Views on Death in Ancient Greece

The war between the Athenians and the Spartans as written by Thucydides was a great one that no other that had ever occurred could be compared to, so says Thucydides. Thucydides views the preparations on both sides to have been perfect and that the Hellenic race was joining the war as well. He considers it the greatest faction yet recognized in history, of the barbaric world rather than to the Hellenes alone. From the second chapter of his book, it is clear that the war between these two groups was not to the advantage of the Athenians. They lost in the war and most of their people were killed. An ancestral funeral ceremony is performed to bury those who had died in the war.

The major theme that comes out clearly in the text is the theme of warfare and glorious death. Right from the beginning of his book, Thucydides, writes the story of the war between the Athenians and the Spartans. The theme of warfare is therefore evidenced by the Athenians preparation, the author says, ‘…beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any other that had preceded.’ This shows that the war that was to start was a unique one that had never happened before in history, in Thucydides opinion. This to me shows a bit of an exaggeration but more importantly this dramatic portrayal of the Peloponnesian war shows that war was seen as a part of life in Athens. In the text, we don’t find Thucydides describing war as being dark, catastrophic, or destructive which is how we would depict war nowadays. Instead we find him describing the war as this huge event that will go down in history as the greatest war to be fought.

In addition, the loss of the Athenians is seen when a funeral is pe...

... middle of paper ...

...ue caused, it still shows how dying in war was glorious to the deceased and believed to be one of best possible ways that one can die.

In conclusion, Thucydides work on the Peloponnesians war employs the theme of warfare and death. There are many instances that Death is experienced in Athens, the major being discussed earlier are war and the plague. These two phenomena claimed lives of many people in Athens. Death as a theme is therefore brought out clearly in this context. One can learn a great deal about the way the Athenians looked at death and war from the text. Different types of deaths were treated differently; some glorified, some shameful and others just neglected. To the Athenian the way a person died was extremely significant for their legacy. Finally, I believe that death is death no matter what form it comes in. It always causes agony and despair.