HST202 United States History

Read the Funeral Oration of Pericles in the Ancient History Sourcebook at Fordham University. Given the context of this speech, do you believe everything Pericles says about Athens in the Funeral Oration? Why or why not?

Answer

The Pericles tends to make use of the speech with the Funeral Oration mainly to promote Athens. He believed mainly in the people and the speech was able to help the people to make them proud that they are one of the Athenians. It is seen that these people are very proud of the city and the customs, where the major deal of respect is for the warrior class as they believed with the top members of the society (Lee & Ronald, pg 503-531). The warriors, here, were some of the classified people where the funeral oration is to respect the ones who were dead in the battle or after the battle. With this, there is a dedication to defend the country and focus on Athens and the ancestors.

Pericles believe in his citizens where even at the death, they believed that Athens were best and if their remote ancestors deserve praise much more than their fathers, no pains would be able to leave any of the acquisitions to them (i.e., Pericles) (Pownall, pg 97). He felt that the ancestors should be given a proper respect and honour that they deserve and wanted to know that it is the country which produce love and people. This, in turn, will help the soldiers to be proud to fight for the country and the people as well. Athens tend to accept the outsiders in the country where the people have also learnt about the pride that the Athenians held for the country.

References

Lee Jr, Ronald C. "Justifying Empire: Pericles, Polk, and a Dilemma of Democratic Leadership." Polity 34.4 (2002): 503-531.

Pownall, Frances Anne. Lessons from the past: the moral use of history in fourth-century prose. University of Michigan Press, 2010.