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Pericles Funeral Oration in Depth In 431, shortly after the Peloponnesian War had broken out, Pericles delivered his famous Funeral Oration to commemorate those troops who had already fallen in battle. Recorded, and probably rewritten by the historian Thucydides, it is one of the primary sources on which our understanding of ancient Athens is based and provides a unique insight into just how Athenian democracy understood itself. In the speech Pericles relates the special qualities of the Athenians, redefining many traditional Greek virtues in a radical new light. The idea that the Athenians are able to put aside their petty wants and strive for the greater good of the city is a central theme of the speech. Bound together by bonds of mutual trust and a shared desire for freedom, the people of Athens submit to the laws and obey the public officials not because they have to, as in other cities, but because they want to. Athenians had thus achieved something quite unique - being both ruled and rulers at one and the same time. This had forged a unique type of citizen. Clever, tolerant, and open minded, Athenians were able to adapt to any situation and rise to any challenge. They had become the new ideal of the Greek world. Pericles' view was obviously a very idealized one, and it ignored the realities of party factionalism, selfishness, and arrogance that were to soon manifest after his death.

Pericles Funeral Oration The ancient Greek historian Thucydides account of the Peloponnesian War details the struggle between the two ancient Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta. During each year of the war, the Athenians held a public funeral to commemorate their war dead, and afterwards, listened to a speech delivered by a respected citizen. In the year 430 BC, the Athenians chose their general, Pericles to give the speech. In his speech, Pericles chose to honor the dead by praising the city they had died to defend. His speech has three parts: first, Pericles discusses the glory of Athens; secondly, the valor of the dead; and finally, he exhorts the people of the city. Pericles speech is a masterful example of audience analysis, as well as a classic statement of the philosophical position of statism. As a city-state, the Athenians revered culture, comfort, and the philosophy of humanism. Pericles glowing praise of Athenian culture is steeped in Greek humanist philosophy. Let me say that our system of government does not copy the institutions of our neighbors. It is more a case of our being a model to others than of our imitating anyone else. Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority, but of the whole people. In our homes we find a beauty and a good taste which delights us everyday and which drives away our cares. Our love of what is beautiful does not lead us into extravagance; we are capable at the same time of taking risks and of estimating them beforehand. Our city is an education to Greece Imagine how the Athenians felt after hearing this! By praising the merits of Athens and her people, Pericles begins to execute his strategy. His challenge is to analyze the values of the Athenian people and find a way to connect his message to these values. The first point of the

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speech is engineered to play on the vanity of the Athenians. In a humanistic culture that glorifies autonomous man, people attempt to find meaning through the creation of man-made institutions like the Athenian city-state. By describing the glory of Athens, Pericles makes people feel good about themselves and invokes the emotion of patriotism. Next, he talks about the honor that the dead soldiers have gained: This, then, is the kind of city for which these men nobly fought and nobly died. And it was for this reason that I spoke at such great lengths about our city, because I wanted to make it clear that there is much more at stake here than for those who lack our advantages. Some of these men, no doubt, had their faults; but they have blotted out evil with good and done more service to the commonwealth than they ever did harm in their private lives. At this point in his speech, Pericles begins to draw his audience toward his point of view. Having regaled them with stories of the wonder of Athens, they can do little but accept the value of those who died to defend it. This segment of the speech also reveals the Greek tendency towards statism and Pericles exploitation of it. As humanists, the Greeks believed in mans ability to create a utopian society. Athens, in their minds, was the paragon of society and good government. To them, it was natural to pledge allegiance to the state. Any service performed for the good of the state was noble, and any man, no matter his past, could become a hero by dying in battle. This is the equivalent of saying that if Scott Peterson, who murdered his wife and unborn child, joined the army and died in Iraq, he would be exonerated from his crimes. Strange as this is to the American mind, it was commonly accepted by Greek humanists. After establishing statism, Pericles moves to the final point of his speech. For these reasons I shall not commiserate with the parents of the dead who are gathered here. But this is good fortune for men to end their lives with honor, as these have done. Those of you who are the right age must take comfort in the thought of more children. These will be a comfort to you. Now, those of you who are sons and brothers of the dead, I see a great struggle in front of you. Everyone always speaks well of the dead, and even if you rise to the greatest heights of heroism, it will be hard for you to get the reputation of having come near, let alone equaled, their standard. Where the rewards of valor are greatest, there you will find also the best and bravest spirits among the people. Pericles ends boldly. If President Bush spoke this way to parents of dead American soldiers, he would be committing political suicide, but Pericles exhortation was successful with the Athenians. He has built up the virtues of statism on the foundations of the Greek humanist mind, and now, even though his last point reveals one of the fatal flaws in his philosophy, the audience still accepts his conclusion. This fatal flaw is a lack of respect for the individual. Pericles statism is so strong that he believes in putting the group before everything else. Individual happiness and well-being are nothing next to the well-being of the Athenian state. Thus, Pericles refuses to sympathize with the parents of dead soldiers and instead, advocates more sacrifice. But even at this point, Pericles couches his message in the sensibilities of his audience. He has already appealed to their patriotism and pride, and now he appeals to their nobility. The Athenians liked to believe they were the noblest people in Greece, and by affirming this belief, Pericles endears himself to his audience while demanding that they sacrifice their individuality and happiness to the state. Pericles, a consummate orator, persuaded the Greeks that the city of Athens must be defended at all costs by exploring the glory of the citys culture and government, connecting the deaths of the soldiers with this glory, and by demanding further, and greater, sacrifice from the Athenians. This structure, graceful and understandable, was the key to Pericles success.

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The glory of Athens under Pericles

Athens was a lively place to live in during the 5th century BC. Many different Greek dialects could be heard in the streets. It had become a major centre for trade and culture, and people flocked there from every part of Greece and the Aegean. At the Peiracus, the quays were busy with ships loading cargoes Attic red-figure pottery, which had replaced the earlier black-figured ware, jars of oil from the olive crops and other exports. Others unloaded precious cargoes of wheat, brought all the way from the shores of the Black Sea. There, too, would be seen sleek, menacing triremes. Perhaps they would be preparing to sail on an expedition to assert Athens authority over one of the cities of the Delian League, of which Athens was the head. By the middle of the century, peace had at last been made with Persia. But the Delian League, formed to resist Persian aggression, was not dissolved. It had become virtually an Athenian empire. Only the island states of Samos, Lesbos and Chios ranked as free allies, contributing ships to the Leagues fleet. Other member cities had become tribute-paying subjects of Athens and the tribute money was now kept at Athens instead of Delos. If Athens reigned supreme at sea, her efforts to win a land empire were less successful. For a time she controlled part of the Peloponnese and much of central Greece. But, under the leadership of Sparta, the cities of these regions combined to throw off the Athenian yoke. In 445 BC, a Thirty Years Peace was signed with Sparta. It left the latter as the principal land power in Greece. Athens kept her control of most of the east coast cities, and those in the Aegean and on the coast of Asia Minor. We may wonder why some 200 Greek cities submitted to Athens authority. This was partly due to the firm and vigorous methods by which the Athenian leaders dealt with defectors; but also to the advantages which the subject cities enjoyed. The Persian threat had been contained; piracy, and petty warfare between cities, largely eliminated. And trade prospered not only at Athens but in the other cities, too. In the member cities it was Athens policy to encourage democratic governments just as Sparta favoured oligarchy, or rule by the few. There was an oligarchic party in Athens itself, but throughout this period the democrats prevailed. Athenian coinage was common currency throughout the league; and disputes were settled according to Athenian law. The man most closely associated with this era in Athens history was Pericles. Though a member of the aristocratic Alcmaeonid clan, he was the leader of the democratic faction. In Athens the ordinary citizens wielded greater power than ever before. The office of Archon was now open to all classes, names being simply drawn by lot, without any previous nomination. Men of no ability could become Archons, and the office lost much of its old authority. The Archons judicial powers were transferred to jury courts. Enormous juries, generally 500 strong, tried cases, delivering both verdicts and sentences.

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Day-to-day government was handled by the ten strategoi, or Generals. These were now elected directly by the Ecclesia, and their actions were subject to the peoples approval with the everpresent threat of exile by ostracism. It was as one of the Generals that Pericles, elected for 14 consecutive years, virtually ruled Athens and her empire. This was a time of great activity for builders and craftsmen and for artists. It was Pericles policy to make Athens a worthy capital of an empire. The Acropolis temples, destroyed by the Persians, were replaced by more imposing buildings. Chief of these was the Parthenon, temple of the Virgin Goddess Athene, built in the Doric style. Its splendid ruins still dominate Athens today. In charge of the building was the sculptor Pheidias, a friend of Pericles. His 12-metre-high statue of Athene, made of wood covered with gold and ivory, stood in the main chamber of the Parthenon. Some of the sculptured reliefs from the temple can be seen in the British Museum. The citys military strength was not neglected. Two walls had previously been built to link those of the city with the coast. Now a third Long Wall was raised, parallel to one of the others, providing a narrow and well fortified corridor between the city and the port. All these works cost a great deal; and the way Pericles paid for them excited resentment among the so-called allies. For it was the tribute money which they paid that Pericles used money that was meant to meet the cost of protecting them against the Persians or other foes. Pericles and the other Athenian leaders, and the people in the rowdy meetings of the Ecclesia on Pnyx Hill, showed themselves full of confidence in their ability to maintain the citys power and prosperity. But the time was at hand when the empire which the Athenians had built up in such a short time was to be threatened with destruction. Among the cities which especially resented Athens supremacy were their neighbours at Corinth and Megara, whose trade had declined as that of the Athenians had grown. Hostility between Athens and these two cities gave the Spartans the excuse they had been waiting for to break their truce. They decided that the time had come for them, with their allies in the Peloponnese and in central Greece, to strike a blow at their old rivals. In 431 BC the Spartans invaded Attica. Pericles, knowing that to engage in open battle would incur grave risk, ordered the Athenians to withdraw to the shelter of the city and the Long Walls. From there they watched in dismay as the invaders ravaged their crops and farms. Next year the invasion was repeated and an outbreak of plague added to the Athenians sufferings. At last the peoples nerve gave way, and they turned on Pericles. Tried on a trumped-up charge of misusing public money, he was condemned, fined and removed from his post. The following year the mood changed, and Pericles was re-elected General. But within a few months he died. His leadership was to be sorely missed in the time of trial to come. Funeral Oration of Pericles

There are two important matters that the "Funeral Oration of Pericles" proves, these two matters are, the great respect that Athenians have for their warrior class and how the Athenians were exceedingly proud of their city and its customs. The following paper discusses the way of life of Athenians and how the Funeral Oration of Pericles influenced it.

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It is a well-known fact that the Athenians had a great deal of respect for the warrior class and believed them to be among the top members of their society. The warriors were seen as the top portion of their classes. They are classified as hero's and/ or idols. The Athenians were also extremely proud of their city and its traditions. To the people of Athens their country was at the top and there was no other country that could be superior. The purpose of the funeral oration was not only to respect the departed but also to reward the citizen's national pride and their passion to defend their country.

Pericles Funeral Speech Athens democracy has some evident differences of its own system compared to Spartas. They do not copy anyone else form of government, but run theirs in a unique way. In Athens everyone seems to receive fair treatment and poverty is not a struggle they encounter. Pericle informs that the people are friendlier and more respectful neighbors that Athens neighbors. Their individual system is like no others. Athens provides many activities such as regular games and sacrifices. Therefore, he says because of their own success they can enjoy the wonders of other countries. The Athenian system is very successful and operates smoothly because of the determination and effort the people of Athens put forth. There are some factors that made Athens and Sparta different that need to be addressed. First, Athens controls an open city where visitors can influence and share there knowledge about the Athenian way. In Sparta children are dealt with in a very strict and upright manner. The women of Sparta seemed to have more freedom and power in the household because they were separated from their husbands for large amounts of time and became accustomed to this way of living. They are highly educated to the point where they are smarter than the average person their age. In Athens things are a little more laid back. They learn and mature at their own pace and still end up highly knowledgeable. When in battle Athens brings just themselves while Sparta brings their whole confederacy. I believe that Athens had an advantage over Sparta. Even though both had their own individual strengths and came together to become one I believe Athens methods were stronger. The Athenians worked well together and seemed to be extremely spiritually motivated to overcome any obstacle. I also feel this way because the way they were brought up as children. They were taught bravery, courage, strength, but at the same time to live a simple life taking things as the come. The Athenians seemed prepared for anything that came their way due to all the training they go through. They each have there own certain way of doing things that works for them individually. Therefore they both have an advantage in one way or another, but overall I believe Athens is the strongest.