An Education to Greece

   History and Greek Civilization

Because history is the past of the winners, and Athens
definitely won to history, Pericles was right that future
ages will wonder at Athens.  We do so today.

           

            Pericles’s speech reveals Athenian civilization in two ways: the traditions and pride.  Pericles mentions that he does not want to give the speech because the bravery of the soldiers speaks for themselves. However, it is his duty to honor his ancestors and traditions. Pericles, though, focused much more on the pride and glory of Athens.  According to Pericles, Athenians have natural bravery instead of Spartan state-induced bravery.  The Athenians also pride themselves on working alone and not needing allies.  Athenians enjoy living in a world where beauty, things of the mind, bravery, politics, and service live harmoniously.  Athens is an “education to Greece” and "future ages will wonder at us.”  However, Pericles is only at least partly employing propaganda because Athens had its problems.  However, history is not the truth of the past but a reconstruction of the winner’s memories.  So Athens, the winner, is a golden city to Pericles.

Employing Ethos

            Pericles establishes his ethos mostly through emotional appeal.  Though he already had great ethos because he was a leading statesman in Athens, he mentioned none of his accomplishments during his speech, which actually increased his ethos.  He instead establishes ethos mostly through pathos.  When he says a speech is not necessary because of the bravery of the soliders, he is being sympathetic to the mourners.  He uses the word “we” instead of “you” to connect him with his audience.  Once he has the audience firmly on his side through his pathos, he is able to give the mourners advice to have more children, and they will take his advice.

Socrates vs. Pericles

Socrates would question even the most mundane
so he would definitely question the bravery of
the Athenian soldier. 

                        Socrates would have approached this funeral oration very differently than Pericles.  I imagine that he would attempt to discover if the dead soldiers were actually brave or only acting on orders.  He would question the mourners about their sons and brothers and their character.  He would not dote on Athens for more than half the speech but attempt to expose its corruption. Under his motto that “an unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates would bring the hard questions to light as opposed to Pericles’s epideictic, praising oration.

was most interested in knowing absolute truth.  I even conjecture that unlike Adam's thoughts, Pericles represented the Sophist thought.  Sophists were pragmatic, and Pericle’s advice to have more children and to women quiet were pragmatic thinkings taken from a difficult situation.  Pericles based himself in real life events, not in theory.