The Spartans faced this fundamental problem of the polis in its sharpest form. This past spring, Richard Bernstein investigated the questions hed been asking his whole careerabout right, wrong, and what we owe one anotherone last time. Next came coughing, stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomiting of every kind of bile that has been given a name by the medical profession. The skin turned reddish with pustules and ulcers, while the stricken plunged into the citys water tanks trying to slake an unquenchable thirstpossibly contaminating the water supply. All rights reserved. Most poleis had aristocratic or oligarchic governments, but they were ruled by laws arrived at in discussions in the sovereign assemblies, and they were executed by councils and magistrates selected by the citizens from among themselves. Instead, we put our trust not in secret weapons, but in our own courage when we are called upon to act. It is clear that Pericles views democracy as the best form of government and having adopted it, he views Athens as superior to their fellow city-states. 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). 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. Most of those who have spoken here before me have commended the lawgiver who added this oration to our other funeral customs. The newer image, provided by Sparta, took shape no earlier than the seventh century but immediately captured the imagination of many and continued to fascinate Greek thinkers for centuries. . From him Pericles may have inherited a leaning toward the people, along with landed property at Cholargus, just north of Athens, which put him high, though not quite at the highest level, on the Athenian pyramid of wealth. Some were acquired by effort; others were simply a gift of irrational fate. But most of the citizens, even in undemocratic states, had no such opportunities. References. Rats invaded paradise. "Pericles' Funeral Oration - Thucydides' Version." Pericles, the author of the speech, was a general of Athens in the fifth century BCE. . They lived without the comfort of the two major devices that other cultures have used to evade that terrible truth. Democracy of today can be traced back to the Funeral Oration speech of Pericles'. Athens is called a democracy because the many rule, not the few; everyone knew that in Sparta a small minority dominated the vast majority. 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. What is the overarching theme of the funeral oration of Pericles and what does it tell us about classical Greek culture and ideals? 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. Twenty-five hundred years later we remember him and his fellow-Athenians precisely because of their devotion to this great civic endeavor. The authorship of the Funeral Oration is also not certain. The Spartan imposed a property qualification for participation in public life; any Athenian citizen could sit on juries or the council and vote and speak in the assembly. [6] He enabled civic participation by subsidizing service on juries and also for other civil roles. The answer was to be found in the power of Athens, although less in its extent than its character. . According to Pericles speech, Athenians had great respect for their warrior class and they were proud of their city and its customs. Athens lost its first citizen, but his legacy endures in the Athens skyline and in democratic institutions around the world. Pericles ushered in what is considered radical democracy. This meant that ordinary Athenian citizens were paid by the state to participate in public affairs. At times, the third qualification is the most important and can compensate for weaknesses in the other two. Pericles' Ideology of Democratic Society. Pericles and Funeral Oration for Kids and Teachers - Ancient Greece for 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". He says that Athens's democracy ensures justice for all its citizens but also encourages excellence in individuals. He maneuvered Athens to primacy over other league members, first by transferring the leagues treasury to Athens in 454 B.C. Most died after about a week. 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. That the soldiers put aside their desires and wishes for the greater cause. They excluded money, the arts and sciences, philosophy, aesthetic pleasures, and the life of the mind in general, for all these things might foster individualism and detract from devotion to the polis. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. He also said that the ability to govern and participate in government was more important than one's class. 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. 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. 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. Beyond those advantages, its early champions tried to show that the polis was necessary for civilized life, and therefore deserved the highest sacrifice. If we had access to Pericles inner thoughts and to the many other speeches he delivered in his long career, we would possibly discover that he took no less pride in Athenians peaceful achievements of mind and spirit. The more immediate challenge to the democratic vision came from Sparta. Few can rely upon strong democratic traditions, and all suffer economic conditions that range from bad to disastrous. In contrast, Pericles points to the limited jurisdiction of the Athenian regime, which leaves a considerable space for individualism and privacy, free from public scrutiny: Not only do we conduct our public life as free men but we are also free of suspicion of one another as we go about our every-day lives. Thucydides was a worldly Athenian general, whose History of the Peloponnesian War is a cold-eyed account of the ruinous conflict between democratic Athens and militaristic Sparta. The rewards conferred by these aristocratic virtues are precisely those sought by the epic heroes: greatness, power, honor, fame. 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. Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. Pericles. He advanced the foundations of democracy and governed during Athenss Golden Age, when the arts, architecture, and philosophyas well as Athens itselfreached new heights. 399 BCE): Pericles's Funeral Oration from the Peloponnesian War (Book 2.3446)", "What new music are you singing these days?