Seminar : Childhood in Hellenistic Greece
The conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great resulted in great changes among the ancient Greeks. The 300 years after Alexander are called the Hellenistic period (323-30 BCE). Traditionally it is argued that one great change was childhood. Hellenistic Greeks are supposed to have discovered their children: they supposedly now saw them as more important and more interesting than ever before. But close study of new and old evidence raises serious doubts about this traditional argument.
The 200 years before Alexander the Great are called the Classical period (480-324 BCE). The 3 main characteristics of the children of the Classical period were pathos, precocity and play. We find the same 3 characteristics after this period. The Hellenistic period’s supposedly new ideas about children often go back well before Alexander the Great. Alternatively such ideas only occur in a small part of the Hellenistic period or a small area of the now much larger ancient Greek world. Hellenistic poets also often had purely literary motives for their representations of children. In addition the notions of writers and artists had little effect on the lived experience of contemporary children.
But there is still a lot that we do not know. The evidence for the exposure of newborn babies, the adoption of young children and the involvement of older ones in festivals remains extremely limited. Consequently we cannot say whether the Hellenistic period witnessed changes in these important areas. But we can say a lot about education. Philanthropy and public spending made access to it much easier for both boys and girls. This greater educational access positively impacted on the lives of Hellenistic children.
The English-language text of this lecture can be downloaded from here.
Mark Golden
Professor of Classics, University of Winnipeg
Professor Mark Golden is a leading figure in the writing of the social history of the ancient Greeks. He is the author of Children and Childhood in Classical Athens (second edition, 2015), Sport and Society in Ancient Greece (1998) and Sport in the Ancient World from A to Z (2004). His co-edited books include Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome (2003) and A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical World (2011). This year Prof. Golden retired from the University of Winnipeg where he taught from 1982 to 2015. He is Canadian by birth and studied at the University of Toronto. In 2012 Prof. Golden was the R D Milns Visiting Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland (Australia).
Programme
18:00 Introduction (English and French) by Dr David M. Pritchard (USIAS) and Prof. Dominique Lenfant (Institute of Greek History)
18:10 Lecture: Childhood in Hellenistic Greece (English)
19:00 Questions (French and English)
19:30 Wine Reception
Organised by Dr David Pritchard, University of Queensland and USIAS Fellow 2015, together with the Institute for Greek History.
