All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Pericles Flashcards | Quizlet Donald Kagan is Bass Professor of History and Classics and Western Civilization at Yale University. Translation and the establishment of liberal democracy in nineteenth-century England. Thus, choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour"[19] The conclusion seems inevitable: "Therefore, having judged that to be happy means to be free, and to be free means to be brave, do not shy away from the risks of war". According to Pericles, what were the characteristics of Athenian democracy? He even asks the gods to aid the enemy so that he may gain vengeance against Agamemnon because, as Achilles himself says, he did no honor to the best of the Achaeans.. Pericles' Funeral Oration can be compared to several more modern speeches, most notably Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. . [a], The Funeral Oration was recorded by Thucydides in book two of his famous History of the Peloponnesian War. When a plague broke out, an estimated 20,000 people diedincluding Pericles and his two legitimate sons. Their national poet, Tyrtaeus, specifically rejected the Homeric values and replaced them with a single definition of arete: the courage to stand bravely in the ranks of a hoplite phalanx fighting for Sparta. To me, at least, they still seem to indicate some of the important ways in which democracy is likely to go astray. He stated that the soldiers who died gave their lives to protect the city of Athens, its citizens, and its freedom. Yet this tolerant, easygoing way of life does not entail a disrespect for law or an invitation to licentious behavior. "a Take on the Pericles' and Socrates' Views on - StudyMode That conception ran counter to Greek experience, which had always been full of turbulence and warfare. Death is the end; beyond it is silence and darkness. 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. 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. Visionary Leadership: Pericles had a clear vision for Athens and articulated it to the citizens, emphasizing the importance of democracy, civic engagement, and the pursuit of knowledge and arts . Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Athenian Democracy - World History Encyclopedia While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. Often regarded as the greatest ruler of Athens and even all of Greece, Pericles fostered the famous democracy of Greece and supervised countless theater, statue, and infrastructure building projects. 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. Funerals after such battles were public rituals and Pericles used the occasion to make a classic statement of the value of democracy. 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. Pericles ends with a short epilogue, reminding the audience of the difficulty of the task of speaking over the dead. Pericles - Wikipedia 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. 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. Pericles delivered the oration not only to bury the dead but to praise democracy. 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." Open Document. This new faith will be especially hard to instill in societies that have learned to be cynical about the use of political idealism. . (2 43. l-2). A Primary Text Analysis: The Funeral Oration Of Pericles democracy the best source is the series of panegyrics on Athens. Rhetorical Analysis of Pericles' Funeral Oration - Bryan Berg While the theme of the History was the Greco-Persian Wars, Herodotuss purpose was far broader and enduring: in order that the deeds of men not be erased by time, and that the great and miraculous works not go unrecorded., Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. 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). 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". One way that it gained the needed commitment was by creating, for the first time in history, a true political life which allowed its active citizens to exercise human capacity previously employed by very few. Politically he is credited with some kind of rapprochement with Cimon, who is said to have been recalled and allowed to resume the war with Persia, much preferred to fighting other Greeks, but the date of Cimons recall is uncertain, and the rumours are hard to disentangle. A correct assessment is vital for understanding Pericles, but explanations vary considerably; some argue that Pericles was merely forging a low-level political weapon for use against Cimon, who had a foreign mother. His achievements included the construction of the Acropolis, begun in 447. Business, Men, Mind. 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. The period in which he led Athens, in fact, has been called the Age of Pericles due to his influence, not only on his city 's fortunes, but on the whole of Greek history during the 5th century BCE and even after his death. This ordinary woman hid Anne Frankand kept her story alive, This Persian marvel was lost for millennia. To succeed, they need a vision of the future that is powerful enough to sustain them through bad times as well as good and to inspire the many difficult sacrifices that will be required of them. 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. With brilliant brevity Lincoln answered some questions by pointing to the greatness of the cause at issue. Repeated failures had taught the Persians they could not challenge Athenian naval power, while adherence to the right strategya refusal to fight a large land battledeprived Sparta and its allies of any hope for victory. This famous speech was given by the Athenian leader Pericles after the first battles of the Peloponnesian war. The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. The Athenian democracy would encourage merit in its traditional form and reward it with victory, glory, and immortality. In a book packed with battle, conquest, and massacre, Thucydides account of the plague is especially horrifying. They must see that democracy alone of all regimes respects the dignity and autonomy of every individual, and understand that its survival requires that each individual see his own well-being as inextricably connected to that of the whole community. Bequeathed, too, was his innovative approach of conducting an orderly, thorough examination of the past to explain the causesand outcomesof past events. No source provides any background to this proposal; it is not even clear whether it was retroactive. We say he has no business being here at all. A dynasty or tyranny or clique may be deposed, but it is invariably replaced by another or by a chaotic anarchy that ends in the establishment of some kind of command society. The rewards conferred by these aristocratic virtues are precisely those sought by the epic heroes: greatness, power, honor, fame. It existed for only two centuries in Athens and less than that in a small number of Greek states. Athens is a major Greek city-state in European history. Nevertheless, Thucydides was extremely meticulous in his documentation, and records the varied certainty of his sources each time. We alone regard the man who takes no part in politics not as someone who minds his own business but as useless. Governor Pericles' speech, captured by the Athenian historian General Thucydides and known as "The Funeral Oration," serves as a model for how a leader in an executive role may raise the spirit of his or her people during a time of crisis. In a democracy, citizens behave lawfully while doing what they like without fear of prying eyes. The model of how democracy began is also a study in how it can founder and fall. 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. 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. The Persian War, begun as an ill-considered gesture in 499, could be considered ultimately successful. We do not say that a man who takes no interest in public affairs is a man who minds his own business. [b] Another confusing factor is that Pericles is known to have delivered another funeral oration in 440BCE during the Samian War. Dear ChatGPT: What would Pericles or Lincoln Do? - LinkedIn Pericles delivered a rousing speech lauding democracy on the occasion of funerals, shortly after the start of the war. In the following speech, Pericles made these points about democracy: Democracy allows men to advance because of merit rather than wealth or inherited class. But the peace of Athens was not to last. This is because it commands our deep respect." Gazing at the men and women gathered for this solemn moment, Pericles reminds them of the difficult times they face. It might have been smallpox, a fungal poisoning called ergotism, or something worse. Pericles was not the founder or inventor of democracy, but he came to its leadership only a half-century after its invention, when it was still fragile. It depends. The world has been astounded to see thin shoots of democracy trying to break through the hard surface of oppression. The bustling main thoroughfare was the Panathenaic Way. This ancient marvel rivaled Romes intricate network of roads, For some long COVID patients, exercise is bad medicine, Radioactive dogs? With the linkage of Athens' greatness complete, Pericles moves to addressing his audience. Pericles greatest achievement lay in his ability to explain how the interests of the city and its citizens depended on each other for fulfillment. Concentrating on each translator's rendering of one of the most frequently cited passages in Thucydides' History (the so-called "funeral oration" given by Pericles in Book 2), Lianeri's central aim is to show how each of these interpretations was shaped by changes in attitudes towards the concept of . [21] He explained that fighting for one's country was a great honour, and that it was like wearing a cloak that concealed any negative implications because his imperfections would be outweighed by his merits as a citizen. How did Cleisthenes reform Athenian democracy? The hostile descriptions emphasize its excessive commitment to equality, complaining of the absurdity of distributing offices by lot and the evils of payment for public service, but even more of the flaws in the democratic principle itself. Pericles believed these should be the goals for every Athenian to live and die for. Details about the nature and name of this disease are unknown, but a recent best guess is Typhoid Fever. We have no need of a Homer to praise us or of anyone else whose words will delight us for the moment but whose account of the facts will be discredited by the truth. The ancient Greek statesman Pericles (ca 495-429 B.C.) 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. When it reappeared in the Western world more than two millennia later, it was broader but shallower. Democracy is now the largest form of government to exist in today's society. 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. A reconstruction of Pericles' house from The Greeks documentary. 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. . Thinking, Levels. A democracy is a form of government that gives all the ability to participate, and according to Pericles everyone has a responsibility to take part. Nor does Pericles concede that the strict discipline of Spartan training and the secrecy of its closed society produce better soldiers than the Athenian democracy: There is a difference between us and our opponents in how we prepare for our military responsibilities in the following ways: we open our city for everyone and do not exclude anyone for fear that he might learn or see something that would be useful to an enemy if it were not concealed. Society was ravaged, and the military, which was in the early stages of a brutal twenty-seven-year war against Sparta, was debilitated for many years. Now it is for you to emulate them; knowing that happiness requires freedom and freedom requires courage, do not shrink from the dangers of war (2.43.2-4). . Here are popular Pericles quotes about that time. The older was the aristocratic image that emerged from the epic poems of Homer and dominated Greek society for hundreds of years. Only rumour associates him directly with the political convulsion of the next two years, which drove Cimon into exile, swung Athens away from its alignment with Sparta, and decisively strengthened the democratic elements in the Athenian constitution; but he probably did support the democratic leader Ephialtes in this period, and his introduction of pay for juries, unfortunately undatable, is a logical consequence of Ephialtes reforms.
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