Christianity, and interpreted much of the Bible allegorically. The founders of the Alexandrian school of Christian theology were Clement of Alexandria and Origen
.

History

Jewish and native Egyptian works. Among these appears to have been a portion of the Septuagint. Euergetes (247–222) increased the library by seizing on the original editions of the dramatists from the Athenian archives, and by compelling all travelers who arrived in Alexandria to leave a copy of any work they possessed.[2]

Despite sharing certain tendencies, there was never a definitively "Alexandrian" system of thought. The literary, scientific, and philosophical activities of Alexandrian scholars in the Hellenistic and Roman periods were highly varied; they have only in common a certain spirit or form.

'Amr ibn al-'As
in 641 AD.

Scholarship of the early Ptolemaic period was usually either literary or scientific. This tendency reflects the larger project of the early Ptolemies to synthesize Egyptian and Hellenic intellectual culture. By the 1st century BC, the Alexandrian school began to fracture and diversify. This was due in part to the relative weakness of the government under the later Ptolemies, but also to the rise of new scholarly circles in Rhodes, Syria and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. This gradual dissolution was much increased when Alexandria fell under Roman sway.[2]

As the influence of the school was extended over the whole Graeco-Roman world, scholars began to concentrate at Rome rather than at Alexandria. In Alexandria, however, there were new forces in operation, which produced a second great outburst of intellectual life. The new movement, which was influenced by

Gnostics and early church fathers.[2]

Literature

The forms of

didactic or expository epics. The subjects of the historical epics were generally some of the well-known myths, in which the writer could show the full extent of his learning and his perfect command of verse. These poems are valuable as repertoires of antiquities; but their style is often bad, and great patience is required to clear up their numerous and obscure allusions. The best extant specimen is the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes; the most characteristic is the Alexandra or Cassandra of Lycophron, the obscurity of which is almost proverbial.[3]

The subjects of the 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 information. Some, such as the lost poem of

venomous beasts. Euphorion and Rhianus wrote mythological epics. The spirit of all their productions is the same, that of learned research. [3]

Alexandrian lyric and elegiac poetry was often technical and derivative. The earliest of the elegiac poets was

Alexander of Aetolia and Lycophron.[3]

Epigrams were popular, as well as parodies and satirical poems, which include the

Timon and the Kinaidoi of Sotades.[3]

Dramatic poetry appears to have flourished to some extent. Extant are three or four varying lists of the seven great dramatists who composed the

mime, developed into the only pure stream of genial poetry found in the Alexandrian School, the Idylls of Theocritus. As the name of these poems suggests, they were pictures of fresh country life.[3]

Alexandrian poetry had a powerful influence on Roman literature. That literature, especially in the Augustan age, can only be understood by appreciating of the character of the Alexandrian school. The historians of this period were numerous and prolific. Many of them, such as Cleitarchus, devoted themselves to the life and achievements of Alexander the Great. The best-known names are those of Timaeus and Polybius.[3]

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 had to 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. They studied the arrangement of the texts; settlement of accents; theories of forms and syntax; explanations either of words or things; and judgments on the authors and their works, including all questions as to authenticity and integrity.[3]

The critics required a wide range of knowledge; and from this requirement sprang

Claudius Ptolemy
. Alexandria continued to be celebrated as a school of mathematics and science long after the Christian era.

Philosophy

After the Roman conquest, pure literature bears the stamp of Rome rather than of Alexandria. But in Alexandria for some time there had been various forces working, and these, coming in contact with great spiritual changes in the world, produced a second outburst of intellectual activity, which is generally known as the Alexandrian school of philosophy.[4]

The doctrines of this school were a fusion of Eastern and Western thought, typically combining in varying proportions elements of

Buddha in Western literature.[5]

The city of Alexandria had gradually become the neutral ground of

Patristic theology, and the philosophical schools of Neopythagoreanism and Neoplatonism.[4]

The first concrete exemplification of this is found in

allegorical method, interpreted them in accordance with the Jewish Revelation. He dealt with (a) human life as explained by the relative nature of Humanity to God, (b) the Divine nature and the existence of God, and, (c) the great Logos doctrine as the explanation of the relation between God and the material universe. From these three arguments he developed a syncretism of oriental mysticism and pure Greek metaphysics.[4]

The first pure philosophy of the Alexandrian school was Neopythagoreanism, the second and last Neoplatonism. Their doctrines were a synthesis of

Justinian closed the Athenian schools (529).[4]

Neoplatonism had a considerable effect on certain Christian thinkers at the beginning of the 3rd century. Among these the most important were

Neoplatonic ideas is evidenced by the writings of Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, and though Neoplatonism eventually succumbed to Christianity.[4]

Medicine

The two first great

Herophilus and Erasistratus, practiced in Alexandria.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Alexandrian school – Merriam-Webster Online
  2. ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 573.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911, p. 574.
  4. ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911, p. 575.
  5. ^ Stromata Book 1, Chapter 15. http://www.gnosis.org/library/strom1.htm

References

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alexandrian School". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 573–575.

External links

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