. The image and example of the prosperous, free nations of the world, conveyed to their people by modern technology, has meanwhile raised material expectations to unrealistic levels. 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. ), who said he was quoting Pericles himself. . Greek noblemen lived by the ideal of the accomplished amateur: good at a variety of skillsmusic, athletics, warfare, among othersbut professionally devoted to none. And it is right to judge those most courageous who understand both the pleasures and the terrors involved most clearly and yet do not turn away from dangers as a result (2.40.3). Spartas system appealed especially to aristocrats, such as the young men who conversed with Socrates in the gymnasia. Pericles approved payment for jury duty and for soldiers, sailors, and administrators. He says that Athens's democracy ensures justice for all its citizens but also encourages excellence in individuals. According to Pericles, what were the characteristics of Athenian democracy? Pericles Funeral Oration in Depth - PBS The outbreak of war among the Greek states in 459 put a premium on military talent, and Pericles only recorded campaign in the next few years was a naval expedition in the Corinthian Gulf in 454, in which Athens defeated Achaea but failed to win more important objectives. 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. Pericles (l. 495-429 BCE) was a prominent Greek statesman, orator, and general during the Golden Age of Athens. The citizen of a free society has the right to ask, Why should I risk my life for my city? The freedom we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. Heres how paradise fought back. Wars were frequent, and in order to survive and flourish each polis required devotion and sacrifice from its citizens. "Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now." - Pericles. That Pericles immediately succeeded the assassinated Ephialtes as head of the democratic party in 461 is an ancient oversimplification; there were other men of considerable weight in Athens in the next 15 years. The bibliography on this topic is enormous. Socrates and Pericles, two of these philosophers, had polarizing opinions about the city-state and its citizens. 2023 Cond Nast. 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. The play lacks moral ambiguity within many of the central characters. Pericles first made a name for himself in the city-state during his 20s as a wealthy aristocratic arts patron. We thought we knew turtles. He speaks of the ancestors with great honor and valor and that it was them who gave birth to Athens. His approach was an unusual way to give a funeral oration, and as such it has been immortalized and is still deeply valued. For Athenians, the individual and familial values sung by Homer remained vital and attractive; yet their polis needed a Spartan commitment and devotion to meet the challenge of the Persian invasions, of the acquisition of the empire, and of the jealousy of Sparta and her allies. In 451 or 450 Pericles carried a law confining Athenian citizenship to those of Athenian parentage on both sides. The Spartan way of life inspired admiration in many other Greeks, though none went so far as to adopt the Spartan system. She was also niece to the father of Athenian democracy, Cleisthenes. In the streets around the Fifth Precinct police station, protesters battle law enforcement, chastise looters, and fight to be heard. His achievements included the construction of the Acropolis, begun in 447. Read the following excerpt from Pericles's speech: Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Part of the answer lay in a quality of life unknown elsewhere, a range of activities that brought the pleasures of prosperity to the appetite, joy and wonder to the spirit, stimulation to the intellect, and pride to the soul. Although Thucydides records the speech in the first person as if it were a word for word record of what Pericles said, there can be little doubt that he edited the speech at the very least. What Is a Brief Summary of Pericles' Funeral Oration? - Reference.com Only one ancient account mentions the existence of Xerxes Canal, long thought to be a tall tale. 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. The Delian League effectively became an Athenian empire. His father Xanthippus (c. 525 - 475 BC) was a respected politician and war hero, and his mother Agariste was a member of the powerful and influential Alcmaeonidae family, who encouraged the early development of Athenian democracy. He saw the opportunity to create the greatest political community the world had ever known, one that would fulfill mans strongest and deepest passionsfor glory and immortality. THUCYDIDES gives Pericles very little to say in his Funeral Oration about the political institutions of Athenian democracy. 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. . In 431, shortly after the Peloponnesian War had broken out . Pericles delivered the oration not only to bury the dead but to praise democracy. Courage, strength, military prowess, persuasiveness, cunning, beauty, wealth: these were examples of arete, the excellent qualities of the good, the fortunate, the happy man. We do not wear ourselves out in advance of future troubles, and when they come we show ourselves no less bold than those who are always in training. How this animal can survive is a mystery. [32], , ' . The statesman praised Athens for its freedom and democratic deliberations, while defending its increasingly oppressive empire. In our time democracy is taken for granted, but it is one of the rarest, most delicate, and fragile flowers in the jungle of human experience. Had he quoted the speech verbatim, he would have written "" ("this", or "these words") instead of "" ("like this" or "words like these"). ", "Louis Warren, "Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: An Evaluation" (Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co. 1946), p. 18", "The New York Review of Books: The Art of Abraham Lincoln", An English translation of Pericles's Funeral Oration, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pericles%27_Funeral_Oration&oldid=1145831230, Begins with an acknowledgement of revered predecessors: "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent", Praises the uniqueness of the State's commitment to, Addresses the difficulties faced by a speaker on such an occasion, "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground", Exhorts the survivors to emulate the deeds of the dead, "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the great task remaining before us", Contrasts the efficacy of words and deeds, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detractThe world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. A few days before Pericles birth, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, Agariste dreamed she bore a lion. His life has neither law nor order; and this distracted existence he terms joy and bliss and freedom; and so he goes on (Republic 56lC). ThoughtCo, Jul. Pericles: the democrat Traditionally, Pericles was regarded by historians as a great democrat. That conception ran counter to Greek experience, which had always been full of turbulence and warfare. For their food, the Spartans relied on the helots slaves of the Spartan state who out-numbered the Spartans by at least seven to one, bitterly hated their masters, and, in the words of the fourth-century writer Xenophon would gladly eat them raw (Hellenica 3.3.6). It was an established Athenian practice by the late 5th centuryBCE to hold a public funeral in honour of all those who had died in war. Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version - ThoughtCo In 430-429 B.C.E., Athens was devastated by a mysterious epidemic, which reared its head again a few years. Only in ancient Athens and in the United States so far has democracy lasted for as much as two hundred years. The city was blanketed with corpses. To save chestnut trees, we may have to play God, Why you should add native plants to your garden, What you can do right now to advocate for the planet, Why poison ivy is an unlikely climate change winner. No one, moreover, if he has it in him to do some good for the city, is barred because of poverty or humble origins (Thucydides 2.37.1). What is Pericles trying to say in his speech? - Heimduo he sponsored the play Persians by the great tragic playwright Aeschylus. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. He was so important to Athens that his name defines the Periclean age ("The Age of Pericles"), a period when Athens rebuilt what had been destroyed during the recent war with Persia (the Greco-Persian or Persian Wars). Since the time of Homer the Greek thirst for glory had centered on brave deeds in war: What would replace these in a world at peace? . "Pericles' Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War (Book 2.34-46)." Internet The world has been astounded to see thin shoots of democracy trying to break through the hard surface of oppression. . 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. Thucydides fervently supported Periclesbut was less enthusiastic about the institution of democracy. In Minneapolis, Protesters Confront the Policeand One Another. A seasoned, hard-bitten warrior, he was, for once, at a loss: Words indeed fail one when one tries to give a general picture of this disease; and as for the suffering of individuals, they seemed almost beyond the capacity of human nature to endure. Thucydides himself got the plague but survived, as he coolly notes in passing. To shape that vision and persuade others of its virtues, Pericles needed to overcome the attractive force of two earlier views of the best human life. left his mark on the world in far more ways than the iconic Acropolis that still defines the skyline of Athens. An Aerial View of New York City During a Pandemic. Spartas great reputation depended on its extraordinary military achievements, and these were attributed in turn to its religious piety, single-minded severe system of training, the tight discipline imposed on all aspects of life, and the ascetic Spartan mores. Athenians were already packed into the city as a wartime measure, and frightened people fleeing the countryside crowded it even further, creating conditions we now know are ripe for contagion. The new and emerging democracies of our time are very fragile, and they all face serious challenges. Approaching 50, he began a relationship withAspasiaofMiletus. The first is to have a set of good institutions; the second is to have a body of citizens who possess a good understanding of the principles of democracy, or who at least have developed a character consistent with the democratic way of life; the third is to have a high quality of leadership, at least at critical moments. Most of Pericles answers to these questions can be found in the Funeral Oration that he delivered in the winter of 431/30, less than two years before his death, at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War. 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. What did Pericles say about Athens in his Funeral Oration? Nobody knows what the plague was, although classically minded epidemiologists still debate its cause. 11 Thought-Provoking Quotes By Pericles 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". Pericles was widely seen as the leader of Athens. This past spring, Richard Bernstein investigated the questions hed been asking his whole careerabout right, wrong, and what we owe one anotherone last time. .he may not wander about comfortably acting like someone with a clean reputation or else he is beaten by his betters. By John G. Zumbrunnen. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier outcome. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. They followed a written code that was exclusively in the interest of the ruling class. Tens of thousands of people died, perhaps as many as one-third of Athenians. [6] He enabled civic participation by subsidizing service on juries and also for other civil roles. The upper classes certainly had no prejudice against foreign marriages; the lower classes may well have had more, and, on the whole, it is possible to view Pericles here as championing exclusivist tendencies against immigrants who might break down the fabric of Athenian society. He advanced the foundations. This ordinary woman hid Anne Frankand kept her story alive, This Persian marvel was lost for millennia. Full article: Jowett's Thucydides: A corpus-based analysis of In fact, it is a prerequisite for them, for the brave deeds performed by enraged heroes who give no thought to danger are, by his definition, not brave at all. . In the few of his speeches we have, Pericles spoke chiefly of the empire and military glory, and these were certainly important values to him and the Athenians. This message has been remembered: during the First World War, London buses carried posters with passages from the speech; in 2012, a memorial in central London to the R.A.F. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. Pericles was a leader and lawmaker in ancient Athens. While Athens was From him Pericles may have inherited a leaning toward the people, along with landed property just north of Athens, which made him quite wealthy by Athenian standards. The Athenians prized thought, deliberation, and discussion. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Many of the qualities and characteristics envisioned by Pericles are related to military excellence, as is natural in a speech delivered in wartime to encourage the struggle for victory. Yet Thucydides swiftly dismissed such speculation. 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. America was a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Victory would mean a new birth of freedom, and would ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. The fallen soldiers purpose was to preserve a Constitution and a way of life that was unique and worthy of sacrifice. 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.. Thucydides' funeral speech about democracy delivered by Pericles. For anyone hopeful that democracy is the best system for coping with the current coronavirus pandemic, the Athenian disaster stands as a chilling admonition. Men must put aside their petty wants and look at what is best for the state as a whole. In 431 B.C., Pericles urged the popular assembly to declare war against Sparta. The polis was a political community and a sovereign entity competing in a world of similar communities. The kind of man formed by such a constitution reflects its shortcomings: He lives from day to day indulging the appetite of the hour; and sometimes he is lapped in drink and strains of the flute; then he becomes a water-drinker and tries to get thin; then he takes a turn at gymnastics; sometimes idling and neglecting everything, then once more living the life of a philosopher; often he is busy with politics, and starts to his feet and says and does whatever comes into his head; and, if he is emulous of anyone who is a warrior, off he is in that direction, or men of business, once more in that.
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