Assignment: Analysis of Pericles' Funeral Oration

Pericles led Athens at the height of its classical glory, and from the funeral oration he gave, as recorded by Thucydides, we get a sense of how the Athenians thought of themselves, as well as the role that public speaking played in their culture.

I'd like my students to read the funeral oration of Pericles and analyze this as history, as rhetoric, and as philosophy. In a blog post of about 300-400 words, they are to spend about 100-150 words commenting on each of these three areas.

To encourage learning from one another, as well as the avoidance of duplication, each post should make explicit reference to and link to at least one other student's analysis. Rather than seeing multiple students make very similar points, I'd like to see students refining or even challenging one another's analyses. (Whoever posts earliest has some advantage, but they might also need to return and update what they say so that they can also refer to others' posts).

1. History
Consider any of the following approaches in doing a brief historical analysis.

• What does this speech reveal about Greek civilization? For example, in the picture above one can see a sculptor pausing from his work to listen to Pericles. From this one can infer the value of the arts to the Greeks. What can be inferred from the "picture" given of Greek life by Pericles in his speech? 
• What does this document reveal in terms of history as a genre of writing at that time? What was worth recording, and why do you think Thucydides chose the methods he used?
• Consider history as a genre of rhetoric, and analyze Thucydides' rhetoric (audience, intention, kairos, style, arrangement, etc.)
• Do some brief research on 5th century Athens or on the Peloponnesian war. Use this to give a better setting or sense of kairos for the next category of analysis: rhetoric.

2. Rhetoric

Use any of the following in doing a brief rhetorical analysis

• Picking up off the last suggestion from history, how does the additional historical information you researched help us better understand the kairos for Pericles' oration?
• Analyze Pericles' speech as epideictic oratory.
• Analyze the arrangement of his speech. What significance is there to the order in which the ideas were given? 
• How does Pericles establish his ethos within the speech?
• What are some of the topics of invention he uses. Are these what you'd expect for the occasion?
• Can you point to any schemes or tropes or any specific figures of speech (see the right column of Silva Rhetoricae) in his oration and say what their effect is?

3. Philosophy
We have recently reviewed basic ideas from three groups of philosophers in ancient Greece: the Pre-Socratics, the Socratics, and the Sophists. Review your notes, and then consider the following: How can one relate any of those philosophical schools, or the individual concepts of specific philosophers, to the speech by Pericles? Consider any of these approaches:

• How does Thucydides' history or Pericles' speech (or both) represent Greek rationality?
• Argue that Pericles would meet with the approval or disapproval of one of these three groups of philosophers, or of any one philosopher whose ideas we have covered.
• Use an aspect of the speech as a way of illustrating one of the ideas of one of these philosophers.
• How might one of the philosophers we reviewed have approached the speaking task differently than did Pericles? (or approached the historical task differently than did Thucydides)?
• If you don't feel you have enough of a grasp on these philosophical schools or concepts, then as an alternative, consider Pericles' speech in light of Greek drama. Is Pericles an actor, using the tools or approach of the theater? If Euripides transformed the speech into a play, how might this be approached? 

Be sure to divide your post into three sections corresponding to these instructions, and to limit the overall length to 300-400 words.