Pericles ends with a short epilogue, reminding the audience of the difficulty of the task of speaking over the dead. Democracy allows men to advance because of merit rather than wealth or inherited class. Thucydides fervently supported Periclesbut was less enthusiastic about the institution of democracy. left his mark on the world in far more ways than the iconic Acropolis that still defines the skyline of Athens. He was one of those rare individuals who do not merely accept the conditions of the world they find but try to shape it to an image in their own minds. Pericles. The Athenian democracy would encourage merit in its traditional form and reward it with victory, glory, and immortality. An understanding of that reality should give pause to any who may think that democracy is the natural polity of mankind and that its establishment and success are assured once despotic or reactionary rule has been removed. But the Funeral Oration was intended to inspire the Athenians with a vision of excellence that justified their current efforts. He was too scrupulous to blame the epidemic on the Spartansan ancient reproach to those today who try to pin blame on foreign rivals. Gill, N.S. We continue to admire Athenss architectural splendor, stage its tragedies and comedies, and marvel, especially, at much that its democracy (the worlds first) wrought: participatory government, equal treatment before the law in private disputes, a distaste for class consciousness, juries made up of citizens, and tolerance about others personal lives. But these benefits, important as they were, did not appeal to the most basic spiritual need of all, the need for kleos and immortality. Pericles' Funeral Oration | Classical Wisdom Weekly In 430429 B.C.E., Athens was devastated by a mysterious epidemic, which reared its head again a few years later. Politics soon took priority over the arts for Pericles. Pericles' Funeral Oration Analysis: Athenian Democracy Pericles delivered the oration not only to bury the dead but to praise democracy. Among those who died from this plague were Pericles and two of his sons. Lemnos a new hallowed ground for blood sacrifice performance The surge in mail-in voting this year has protected people from the coronavirus, but it has also highlighted problems in the nations patchwork, underfunded election system. Pericles - Wikipedia Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version. Modified by time and circumstance, his vision has proven peculiarly powerful. Pericles was born in 495 BCE in Athens, Greece. Men gathered frequently at three public gymnasia to prepare for the (naked) athletic competitions in the Panathenaic Stadium. The tale tells us much about Greek values. The citizen of a free society has the right to ask, Why should I risk my life for my city? Photograph by James P. Blair, Nat Geo Image Collection. [2] The speech was supposed to have been delivered by Pericles, an eminent Athenian politician, at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War (431404BCE) as a part of the annual public funeral for the war dead. If, therefore, we are prepared to meet danger after leading a relaxed life instead of one filled with burdensome training, with our courage emerging naturally from our way of life instead of imposed by law, the advantage is ours. Orderly Athenians, no longer expecting to live long enough to face punishment for crimes, plunged into a state of unprecedented lawlessness. They could not even bother to lay their dead to rest respectably. A noted orator, Pericles stated in his famous Funeral Oration that Athenian citizens regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs not as a harmless, but a useless character.. Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Remembering Pericles' Oration in Athens, Greece - RealClearWorld Those who wish to help them grow and flourish, as well as those who worry for the future of the older democracies, troubled again, strangely enough, by a growing allegiance to family, tribe, and clan at the expense of the commonwealth, could do worse than to turn for inspiration and instruction to the story of Pericles of Athens and his city, where once, against all odds, a noble democracy triumphed. The city of Athens, however, was physically still much as it had been left by the Persian sack of 480, and its gods were inadequately housed. The polis was a political community and a sovereign entity competing in a world of similar communities. Yet Thucydides swiftly dismissed such speculation. He soon left their political camp, probably on the question of relations with Persia, and took the then new path of legal prosecution as a political weapon. He met both challenges by adapting the first to his own purposes and by rejecting the latter as inferior to the new society he had introduced in Athens. Pericles. The Athenians excluded women, children, resident aliens, and slaves from political life, but the principle of equality within the political community that they invented was the seed of the modern idea of universal egalitarianism that flowered during the French Enlightenment. They excluded money, the arts and sciences, philosophy, aesthetic pleasures, and the life of the mind in general, for all these things might foster individualism and detract from devotion to the polis. 3.38.4. The ancient Greek statesman Pericles (ca 495429 B.C.) It might have been smallpox, a fungal poisoning called ergotism, or something worse. All rights reserved. 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." Twenty-five hundred years later we remember him and his fellow-Athenians precisely because of their devotion to this great civic endeavor. And they especially need leaders with the talents to persuade their impatient citizens that these political institutions are the necessary first foundation for a decent regime and a good life for all. The speech begins by praising the custom of the public funeral for the dead, but criticises the inclusion of the speech, arguing that the "reputations of many brave men" should "not be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual". Athenian democracy has become a model for . Greeks deprived of the political life felt the loss keenly. The crisis had only just begun. 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. [8] It is possible that elements of both speeches are represented in Thucydides's version. 13. With brilliant brevity Lincoln answered some questions by pointing to the greatness of the cause at issue. The Spartans faced this fundamental problem of the polis in its sharpest form. This ancient marvel rivaled Romes intricate network of roads, For some long COVID patients, exercise is bad medicine, Radioactive dogs? In the second year of the Peloponnesian War a plague struck Athens, which was crowded with evacuees from the countryside, killing perhaps a quarter of the citys inhabitants. He stated that the soldiers who died gave their lives to protect the city of Athens, its citizens, and its freedom. To cope with this threat the Spartans turned their polis into a military academy and an armed camp, giving up the normal pleasures of life and devoting themselves entirely to the state. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. It contained a clear, if often implicit, contrast with the Spartan way of life, which so many Greeks admired but which Pericles regarded as inferior to the Athens he portrayed. Beyond those advantages, its early champions tried to show that the polis was necessary for civilized life, and therefore deserved the highest sacrifice. In the real world, however, no one would adopt that demanding and perverse way of life except in the unique circumstances that brought it to Sparta. The world has been astounded to see thin shoots of democracy trying to break through the hard surface of oppression. How did Cleisthenes reform Athenian democracy? Death is the end; beyond it is silence and darkness. Pericles was an Athenian statesman. His Alcmaeonid mother, Agariste, provided him with relationships of sharply diminishing political value and her family curse, a religious defilement that was occasionally used against him by his enemies. The new democracies will, therefore, need leaders in the Periclean mold, leaders who know that the aim and character of true democracy should be to elevate their citizens to the highest attainable level, and that cutting down the greatest to assuage the envy of the least is the way of tyranny. All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. It was a vision that exalted the individual within the political community not by what it gave him but by what it expected of him. Athens Should be Admired According to Funeral Oration Speech Where their system of democracy allowed them to have a voice amongst those who made important decisions that would affect them. The Athenian historian Thucydides included the speech in his book the History of the Peloponnesian War. That the soldiers put aside their desires and wishes for the greater cause. 12. [11] The speech glorifies Athens' achievements, designed to stir the spirits of a state still at war. By John G. Zumbrunnen. 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. What we can learn from Chernobyl's strays. In 451 or 450 Pericles carried a law confining Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. Only facing dangers that the mind can comprehend deserves to be called bravery, and that is what is expected of the men in his polis. A woman's greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill. In contrast, Pericles points to the limited jurisdiction of the Athenian regime, which leaves a considerable space for individualism and privacy, free from public scrutiny: Not only do we conduct our public life as free men but we are also free of suspicion of one another as we go about our every-day lives. Pericles gave the speech at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian war (431 B.C.E.). Here is that speech: Around 449 B.C., the Delian League signed the Peace of Callias, which ended nearly 50 years of fighting with the Persians and ushered in two decades of peace. This famous speech was given by the Athenian leader Pericles after the first battles of the Peloponnesian war. For they gave their lives for the common good. "Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version." Solon, an Athenian lawmaker of the early sixth century, went further, arguing that a well-governed polis was the best defense against injustice, faction, and turmoil: It makes all things wise and perfect in the world of men..

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