The true essence of human nature is seen during times of great hardships as can be seen comparing Pericles' Funeral Oration and the plague in Thucydides', The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides accounts for many different aspects of justice, power, and human nature through his text. The order, the style of his writing, choice of words, and relations of what he believes actually happened, allows the reader to make different inferences about the message he's trying to convey. The juxtaposition of the two stories portrays many different characteristics to investigate and analyze. The question can be raised, why compare the funeral oration and the plague with each other, the answer simply lies in its order. Thucydides shows the reader the differences between what is seen of power, human nature, and justice by placing the plague right after the funeral oration. There is a great shift between these two stories. The implicit teaching using irony and arrangement by Thucydides' allows for the depiction of how easily strong and powerful Athens can fall apart. Pericles describes Athens greatness by saying, "our city as a whole is a lesson for Greece." He not only has great things to say about the city but can be seen since there in view around them is the glory of Athens, its great buildings. He puts emotions into the people by describing the vast empire, the ancestors and forefathers who fought and made it bigger, their daily achievements in making it even greater. It sounds like an Athens that was built through generations of hard work and is this great strong city. Pericles says, "For Athens is the only power now that is greater than her fame when it comes to test" (43). This quote nor many of the feelings ... ... middle of paper ... ...w the dead bodies anywhere, they buried them with honor. They even went as far as to search through the buildings ruins in order to find any other victims. Athenians didn't show the signs Pericles had said they were well known of. Thucydides was trying to justify his view that when people are put in times of chaos and hardship, they're true evil human nature comes out. They become not people of honor and strength but people interested in themselves and shameful in their actions. An example of one of the greatest tragedies shows just the opposite, sometimes extreme situations can bring out the actual good courageous and honorable side in people. Thucydides showed Athenians as people who didn't live up to what they were known for, but really weren't as great, strong, as they boasted they were. Works Cited: The History of the Pelopennesian War by Thucydides
For Pericles, Athenian values are realized through culture and “daily devotion.” He claims that Athenian citizens obey both “the laws themselves” and “agreed-on social values (which need no specific legislation),” not requiring legislation to uphold their values. Accordingly, Pericles views exceptionalism as intrinsic to Athenians. Boasting about the city, Pericles questions “how else did she become great but by this genius in her citizens?” A recommitment to civic values, therefore, is simple to Pericles: Athenians are exceptional at the moment of his speech, and must simply continue their past conduct in order to achieve future
Thucydides set out to narrate the events of what he believed would be a great war—one requiring great power amassed on both sides and great states to carry out. Greatness, for Thucydides, was measured most fundamentally in capital and military strength, but his history delves into almost every aspect of the war, including, quite prominently, its leaders. In Athens especially, leadership was vital to the war effort because the city’s leaders were chosen by its people and thus, both shaped Athens and reflected its character during their lifetimes. The leaders themselves, however, are vastly different in their abilities and their effects on the city. Thucydides featured both Pericles and Alcibiades prominently in his history, and each had a distinct place in the evolution of Athenian empire and the war it sparked between Athens and Sparta. Pericles ascended to power at the empire’s height and was, according to Thucydides, the city’s most capable politician, a man who understood fully the nature of his city and its political institutions and used his understanding to further its interests in tandem with his own. After Pericles, however, Thucydides notes a drastic decline in the quality of Athenian leaders, culminating in Alcibiades, the last major general to be described in The Peloponnesian War. While he is explicit in this conclusion, he is much more reticent regarding its cause. What changed in Athens to produce the decline in the quality of its leadership?
The stunning Greek defeat of the Persians, the specter of which lurks behind the events of the Peloponnesian Wars, was for Herodotus proof of the superiority of Hellenic form of government and way of life, and Herodotus ends his history at this pinnacle of Greek history. Thucydides then accepts the task of chronicling Greece’s unraveling from a position as the dominant power of the Mediterranean, and a center of cultural, technological, and political development to the final result of the Peloponnesian Wars—a fractured, demoralized, and dependent Greece that lies wide open to foreign conquest. This result is, for Thucydides, apparent from the beginning of the conflict. Greece can only dominate when the balance of power between Athens and Sparta is maintained, and the destruction of either is tantamount to the destruction of the whole. An accurate understanding of the national characters of Athens and Sparta makes it clear which of the two will ultimately be the victor of a long, arduous military struggle, but the same understanding of national character makes it equally apparent that the one which can dominate militarily cannot lead Greece. The speeches made at the First Lacedaemonian Congress emphasize not only the character of the two nations in conflict, but more broadly, the inevitability of Hellenic demise as a result of this conflict.
Thucydides was right to claim that all wars can be explained by Fear, Honor, and Interest. All Wars are related to the three characteristics as stated by Dr. Nation (Dr. Nation video). The Athenians thought process was that the weak would be ruled by the strong and that was the nature of conflict (Strassler p. 43). Looking at the Peloponnesian war itself will illustrate how fear, honor and interest were involved with how this war developed. The initial unnamed Athenian that made that statement was probably using it to deter war with Sparta when it mostly incited the war (Dr. Nation Video). The Athenians wanted to maintain and sustain their city state but also expand it. They were expanding through their alliances and this is what invoked the
While the Gods were a very important aspect of the Greeks, so was war and militaristic power. These values can be seen in Thucydides The Funeral Oration of Pericles, which explains a battle of the Peloponnesian War. "And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many relaxations from toil".
Thucydides, Rex Warner, and M. I. Finley. "BOOK TWO: The Policy of Pericles." History of the Peloponnesian War. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1972. 143-64. Print
The Peloponnesian War was fought from 431-409 BC. It was a civil war between the Greek city-states and was lead by Sparta and it’s allies against the dominating Athenian government. The Athenian leader, Pericles, was a learned scholar and an ingenious military general. His speeches were known for their ability to motivate and give courage to a crowd whether it was to his soldiers in the final moments right before a battle or to a gathering in the streets of Athens. After the first few battles of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles was asked to give the funeral oration for those that were slain in defense of Athens. He did not offer his condolences to the families of those that died, but he offered them comfort. He did this because the men that died in those battles did not do so in vain, for dying in defense of one’s city-state had nothing to do with vanity in the eyes of the ...
Spoken at the public funeral of the fallen Athenian soldiers, Pericles gave his words of remembrance in a largely indirect manner by referencing Athens. Through the assistance of Thucydides, we have a written record of the words that Pericles may have spoken over 2,400 years ago. Similar to the work from Herodotus, Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a commemoration speech by Pericles and historical documentation / journalism by Thucydides. Pericles’ indirect commemoration of the fallen is best demonstrated at 2.42: “I have dwelt upon the greatness of Athens … [it is] a higher prize … and to establish by manifest proof the merit of these men whom I am now commemorating”. Here Thucydides writes that Athens was the “higher prize” meaning that the democracy and their freedom was worth fighting for. Pericles spoke that “these men nobly fought and died; they could not bear the thought that [Athens] might be taken from them” (Thucydides, 2.41). Pericles after saying this then urges the living citizens of Athens to “toil” on the behalf of their democracy which their fallen valiantly paid for with their lives. Pericles then wraps back around to explain why speaking about Athens commemorates the fallen best – “Their loftiest praise has been already spoken. For in magnifying the city I have magnified them, and men like them whose virtues made her glorious” (Thucydides, 2.42). Therefore, by speaking of
Athens harsh treatment towards other weaker states served as an instigator for hatred and resentment. No one state was strong enough to defend themselves against Athens’ pressures, as it had a very fortified navy. As Athens grew stronger, it also grew harsher and unintentionally isolated itself from all other Greek states. I say unintentionally because they did it for their own benefit and because of their power,
However, Pericles, the Athenian politician who started the Golden Age of Athens, set out to give a less destructive option. Pericles devoted his life to make Athens great, and his passion for the city shows in his funeral oration given after the first battles of the Peloponnesian war. He showed that he deeply cared about Athens and its citizens: “When a man is gone, all are wont to praise him, and should your merit be ever so transcendent, you will still find it difficult not merely to overtake, but even to approach their renown. The living have envy to contend with, while those who are no longer in our path are honoured with a goodwill into which rivalry does not enter. On the other hand, if I must say anything on the subject of female excellence to those of you who will now be in widowhood, it will be all comprised in this brief exhortation. Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men, whether for good or for bad (Thucydides, page 117)”. Pericles restated the ideas of self-sacrifice for arête, but instead of focusing on that aspect, instead he chose to make sure that the Greek peoples did not deviate from who they were; they would not change themselves for anyone, they would remain Greek and proud until the day they die. In Pericles’ mind,
...fically, the Athenians – already demographically disadvantaged—lost an approximate 4400 hoplites and 300 Calvary men due to the plague . It means that they lost some of their available forces for battle which was a great loss for Athens. They also lost a lot more men because of the Peloponnesian war that was happening. For example, the Athenian army – being a powerful naval polis—started with approximately 150 triremes, hoplites, and horsemen in order to attack Peloponnesus states . The Athenians were forced to retreat due to the fact that they had lost a lot of men. It illustrates how events such as the plague had a consequence – not really proven by historians—on how they fought the rest of the war. Even if they went on to later win the Sicilian expedition – 415 B.C. — they were only able to do so because they gained some “strength” few years after the plague .
The Athenian ancestors have built a great form of government, education, military policy, navy, and they died in courage to win all of this for you. Now you must decide if you will do the same for your future citizens and pray that you have a different outcome then them by
The human condition and its significance to International Relations have been in debate for centuries. Classical Realist thought has focused on the inherently aggressive and selfish nature of man and assumed that it is these qualities that ensure war and conflict are inevitable aspects of human society. Alternatively, neo-realism emphasises the system structure of international politics. R.J. McShea discusses the significance of the human nature tradition throughout the study of international relations. The endeavour to rid the world of the evil of war and the advancement of the conditions for peace have been developed from the assumption that the interaction of the states, and the way they ought to conduct relations among themselves, are dependent upon the nature of man. Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" is such a study of international relations. Not a philosophical work, it is considered of great importance within political and philosophical enquiry. In the "History," Thucydides attempts to disclose the underlying causes of the war between Athens and Sparta. He looks beyond the explicit clash of interest and Imperialist gains and endeavours to outline the implicit human motivations of fear, glory, and honour. The explicit motivations made war a continual threat; the implicit motivations and human interactions made it inevitable. It is this discussion within Thucydides' "history" that realists have taken as proof of his status as a founding father of realism; indeed, casual reading of the "History" may suggest this to be the case. However, it is my hypothesis that Thucydides was more optimistic of man, society and the possibility for peace. It is my intention to discuss Thucydides' assumptions of war and human na...
...proud rationalization of its superiority. Balancing security, happiness, and values, Athens is a shining example of freedom, opportunity and justice. It is a nation that both builds itself on and produces uniquely spirited citizens. The sentiments of Pericles’ truly are reminiscent of modern day American Exceptionalism. “I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian.” (2.41.1).
Thucydides’ version of Pericles’ “Funeral Oration” can be read as more of an ironic rendering of Pericles’ original speech since The History of the Peloponnesian War is not just considered to be a historical account but also a “highly imaginative piece of work” in which Thucydides made characters involved in the war say what he believed they actually meant instead of what they might have originally said (Thucydides Introduction pg. x). In the “Funeral Oration”, Pericles praises certain