Most movingly, perhaps, in the final part of his speech, Pericles turns to the fathers and mothers who have given up sons and spouses to the war. He states that the parents who are still young should have more children, children who will be able to enjoy the democracy that their older siblings fought and died for, and he tells the women to be strong too, in the face of the sorrows that they and their city are enduring over the course of the war. Pericles thus admits, without falsely creating a beautiful image of wartime, that casualties are inevitable during a violent conflict, and it is only because Athenian democracy is so unique, so worth fighting for, that men are willing to give up the comforts of peacetime to sacrifice their lives.
Of course, it might be protested that the ideal Pericles speaks of in the funeral oration was…...
mlaWorks Cited
The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture. The Joint Association of Classical Teachers. An Open University Set Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 194.
Pericles' Funeral Oration
Pericles, the most revolutionary figure ever found in the history of Ancient Greece was born of a distinguished family about 494 B.C. probably in the country house of his father in the plain near Athens. Pericles's father, Xanthippos, was a rising general and politician. His mother Agariste, also bore strong family values, descending from the house of Alkmeonidai. She was the niece of the great Athenian reformer, Clisthenes ("Biography of Pericles"). Pericles took the foundational education as per customs of Athens. Anaxagoras was the most esteemed teachers of Pericles.
Pericles succeeded to fill up the position of a son and a leader who had the abilities to reflect sagaciousness, sensibility and the mettle to face tough conditions and to find the ways out of the tough scenarios. It is worth noticing that Pericles had an elder brother too, Ariphrons, but as seen in different historical accounts, it seems that…...
mlaWorks Cited
Clough, Arthur Hugh, and Plutarch. Plutarch: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans. Trans. John Dryden. New York: Modern Library, 1932. Questia. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
"Peloponnesian War." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. 2009. Questia. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
Kimball, Roger. "Freedom and Duty: Pericles and Our Times." The National Interest Spring 2002: 81+. Questia. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
"Biography of Pericles." Sacklunch. 14 Sept. 2011. http://www.sacklunch.net/biography/P/Pericles.html
policies of Pericles contributed to the expanding power and influence of the Athenian Empire
Pericles was an Athenian political leader mostly accountable for the complete growth in the 5th century, of both the empire and democracy of Athens. As a result, Athens became the political and social focus of Greece. His success involved the development of the Acropolis, started in 447. During the Athens' golden era, philosophy, sculpture, drama, poems and technology all achieved new levels. After fifty years, Athens underwent an expansion in artistic and intellectual learning. The creative fictional legacies of this time keep motivating and instructing people all over the globe. Fair and honest, Pericles held onto well-known assistance for 32 years. He was a competent, politically motivating orator, and a well-known general. He ruled over the life of Athens from 461 to 429 B.C. that this era often is known as the Age of Pericles (Aird,…...
mlaReferences
Aird, H. (2009). Pericles: The rise and fall of Athenian democracy. New York: Rosen.
Hotchkiss, Mark A. (2009). Legend of the Unknown God. Tate Pub & Enterprises Llc.
Samons, L.J. (2014). What's Wrong With Democracy?: From Athenian Practice to American Worship. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tarnopolsky, C.H. (2010). Prudes, perverts, and tyrants: Plato's Gorgias and the politics of shame. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.
97). The women are not happy with their role, but they have little say in the matter. This is the reason they use their sexual favors (or lack of them) against their husbands - they have little else to bargain with that means anything to the men. Women may have shared in the spoils of victory and the general air of democracy in Greece, but they certainly did not have a say in that government, or in little else. However, they did know how to bargain effectively, and while they did not actively participate in government and activities, by using their sexuality against their husbands, they did know how to turn the tables and gain what they wanted by influence, rather than by direct participation.
3. Does the play say anything to the people of our generation?
These works do speak to our modern generation in many ways. They show pride…...
mlaReferences
Aristophanes. (1997). Birds: Lysistrata; Assembly-Women; Wealth (Halliwell, S., Trans.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Thucydides. Pericles Funeral Oration [book online]. 6 June 1999, accessed 8 Oct. 2005;
The Plato was acknowledged for his contribution towards the development of the philosophy and arts. The scholar was deeply respected for his interest in the poetry and literature, and content of which narrated the political and social situation of the country, the Plato was always encouraged to join the political wing, but he expressed his reluctance because he believed that the cause was not strong and justified enough to offer assistance to the public.
The contribution of both the scholar and leader has been widely misinterpreted, but the fact remains that these forces contributed immensely towards the attainment and the restoration of the lost pride of the Greek Empire. The objective of both the forces has been transform the Athens into 'prosperous and powerful' (Susan, 2000) state, and for that purpose both the officials renounced the corrupt practices of bribery and frauds. Theses preventive measures were responsible for the development of…...
mlaReferences
Debra Nails. The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. 2002. Hackett Publishing. pp. 78-90.
Susan Sara Monoson. Plato's Democratic Entanglements: Athenian Politics and the Practice of Philosophy. 2000. Princeton University Press. pp. 198-210.
Loren J. II Samons. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles. 2007. Cambridge University Press. pp. 56-67.
Simon Hornblower. The Greek World. 2002. Routledge. pp. 67-78.
One of the main reasons for which Pericles chooses Athens to be reference to those that have just died is that of glorifying the dead by attributing the general image of greatness associated with Athens. By promoting an ideology like democracy, one influences people in trusting their own powers and the power of independence and equality as a whole. Pericles's stand in the general context proves that he feels compassion for the people of Athens and that he identifies with each of the individuals who had lost someone dear in the conflict that took place in the area.
In spite of Pericles' dedication to Athens and its people, the fact that he puts across concepts that are obviously exaggerated leads to the assumption that one of his main intentions was to get people's attention away from the war and of the risks related to it. Pericles relates to Athens as being…...
This is Aristotle's launching pad for his discussion of politics. To him, ethics and politics are matters of rational judgment, stemming from the natural inclinations of individual humans. This notion is reflected in Aristotle's analysis of the constitutional doctrines of some 158 cities. Essentially, he recognized that every state -- necessarily city states -- exist in unique sets of circumstances that act upon the universal forms of ethics in ways that alter their particular manifestations. Aristotle does, however, put forward his conception of the most realistically achievable form of government that would simultaneously facilitate mankind's natural pursuit of rational happiness. He writes, "e must consider then not only what form of government is best, but also what is possible and easily attainable by all," (Aristotle 321). He concludes, broadly, that democratic and oligarchic governments are the most dangerous, and that a monarchy in the hands of a just ruler would…...
mlaWorks Cited
Aristotle. Politics. New York: Gramercy Books, 1971.
Plato. Plato: Republic. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1992.
Thucydides. "Pericles: The Funeral Oration." World Civilizations: Ancient Greece, 1996. Available:
15).
He argues that there is a duty resting on convention, which he considers in a deep and morally weighty sense, based on an implied but nonetheless binding contract between the individual and the state:
It is a fact, then," they would say, "that you are breaking covenants and undertakings made with us, although you mad them under no compulsion of misunderstanding, and were not compelled to decide in a limited time; you had seventy years in which you could have left the country, if you were not satisfied with us of felt that the agreements were unjust (Plato, 1993, p. 89).
In other words, Socrates has enjoyed the benefit of the laws all his life and cannot now break them without breaking an implicit agreement he has made with the state based on his acceptance of the law over his lifetime.
Plato's ideal state is not a democracy, and indeed Plato sees…...
mlaReferences
Burn, a.R. (1949). Pericles and Athens. New York: Macmillan.
Kimball, R. (2002). Freedom and Duty: Pericles and Our Times. The National Interest, 81-85.
Lakoff, S.A. (1996). Democracy: History, Theory, Practice. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Plutarch (1909). Plutarch's Lives: Volume 12. New York: P.F. Collier & Son.
Trojan Wars and Culture
The three epic stories namely, The Iliad, the Trojan Women, Pericle's Funeral Oration are powerfully written master pieces of work, that illustrate the element of horridness of war beautifully.
The Iliad
The story of Homer's Iliad focuses on the "rage of Achilles." eading this epic poem makes one believe that it is based entirely on the totality and gruesomeness of war. However, it tells us about the details of war with full description and information. Though war is an important aspect of the tale, but the real story is based on the remarkable fighter and hero-that man is none other than Achilles.
Achilles possesses the greatest military expertise of any of the Achaean ranks and also the greatest fighting ability out of all of the warriors, Trojan or Achaean. At the beginning of the epic, Achilles becomes liberated from his fellow warriors and retreats back to his own ships of…...
mlaReferences
Homer, The Iliad
McLaren, The Trojan Women
Thucydides, Pericles's Funeral Oration
" Pericles said that Athenians did not have to be forced to chose the lot of the soldier, they loved the land that gave them the freedom to chose to live the way they wanted, rather than to fulfill a predetermined ideal and thus, when necessary: "They resigned to hope their unknown chance of happiness; but in the face of death they resolved to rely upon themselves alone." In a democracy, the citizen's sense of self-reliance is its life-blood. Values are created and chosen by consensus and the consent of the governed, not by a single, 'philosophical' intelligence and thus the values are more enthusiastically believed, and because they exercise choice from birth, people more able to undertake creative intellectual change, as they did in ancient Athens. The limits of Yahoo society, although it seems to be more socially stable than most democracies, is that people will not believe in…...
role of deities in "The Iliad," by Homer, the poetry of Sappho, and "Pericles Funeral Oration," by Thucydides. Specifically it will discuss how significant the deities are in the three pieces, and why deities played such an important part in ancient literature.
IMPORTANCE of the DEITIES
The Gods (deities) play an extremely important part throughout these three pieces, and through much of ancient literature. The gods were extremely important to the Greeks, who believed they lived atop Mount Olympus, ruled by Zeus, the father and leader of the Gods. In "The Iliad," Achilles often turns to the Gods to aid him in battle and in his personal life. People believed the Gods could influence everything in their lives, and so often asked them for help and advice, as Achilles does. "I came to see if I could check this temper of yours, / Sent from heaven by the white-armed goddess /…...
mlaWorks Cited
Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis, in:, 1997.
Robinson, David M. Sappho and Her Influence. Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1924.
Thucydides. Pericles Funeral Oration [book online]. 6 June 1999, accessed 16 Oct. 2002;
g., the finding last year at Athens of the hand of Zeus of the east pediment)" the Parthenon continues to yield intellectual fruit through archeological excavation and discovery (Bruno xiv). As age replaces age with new speculations, scholars reappraise this epic piece of architecture, for "speculations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are already mostly out of date, and original source materials are rare" (Bruno xiv). hat historians do, as a rule, have to go on are the stories preserved by Plutarch, who reflects a "spirit that undoubtedly prevailed at Athens as a plan took shape to reconstruct the sanctuary which had been left in ruins by the Persians" (Bruno xiv). This plan was so Athenian to the core that even (as Plutarch mentions) the animals seemed to throw their very being into the operation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Greek architecture has produced some of the world's finest marvels, and was especially brilliant…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bruno, Vincent. The Parthenon. NY W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. Print.
Fergusson, James. The Parthenon. London: William Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1883.
Print.
"The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization." PBS. Web. 28 Nov 2011.
As an historian and a citizen of that democratic city, Thucydides was faced with a task no less daunting -- how to make the saga of a losing war seem like a triumph, or at least seem interesting and relevant, rather than something Athens wished to forget.
hen reading Thucydides, one does not read about an ancient war, rather one is witness to the process of historical story, of a history of narrative being created, even the first citing of 'spin' if you like. Unlike the Spartans, for the Athenians in Pericles' oration, "advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity," and the freedom enjoyed "in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks…...
mlaWorks Cited
Thucydides. "The Histories: The History of the Peloponnesian War." MIT Classical Archive. 2004. 6 Dec 2004 http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.2.second.html
The temple itself was built to embody Athena's presence, both in its intention and in its physical construction.
For example, the columns used in Greek temples were the Doric, Ionic, and the Corinthian. The Doric was "not only a type of column, but an 'order'; this means that the temples of the Doric order not only have this type of column, but also have a certain structure at the upper levels" (Silverman). Furthermore, there were other stylistic elements of the Parthenon that demonstrated its religious significance. The Metopes were a series of small structures on the sides of the Parthenon. The Metopes depicted various battles between order and chaos. The Pediments on the Parthenon, which are relief sculptures that are larger than the Metopes, depict events in the life of Athena. In addition, there is a frieze running along the upper edge of the wall of the Parthenon. The frieze…...
mlaWorks Cited
Parthenon." Wikipedia. 2005. Wikipedia. 12 Mar. 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon .
Parthenon, Athens, Greece." Places of Peace and Power. 2005. Sacredsites. 12 Mar. 2005 http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/greece/parthenon.html .
Silverman, David. "The Parthenon." Humanities. 2005. Reed College. 12 Mar. 2005 http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Parthenon.html .
It made no "long speech no one would believe, of fine moral arguments" (oodruff 103). However, Pericles' claim that Athens did not need support to uphold its borders falls completely flat in the face of Athenian desperation to hold onto its empire.
Thucydides, writing with the benefit of hindsight and the knowledge of the outcome of the war shows the Athenians in a far more ambiguous light than Pericles the politician, who was speaking to memorialize the dead. Thucydides shows the cowardice of the Athenians during the plague, as Athenians even turned against one another, in fear -- another example of might making right. Thucydides somewhat disenchanted view of Athens is partially due to his status as an exile -- he was deprived of his command due to no real fault of his own (he was unable to reach a critical strategic location in time to prevent it falling to…...
mlaWork Cited
Thucydides. On justice, power, and human nature: the essence of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. Paul Woodruff (Ed.) Hackett, 1993.
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