pericles speech on democracy

Far from eulogizing Pericles in the Funeral Oration, Pericles is subtly depicted as a tyrant, a demagogue, a despot who became a despot by his exploitation of the erotic character of humansan erotic character which the Athenians unleashed in the Persian Wars and then unleashed over the Mediterranean in a vain and tyrannical bid for an empire. But we have these speeches because Thucydides reported them, and his subject was war. Pericles met the challenge of the heroic tradition by showing that democracy would bring to all the citizens of Athens the advantages heretofore reserved for the well-born few. He stated that the soldiers who died gave their lives to protect the city of Athens, its citizens, and its freedom. He stated that the soldiers who died gave their lives to protect the city of Athens, its citizens, and its freedom. In the streets around the Fifth Precinct police station, protesters battle law enforcement, chastise looters, and fight to be heard. 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. 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.. Judgment was rendered according to their laws, once again, by courts made up of citizens. Many historians consider that event to have marked the birth of Athenian democracy. Social distancing and mass burials are now a part of New Yorks cityscape. When a plague broke out, an estimated 20,000 people diedincluding Pericles and his two legitimate sons. At times, the third qualification is the most important and can compensate for weaknesses in the other two. 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". You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. . His father, Xanthippus, a typical member of this generation, almost certainly of an old family, began his political career by a dynastic marriage into the controversial family of the Alcmaeonids. The French and American revolutions extended citizenship more generously than in Greece, ultimately excluding only children from political participation. [a], The Funeral Oration was recorded by Thucydides in book two of his famous History of the Peloponnesian War. Its military power and tradition of leadership among the Greeks, the discipline and devotion to the public good displayed by its citizens, had already created an aura of virtue and excellence that a modern scholar has called the Spartan mirage. Pericles needed to confront this challenge, and much of the Funeral Oration is therefore a direct comparison with Sparta. Pericles' funeral oration is considered to be a valuable speech on the importance of democracy and a sneak peek into the way the people of Athens lived. The earliest is known as the Funeral Oration of Pericles. She has been featured by NPR and National Geographic for her ancient history expertise. The rewards conferred by these aristocratic virtues are precisely those sought by the epic heroes: greatness, power, honor, fame. Heres how paradise fought back. 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. [20] He praised Athens for its attributes that stood out amongst their neighbours such as its democracy when he elaborates that trust is justly placed on the citizens rather than relying only on the system and the policy of the city. While Pericles chooses to praise the Athenian citizen, Socrates criticizes Athens . The Athenian statesman Pericles defined democracy as a system which protects the interests of all the people, not just a minority. .he may not wander about comfortably acting like someone with a clean reputation or else he is beaten by his betters. Nothing further is known until 463, when he unsuccessfully prosecuted Cimon, the leading general and statesman of the day, on a charge of having neglected a chance to conquer Macedonia; this implies that Pericles advocated an aggressive policy of expansion for Athens. 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. Approaching 50, he began a relationship withAspasiaofMiletus. In his oration, he made democracy, freedom, and justice the main rationale for citizens . In the speech, Pericles, the first great statesman of the ancient world, says that he wished to focus on "the road by which we reached our position, the form of government under which our greatness grew, and the national habits out of which it sprang" in addition to praising the dead. How did Cleisthenes reform Athenian democracy? The tale tells us much about Greek values. But the most original aspect of Pericles vision for Athens was its expectation of an enduring peace. Plato recognized that the freedom afforded by the Athenian democracy seemed pleasant to many people, but his own judgment was less friendly: Democracy is an agreeable, anarchic form of society, with plenty of variety, which treats all men as equal, whether they are equal or not (Republic 558C). While the rest of the world continued to be characterized by monarchical, rigidly hierarchical, command societies, democracy in Athens was carried as far as it would go before modern times, perhaps further than at any other place and time. We can outline the ideology behind democracy from his speech. The words of Pericles clearly show the praise for Athenian democracy and its superiority to others as a model. That the soldiers put aside their desires and wishes for the greater cause. We say he has no business being here at all. [b] Another confusing factor is that Pericles is known to have delivered another funeral oration in 440BCE during the Samian War. Optimists may believe that democracy is the inevitable and final form of human society, but the historical record shows that up to now it has been the rare exception. Pericles married in his late 20s but divorced some 10 years later. The plague was just a plague. Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. But Thucydides chronicle of what happened just after Pericles funeral oration is unsparingand should be as enduring as the speech itself. The new and emerging democracies of our time are very fragile, and they all face serious challenges. 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. "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'. Introduction to the Funeral Oration. Democracy allows men to advance because of merit rather than wealth or inherited class. At the Dionysia Festival in 472 B.C. N.S. He goes on to talk about Athenian lifestyle and recreation, as to further position Athens as the height of civilization. Where citizens boast a freedom that differs from their enemies' the Lacedaemonians. The book, although unfinished, established him as the founder of the systematic study of international relations. 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. The ancient Greek Herodotus is considered by many to be the father of history. It is from his groundbreaking work, the History, that our modern meaning of the word was handed down through time. In the opening scene of the Iliad, Achilles honor and reputation are diminished by Agamemnons arrogance, so he retires from the battle and sulks in his tent while the Greeks suffer a series of costly defeats. Courage, strength, military prowess, persuasiveness, cunning, beauty, wealth: these were examples of arete, the excellent qualities of the good, the fortunate, the happy man. Author of. [12] Pericles argues that the speaker of the oration has the impossible task of satisfying the associates of the dead, who would wish that their deeds be magnified, while everyone else might feel jealous and suspect exaggeration.[13]. In contrast, Pericles, via his funeral oration speech, believes that democracy is better ruled by many rather than few. "Pericles, son of Xanthippos, spoke like this". The polis was a political community and a sovereign entity competing in a world of similar communities. Most died after about a week. He traveled the far reaches of the Persian Empire, recording his own personal inquiries (which he called autopsies), as well as the multitude of myths and local legends he heard along the way. 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. Who buys lion bones? According to Thucydides, Pericles' funeral oration said that democracy makes it so people can better themselves through merit rather than class or money. Throughout Pericles, Prince of Tyre, there exists a blatant dichotomy between good and evil. . One can recognize this dichotomy by analyzing the utilization of foils in Pericles. All rights reserved, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. But most of the citizens, even in undemocratic states, had no such opportunities. A new discovery raises a mystery. ThoughtCo, Jul. He maneuvered Athens to primacy over other league members, first by transferring the leagues treasury to Athens in 454 B.C. left his mark on the world in far more ways than the iconic Acropolis that still defines the skyline of Athens. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. There are several different English translations of the speech available. Pericles, a great supporter of democracy, was a Greek leader and statesman during the Peloponnesian War. Business, Men, Mind. 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." 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). 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 begins by mentioning the struggles of the Athenian ancestors whom "after many a struggle transmitted to us their sons this great empire." . Death is the end; beyond it is silence and darkness. Many Athenians blamed the calamity on their Spartan enemies, spreading dark rumors of poisoned reservoirs. This is a sobering history, but, reading Thucydides account of the plague while under lockdown, I sometimes found the frosty old historian oddly heartening. From time to time the helots would break out in revolt, threatening the very existence of Sparta. He speaks of the ancestors with great honor and valor and that it was them who gave birth to Athens. Work began in 447 B.C. In the realm of private disputes everyone is equal before the law, but when it is a matter of public honors each man is preferred not on the basis of his class but of his good reputation and his merit [arete]. 476 Words. Pericles' speech reminded Athenians of the power of democracy and gave them courage to keep fighting. Knowledge of the life of Pericles derives largely from two sources. His approach was an unusual way to give a funeral oration, and as such it has been immortalized and is still deeply valued. He gave this speech during a funeral for Athenian soldiers who died in the first year of the brutal Peloponnesian War against Sparta, Athens's chief rival. How to see the Lyrid meteor shower at its peak, 6 unforgettable Italy hotels, from Lake Como to Rome, A taste of Rioja, from crispy croquettas to piquillo peppers, Trek through this stunning European wilderness, Land of the lemurs: the race to save Madagascar's sacred forests, See how life evolved at Australias new national park. 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. A reconstruction of Pericles' house from The Greeks documentary. 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. 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. This new faith will be especially hard to instill in societies that have learned to be cynical about the use of political idealism. As Thucydides recorded with clinical detail, people suddenly felt their heads begin to burn, their eyes redden, their tongues and mouths bleed. It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glories are to be won, he stated in front of the assembly. The willingness to perform military service for his homeland is the most fundamental and demanding duty of the citizen. After the dead had been buried in a public grave, one of the leading citizens, chosen by the city, would offer a suitable speech, and on this occasion Pericles was chosen. The Spartans, from their earliest childhood, seek to acquire courage by painfully harsh training, but we, living our unrestricted life, are no less ready to meet the same dangers they do. Pericles ushered in what is considered radical democracy. This meant that ordinary Athenian citizens were paid by the state to participate in public affairs. Men must put aside their petty wants and look at what is best for the state as a whole. 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. But the heart of daily life was the agora, or marketplace, a sprawling complex of more than 200,000 square feet that featured trade in everyday items but also sported brothels, bars, and bathhouses. 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). 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 must support his unmarried sisters at home and explain to them why they are still spinsters, he must live without a wife at his fireside. How do we reverse the trend? . Pericles first made a name for himself in the city-state during his 20s as a wealthy aristocratic arts patron. And after a life spent in what among our people passes for comfort, he died most gloriously. The plague devastated Athens for many yearsThucydides reckoned it took fifteen years to recoverbut his account suggests that the damage to democracy lasted far longer. 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. Pericles lifted Athens into a golden age through his support of the arts, architecture, philosophy, and democracy building. 86 Copy quote. The history of book bansand their changing targetsin the U.S. 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 . Pericles' funeral oration has exercised a permanent fascination on the political imagination of the West. Attempts to expand it would not only be unnecessary but endanger what already existed. From the first, the Greeks faced the great truth of mans mortality squarely. Thucydides' Greek is notoriously difficult, but the language of Pericles Funeral Oration is considered by many to be the most difficult and virtuosic passage in the History of the Peloponnesian War. 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 Spartans were famous for their brevity and distrust of subtle reasoning, but Pericles praises the democracys fondness for debate and discussion. The Funeral Oration was delivered during a war that was clearly going to continue for some time. But soon after Pericles gave that prideful speech, the original democracy got sick. 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. Translation and the establishment of liberal democracy in nineteenth-century England. Under the hands of Pericles, Thucydides thought democracy could be controlled, but without him, it could be dangerous. Least of all did it suit the open, democratic society that Athens had already become by the time Pericles was born. This analogy can be perceived as an explanation of Socrates view on democracy by rule by the many vs. by one or the few and how many results in a fallen nation. In 431 BCE, at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War, held their traditional public funeral for all those who had been killed. Welcome as this prospect was, it nonetheless presented a problem. The Spartans were famous for their piety and reverence for law, and their blind obedience to it was thought to be the source of their great military prowess. And in his last recorded speech in 430, although its intention was to persuade the Athenians to keep fighting, he said: For those who are prospering and who have a choice, going to war is folly (2.61.1). He would not be surprised to find his book being read today, during the coronavirus lockdown. That conception ran counter to Greek experience, which had always been full of turbulence and warfare. The gaps are partly filled by the Greek writer Plutarch, who, 500 years later, began writing the life of Pericles to illustrate a man of unchallengeable virtue and greatness at grips with the fickleness of the mob and finished rather puzzled by the picture he found in his sources of Pericles responsibility for a needless war. Why did Pericles think Athens could live in peace after so many years of continuous fighting? 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. 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.

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