Collection of Hellenistic period

The Museum’s library houses an archive with a unique collection of books by the most important authors of various languages and Greek, concerning the History of the Greek World and Culture of the East, in the Alexandrian and Hellenistic Era (^4th century BC – ^1st century AD).

From the Mediterranean, (Alexandria of Egypt, a beacon of Greek civilization, a library of universal knowledge and Syria, “little Macedonia”) to Central Asia (Greek cities-Alexandria). This subject is an important page of our cultural history and foreign archaeologists, with 100 years of excavations there, especially the French of the French Research Foundation-CNRS-Paris, are important connoisseurs.

In addition to the books (600), the archive hosts another rich electronic archive (16,000 articles) on the same subject. It contains many digitized books, texts and lectures by Greek and foreign professors, studies by researchers of various languages, videos (500), many documentaries, thousands of photographs from all the excavations and many files in Power-Point format, easy to use. They briefly present the Hellenistic cities of the East, with many pictures and their complete history. Also, large Albums with images of the archaeological finds, works of art and monuments of Greek civilization in the East, like “Parthenones” in the deserts, colonnades with Corinthian columns, Greek Theatres, Gymnasiums, statues, Greek texts, inscriptions, etc.

It also contains books and catalogues, unique in Greece, from the major exhibitions that are often held in important museums around the world. They exhibit the surviving works of art and archaeological finds from the Greek cities of the East, as well as those of local peoples, such as the Kushans, who occupied the Greek kingdoms of Central Asia (Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, India), appreciated and adopted many elements of Greek culture and cultivated them for centuries after the Greeks left. They introduced them into the Buddhist religion, into Greek-influenced art which was therefore called “Greek-Buddhist Gandhara art” – Buddhas with Apollonian faces, Hercules and Greek gods and heroes next to the Buddha and in Buddhist monasteries.

This is all the legacy of Alexander the Great and his successors, who achieved cultural coexistence and creative osmosis of cultures. Based on Alexander’s Cosmopolitanism and thanks to the Greek kingdoms and the many Alexandrian and other Greek cities founded in the East, from the Middle East to Central Asia and India, Greek civilization spread and the Greek language became universal for many centuries. Greek cultural traces are still there today.

Link: warmuseum.openabekt.gr For books – Keyword “Gregorakou”.
(War Museum-Library, Free entrance, Daily 09:00 – 13:30)