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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...
Pericles relates to Athens as being a "prize," thus directly referring to the fact that it was in danger of being lost to another body. The public was obviously scared, as a lot of Athenians had died in the war and many of those alive were also exposed and in danger of losing their lives in the conflict. The Athenian orator's constant allusions to the glory of Athens can easily be identified as a mean to have people think that the nation will surely win in the ongoing war.
Pericles' speech was principally meant to improve conditions in the Athenian camp, as conditions were critical and Athenians had apparently lost their trust in victory. The Athenian orator did not hesitate to relate to Athens' greatness, even with the fact that it had been but a memory of what it once was.
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
It made no "long speech no one would believe, of fine moral arguments" (Woodruff 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
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
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. When reading Thucydides, one does not read about an ancient war, rather one is witness to the process of historical story, of a
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
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