At this point, however, Pericles departs most dramatically from the example of other Athenian funeral orations and skips over the great martial achievements of Athens' past: "That part of our history which tells of the military achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the ready valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Hellenic or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to dwell upon, and I shall therefore pass it by. The first known date in his life is 472 bce, when he paid for the production of the playwright Aeschylus Persian trilogy. Pericles was born into the first generation able to use the new weapon of the popular vote against the old power of family politics. [8] It is possible that elements of both speeches are represented in Thucydides's version. Pericles (left) and Pheidias consult about creation of statue of Athena in this painting. This ordinary woman hid Anne Frankand kept her story alive, This Persian marvel was lost for millennia. In a book packed with battle, conquest, and massacre, Thucydides account of the plague is especially horrifying. "[14] Instead, Pericles proposes to focus on "the road by which we reached our position, the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang". In the speech, Pericles, the first great statesman of the ancient world, says that he wished to focus on "the road by which we reached our position, the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang" in addition to praising the dead. But soon after Pericles gave that prideful speech, the original democracy got sick. His father,Xanthippus, began his political career by a dynastic marriage to Agariste of the controversial Alcmaeonid family. Athenian doctors bore the brunt: Terrible . Pericles notes, "We alone do good to our neighbors not upon a calculation of interest, but in the confidence of freedom and in a frank and fearless spirit." . Plato recognized that the freedom afforded by the Athenian democracy seemed pleasant to many people, but his own judgment was less friendly: Democracy is an agreeable, anarchic form of society, with plenty of variety, which treats all men as equal, whether they are equal or not (Republic 558C). Pericles made use of the occasion offered in the Funeral Oration to respond in detail and to show how the democratic city he had in mind met their complaints. This new kind of government was carried to its classical form by the reforms of Pericles a half-century later, and it was in the Athens shaped by Pericles that the greatest achievements of the Greeks took place. Many Athenians blamed the calamity on their Spartan enemies, spreading dark rumors of poisoned reservoirs. The Athenian historian Thucydides included the speech in his book the History of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles married in his late 20s but divorced some 10 years later. ), who said he was quoting Pericles himself. The law also may have passed because of a general wish to restrict access to the benefits of office and public distributions, but there was never any disposition on the part of Athenians to restrict economic opportunities for foreignerswho served in the fleet, worked on public buildings, and had freedom of trade and investment, with the crucial, but normal, exception of land and houses. Socrates and Pericles, two of these philosophers, had polarizing opinions about the city-state and its citizens. In a democracy, citizens behave lawfully while doing what they like without fear of prying eyes. . First, he said, I shall make clear through what practices we have come to our present position and with what political constitution and way of life our city has become great. The institutions are democratic, but Pericles explanation of what that means is a refutation of the attacks made by the enemies of democracy. Greek noblemen lived by the ideal of the accomplished amateur: good at a variety of skillsmusic, athletics, warfare, among othersbut professionally devoted to none. . Wills never claims that Lincoln drew on it as a source, though Edward Everett, who delivered a lengthy oration at the same ceremony at Gettysburg, began by describing the "Athenian example". The polis was a political community and a sovereign entity competing in a world of similar communities. The Funeral Oration is significant because it differs from the usual form of Athenian funeral speeches. If we had access to Pericles inner thoughts and to the many other speeches he delivered in his long career, we would possibly discover that he took no less pride in Athenians peaceful achievements of mind and spirit. They would have been appalled by Platos notion that each man should do the one thing for which he was best suited, and so would the Athenians described by Pericles. Pericles Pericles expands on his earlier point about Athenian democracy to establish that it is not just a system of government; it is the whole way of life for Athenians. Bomber Command was engraved with a quote from it. Business, Men, Mind. We obey those who hold office and the laws themselves, especially those enacted for the protection of the oppressed and those which, although unwritten, it is acknowledged shame to violate (2.37.3). We alone regard the man who takes no part in politics not as someone who minds his own business but as useless. Pericles. The answer was to be found in the power of Athens, although less in its extent than its character. The play lacks moral ambiguity within many of the central characters. We are not angry with our neighbor if he does what pleases him, and we dont glare at him which, even if it is harmless, is a painful sight (2.37.2). Greeks deprived of the political life felt the loss keenly. In the realm of private disputes everyone is equal before the law, but when it is a matter of public honors each man is preferred not on the basis of his class but of his good reputation and his merit [arete]. Far from eulogizing Pericles in the Funeral Oration, Pericles is subtly depicted as a tyrant, a demagogue, a despot who became a despot by his exploitation of the erotic character of humansan erotic character which the Athenians unleashed in the Persian Wars and then unleashed over the Mediterranean in a vain and tyrannical bid for an empire. It was translated into English in 1628 by Thomas Hobbes, and has since been cited by heads of state from Woodrow Wilson to Xi Jinping. Millennia later, the plague reminds us that the legacy of the eternal wonder of Athens contains within it a cautionary tale: the failure of democratic society to cope with a lethal epidemic. The Funeral Oration was delivered during a war that was clearly going to continue for some time. Above all, Pericles helped the Athenians to understand that their private needs, both moral and material, required the kind of community Athens had become. 2 hours of sleep? He perceives Athens as a city with virtue, modesty, and modernization. But the heart of daily life was the agora, or marketplace, a sprawling complex of more than 200,000 square feet that featured trade in everyday items but also sported brothels, bars, and bathhouses. Thucydides, Pericles' Funeral Oration. In 430429 B.C.E., a mysterious epidemic ravaged Athens, plunging the city into chaos. Pericles allowed all people to participate in government which also made Athens more of a direct democracy. He also said that the ability to govern and participate in government was more important than one's class. The thousands of citizens who participated in Athenss fledgling democracy attended the popular assembly at the Pnyx, a rise in the center of the city. That if anyone should ask, they should look at their final moments when they gave their lives to their country and that should leave no doubt in the mind of the doubtful. "Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now." - Pericles. He says that Athens's democracy ensures justice for all its citizens but also encourages excellence in individuals. In these ways our city deserves to be admired (2.39). [21] He praises the soldiers for not faltering in their execution during the war. All rights reserved. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes"[15] These lines form the roots of the famous phrase "equal justice under law." In the opening scene of the Iliad, Achilles honor and reputation are diminished by Agamemnons arrogance, so he retires from the battle and sulks in his tent while the Greeks suffer a series of costly defeats. At an early date they had abandoned the normal means whereby men provide for themselves and their families, including all economic activity: farming, pasturing, trade, craft, and industry. This text is an excerpt from the National Geographic special issue, The little-known history of the Florida panther. Democracy allows men to advance because of merit rather than wealth or inherited class. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. What we can learn from Chernobyl's strays. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Thucydides (c. 460/455c. Thucydides' funeral speech about democracy delivered by Pericles. Pericles' funeral oration was a speech written by Thucydides and delivered by Pericles for his history of the Peloponnesian War. Omissions? Athenian democracy has become a model for . The story of the Athenians in the time of Pericles suggests that the creation and survival of democracy requires leadership of a high order. For Pericles, Athens itself was a competitor for these prizes in the agon among poleis, past and present. This is a sobering history, but, reading Thucydides account of the plague while under lockdown, I sometimes found the frosty old historian oddly heartening. was the sight of people dying like sheep through having caught the disease as a result of nursing others. Neither medicine nor quackery helped. The bustling main thoroughfare was the Panathenaic Way. From the first, the Greeks faced the great truth of mans mortality squarely. He rejected the notion that democracy turned its back on excellence, reducing all to equality at a low level. Thucydides' Greek is notoriously difficult, but the language of Pericles Funeral Oration is considered by many to be the most difficult and virtuosic passage in the History of the Peloponnesian War.
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