In a democracy, men can act how they wish without fear of judgment or retaliation from their neighbors, so long as they act within the confines of the law. Pericles begins his oration by setting out the difficulty of his task: to please those in the audience who were close to the dead with tales of glory and honor without dismissing the citizens . Make snippets of your favorite quotes and moments from Chapter 3 | Funeral Oration of Pericles, from The History of the Peloponnesian War and organize them with all your favorite classic book quotes in a playlist. "[14] Instead, Pericles proposes 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". 560 BCE), which made all citizens equal before the law. Pericles argues that Athens's greatness stems from its openness, freedom, democracy, military excellence, and the civic and moral strength of its citizenry. We're sorry, SparkNotes Plus isn't available in your country. For Pericles this speech occurred in 431 BCE at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War. The speech, "Funeral Oration", was a eulogy written in the winter of 431-430 B.C.E. Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan! $18.74/subscription + tax, Save 25% Renews March 11, 2023 "Pericles's Funeral Oration" by Philipp Foltz in 1877 The word "eulogy" comes down to us from the Greek word eulogia meaning to offer praise, or even high praise. Helicanus explains that Pericles has not spoken in three months, and Lysimachus says he knows someone in his city who may be able to make him talk. After the funeral, Pericles stood in front of the grave to give his speech. Pericles emphasized the power of the Athenian people and in particular their ability to work together for the greater good of the city by putting aside what they might want in the moment as individuals. Pericles' Funeral Oration can be compared to several more modern speeches, most notably Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. One of the most famous of these speeches is Pericles' Funeral Oration. A funeral oration is a lengthy speech given at a funeral. In the same winter the Athenians . Athens had played a leading role in resisting the invasions of the Persian kings Darius I (550486 BCE) and Xerxes I (c. 519465 BCE). Pericles delivered this speech to the survivors of the fallen who lost their lives fighting in the Peloponnesian War. SparkNotes PLUS Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. [32], , ' . Upon first reading, the funeral oration is a stirring and strikingly resonant description of Western democracy's core values. He paints Athens's war dead as tough, disciplined, and heroic, suggesting that they are no less prepared than Sparta's soldiers. 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. Per the writing of Thucydides, Pericles' funeral oration implied that democracy makes it so people can better themselves through merit rather than class or money. With this disclaimer, Pericles states that he will nevertheless follow Athenian tradition and give the customary funeral oration, doing his best to satisfy the desires and opinions of his audience. That the soldiers put aside their desires and wishes for the greater cause. Martha Taylor argues that Thucydides subtly critiques Pericles' vision of Athens as a city divorced from the territory of Attica and focused, instead, . Pericles and his crew arrive in Myteline, and Lysimachus goes out to meet the ships. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. SparkNotes PLUS The shipmaster insists the body be thrown overboard, or the storm won't stop, and Pericles complies. Scholars are still working through the finer points of women's roles in ancient Athens, but Pericles's speech lays out the mainstream opinion . Pericles arrives with corn and saves them. He says that there are no people so self-reliant or so versatile as the Athenians. https://www.thoughtco.com/pericles-funeral-oration-thucydides-version-111998 (accessed March 4, 2023). In Ephesus, Thaisa is a priestess at the temple where Pericles tells his story. You can view our. Prior to the plague's devastation, Athenians were already dying as a result of the war. At this point, however, Pericles departs most dramatically from the example of other Athenian funeral orations and skips over the great martial achievements of Athens' past: "That part of our history which tells of the military achievements which gave us our several possessions, or of the ready valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Hellenic or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to dwell upon, and I shall therefore pass it by. Summary & Analysis Prologue and Act I, Scene i Act I, Scenes ii-iii Act I, Scenes iv-v Act II, Scenes i-iii Act II, Scenes iv-v I quite agree that he 'praises the dead not by celebrating their exploits (which . In a statement oozing with patriotism, Pericles proclaims: We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. It is these balanced priorities and powerful show of moderation that makes Athens great. What the florid Isocrates would have taken several pages to explain, the brilliantly concise Thucydides is able to compress into a few carefully worded phrases. Funeral Oration Study Guide. He points out that Spartans bring their allies to a fight, while Athens does not. He notes that he will praise the dead for whom the crowd has gathered, but first he wishes to discuss the principles and institutions that define Athens. Thaisa's body is put in a chest, which washes up in Ephesus, where it is brought to the attention of Cerimon, a generous doctor. Then a funeral procession was held, with ten cypress coffins carrying the remains, one for each of the Athenian tribes, and another left symbolically empty for the missing or those whose remains were unable to be recovered. Read the detailed scene-by-scene Summary & Analysis, the Full Book Summary, or the Full Book Analysis of Pericles. Indeed, Pericles argues, Athenians are just as strong militarily as the Spartans, while they also have a superior lifestyle. It was the custom at the time to honor the dead each year who had died defending their city-state, the city-state of Athens. 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. In Tyre, Pericles worries that Antiochus will take some form of revenge, whether a military attack or an underhanded assassination attempt. People also obey the unwritten laws of polite conduct and tradition and are judged by their fellow citizens. Editor's note: Every year, the ancient . "[22], Pericles addresses the widows of the dead only here, telling them that "the greatest glory for a woman is not to be spoken of at all, either for good or ill."[23] This passage is often cited as characteristic of Athenian attitudes to women's role in public life,[24] but is also connected to the standard behaviour of women as mourners at private funerals.[25]. The last part of the ceremony was a speech delivered by a prominent Athenian citizen chosen by the state.