A Call To Action: When Words Are Not Enough

Reading Pericles' funeral oration, as written and recorded by Thucydides, I was at first struck by the appeal to pathos that is obvious throughout the speech. Pericles had to be very aware of his audience and speak with decorum as the people were going through this difficult time of loss and grief. He appealed to emotion as he recounted the sufferings and joys these soldiers experienced, and also appealed to their character (ethos) as he talked about their bravery and courage to lay down their life instead of give up in war and be spared. As Jared mentioned in his post, this speech does stay true to encomium form in praising the war victims.

But this speech seems to have ulterior motives. It doesn't sound like Pericles just wants to make the family members of the deceased soldiers feel better. This speech is a reminder. It is a plea in desperate times. It is a call to action. Pericles starts off at the very beginning saying that he doesn't really want to give a speech. That words aren't enough to truly give credit to what these brave soldiers accomplished. It seems like he is almost saying that these brave men giving up their lives is above anything that rhetoric can try to prove. But, nonetheless, he continued in his speech, due to tradition, and actually used rhetoric to his benefit with his pathetic and ethical appeals to try to stir the people up to action. Athens was a great state before the Peloponnesian War, but through addition research, I learned that Athens really took a hit from the war. Economically and in international relations, Athens was reduce to very little and never built back up their pre-war prosperity.

I think Pericles, and Thucydides as a war general, could see the quickly decreasing state of Athens. The funeral oration reminds everyone of the greatness of their state - of the political prosperity and freedom they enjoy, of the foreign goods they have access to. They also talk of their strengths militarily - reminding everyone in the audience of the greatness of Athens. Pericles then goes on and talks about the soldiers as immortalized heroes, who died for the greater good of this state. It seems to me that, using ethos and referring to one's character and bravery, Pericles is desperately trying to call everyone else to action - to battle, to support the state of Athens, to increase in its prosperity - and if you do, you too will be famous as a hero for this nation.

Pericles says words are not enough. He uses his words to stir up people to action, to not let people, in their grief, forget of the fight for Athens' greatness. Actions do speak louder than words, but sometimes it takes words to get the action to happen in the first place.