The Hellenistic Period and Hellenization in Phoenicia

Corinne Bonnet (1)

1 PLH - Patrimoine, Littérature, Histoire

After Alexander's conquest, Phoenicia was at the heart of a cultural process whose com plexity has not been adequately explained by the concept of "Hellenization." This chapter offers a critical questioning of this concept and a more fine-grained analysis of the cultur al dynamics that resulted from the long-term contact of Phoenician peoples with Greek paideia. It is important to note that this process was largely before Alexander's arrival, and it varied greatly depending on the perspectives of the sources, which are rather few in number. By examining institutions, cult mediations, and the role of elites, this chapter restores the fluidity and creativity that characterized strategies of integrating newness and claiming ancestrality that were at work in the Phoenician "middle ground" during the Hellenistic period.

Mots clés: conquest; cultural transfer; elite; network; cult; middle ground; Hellenization; polis

Domaines: Histoire; Etudes classiques; Religions

Corinne Bonnet. The Hellenistic Period and Hellenization in Phoenicia. Brian R. Doak; Carolina López-Ruiz. The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, pp.98-110, 2019, 97801904993412019-10-31. ⟨10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190499341.013.8⟩. ⟨hal-02288268⟩