Why Is Theocritus Important To The Hellenistic World?

Previous to the Hellenistic world as was known, everything had been under the shadow of Athens which catered all sources before that to them. It was not until after the rise of the Macedonians, most importantly Alexander, that would bring about a change in the literature that characterized the world. Theocritus, whose experience and relationships enable him to complete his works, displays this shift in his series of bucolic poetry entitled Idylls. Within these almost thirty poems we are introduced to the emergence of kingship as the leading form of governing power, the idea of magic and the gods versus scientific discovery, and the longing for the world to be as it was in the comparison of the new cities to the old polis systems. Theocritus’s …show more content…
In fact, it was so successful due to the combination of Greek, Barbarian, and Hellenic sciences. One of the many Alexandrias (this time in Egypt) became the science capital of the world due to the riches and resources that the Ptolemies had. In Alexandria the Library and the Museum were dedicated to rescue and preserve all the ancient Greek literature, as well as provide a place of research to answer the questions that the world needed to know. Alexandria saw many advances such as hydraulics, new forms of mathematics, and even a then rejected heliocentric model of the …show more content…
The two women live in Alexandria and on their way comment on the status of the streets, “Ye gods, what a crush! How can we get through this rabble? We’ll be late. They’re like ants - impossible to count” (pg. 45 lines 44-45). The crowded cities were not a foreign concept to those living the in the Hellenistic world, in fact so many people who had originally longed to leave their polis for a large city yearned for the calm and quiet life they once had. Ptolemy’s palace was just a facade for the world, it was full of riches and beautifully crafted tapestries to hide from the crumbling city surrounding