Freedom and Duty: Pericles and Our Times | The National Interest Although limited to adult males of native parentage, Athenian citizenship granted full and active participation in every decision of the state without regard to wealth or class. Business, Men, Mind. PDF Political Myth and Action in Pericles' Funeral Oration 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. Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now, Pericles, the great Athenian statesman, declared in his funeral oration, a celebrated speech in the winter of 431430 B.C.E. In his speech, Pericles states that he had been emphasising the greatness of Athens in order to convey that the citizens of Athens must continue to support the war, to show them that what they were fighting for was of the utmost importance. Pericles, a prominent and influential Politian in Athens, has argued that democracy is the best form of government because it fairly produces the most educated and excellent citizens, through freedom to act as they please, which will eventually shape there soul into a great person (Warner 145). The Athenian democracy, Pericles asserts, far from reducing all to a low common level, raises all its citizens to the level of noblemen by asking them to take part in political life and so to control their own destiny. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Thucydides (c. 460/455c. Pericles begins by praising the dead, as the other Athenian funeral orations do, by regard the ancestors of present-day Athenians (2.36.12.36.3), touching briefly on the acquisition of the empire. A few days before Pericles birth, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, Agariste dreamed she bore a lion. Instead, it opened the competition for excellence and honor to all, removing the accidental barriers imposed in other constitutions and societies: Our city is called a democracy because it is governed by the many, not the few. Most of what we know about the plague comes from the brilliant Athenian historian Thucydides, widely viewed by classicists as the single best source on Athens in the age of Pericles. How do we reverse the trend? When the Mytilenean poet Alcaeus was sent into exile the loss he complained of was not his house and fields but the scenes of political life: I yearn, Agesilaidas, to hear the herald summon the assembly and the council (Alcaeus, fragment 130). Monoson, Sara (2002). Nor did they believe in personal immortality, in which death is a blessing, a release from a painful and wretched life and admission to paradise. Athenian doctors bore the brunt: Terrible . The ancient Greek statesman Pericles (ca 495-429 B.C.) In the streets around the Fifth Precinct police station, protesters battle law enforcement, chastise looters, and fight to be heard. According to Pericles, what were the characteristics of Athenian democracy? Full article: Jowett's Thucydides: A corpus-based analysis of She has been featured by NPR and National Geographic for her ancient history expertise. And after a life spent in what among our people passes for comfort, he died most gloriously. In Athens, all citizens were equal before the law. They also complained of the lack of uniform good character in the citizens, who were unpredictably involved in various activities and masters of none, with negative consequences for their military ability and moral quality. The authorship of the Funeral Oration is also not certain. They respected the warrior class and placed them among the top member of the society. This past spring, Richard Bernstein investigated the questions hed been asking his whole careerabout right, wrong, and what we owe one anotherone last time. [citation needed] The speech is full of rhetorical devices, such as antithesis, anacoluthon, asyndeton, anastrophe, hyperbaton, and others; most famously the rapid succession of proparoxytone words beginning with e (" , ' " [judging courage freedom and freedom happiness]) at the climax of the speech (43.4). left his mark on the world in far more ways than the iconic Acropolis that still defines the skyline of Athens. "For the love of honor alone is ever young, and not riches, as some say, but honor is the delight of men when they are old and useless." - Pericles, 'Pericles' Funeral Oration'. The Delian League effectively became an Athenian empire. Essay on Pericles | Ultius Political Aspects of the Classical Age of Greece, Most Important Figures in Ancient History, The Thirty Tyrants After the Peloponnesian War, M.A., Linguistics, University of Minnesota. Inside South Africas skeleton trade. Even more simply, it is a democracy because while Athenians "are free and tolerant in our private lives, in public affairs we keep to the law. [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 the newly free nations see democracy chiefly as a quick route to material well-being and equal distribution of wealth, they will be badly disappointed, and democracy will fail. For the annual summer birthday celebration of Athena (the Greek goddess of wisdom for whom the city is named), a procession started at the Dipylon Gatethe largest of 15 gates in the cityand marched more than a mile to the Altar of Athena on the Acropolis. But the Funeral Oration was intended to inspire the Athenians with a vision of excellence that justified their current efforts. Pericles was widely seen as the leader of Athens. Knowledge of the life of Pericles derives largely from two sources. As Thucydides recorded with clinical detail, people suddenly felt their heads begin to burn, their eyes redden, their tongues and mouths bleed. democracy the best source is the series of panegyrics on Athens. 1, Routledge, 2016. 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. Politics soon took priority over the arts for Pericles. The average citizen could not look even to his polis for the satisfaction of his greatest spiritual needs. In a battle between the Athenians and their neighbors near Eleusis, he came to the aid of his fellow-citizens, turned the enemy to rout, and died most nobly. The satisfaction of these passions normally implies extraordinary inequality; yet Pericles believed it could be achieved by the citizens of a democracy based on legal and political equality. Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version - ThoughtCo He was seen as encouraging and enabling the participation of ordinary citizens in the democratic process, not only as electors but as active participants. They need leaders who understand that individual freedom, self-government, and equality before the law are of the highest value in themselves. Tens of thousands of people died, perhaps as many as one-third of Athenians. Pericles Funeral Oration in Depth. Through such a display he hoped to win the kind of fame that would gain him immortality as the memory of his great deeds passed on through the generations, sung and embellished by bards like Homer. . We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. But even in Herodotus tale such glory is for the rare individual who had both the ability and the opportunity to perform a great deed. All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Ancient Philosophy. The ancient Greek statesman Pericles (ca 495429 B.C.) 105 Copy quote. Politicians in search of scapegoats would be wise to recall Pericles, who said, before the plague, What I fear is not the enemys strength, but our own mistakes.. One hundred years later, an orator argued for firm distinctions of status on the ground that the law provided even the poorest Athenian girl with a dowry in the form of her citizenship. Athens is called a democracy because the many rule, not the few; everyone knew that in Sparta a small minority dominated the vast majority. The older was the aristocratic image that emerged from the epic poems of Homer and dominated Greek society for hundreds of years. By John G. Zumbrunnen. The newer image, provided by Sparta, took shape no earlier than the seventh century but immediately captured the imagination of many and continued to fascinate Greek thinkers for centuries. In 430-429 B.C.E., Athens was devastated by a mysterious epidemic, which reared its head again a few years. Ad Choices. [11] The speech glorifies Athens' achievements, designed to stir the spirits of a state still at war. That is why Pericles could make this extraordinary demand on them when the great war came: You must every day look upon the power of your city and become her lovers [erastai] and when you have understood her greatness consider that the men who achieved it were brave and honorable and knew what was necessary when the time came for action. Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version. To speak of this legislation as a move toward creating a master race is thus partly misleading, but the demagogic nature of the law seems clear. With the linkage of Athens' greatness complete, Pericles moves to addressing his audience. Democracy allows men to advance because of merit rather than wealth or inherited class. He maneuvered Athens to primacy over other league members, first by transferring the leagues treasury to Athens in 454 B.C.

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