Death of a Man; Rebirth of Patriotism

Yesterday's in-class discussion explored an interesting concept: humans pride themselves in being rational creatures, but there's a certain line of investment that, when crossed, leads to irrational behavior.  This can be seen not only in human sexuality, but also in those who cry over the death of a fictional dog.

I cry every time

Because we can fall into this circle of irrationality, we occasionally sell ourselves out to the arguments of others. In his post, Gavin showed that there could be several reasons for the speech being included in Thucydides' history. Specifically,  he cites Chloe's idea that the speech may be a call to action and nationalism. 

In the Latter-day Saint tradition, we usually use funerals to teach the destiny of God's children, serving as both a reminder and a motivator. Similarly, the funeral was an excellent time to mix the rational and irrational sides of our behavior, a way to stimulate an appeal to honor and citizenry. Although feigning to play down the Greeks' importance, the orator is, by his word choice, building them up. For example, the following is given as an almost off-hand line:

"I have no wish to make a long speech on subjects familiar to you all, so I shall say nothing about the war-like deeds by which we acquired our power or the battles in which we or our fathers gallantly resisted our enemies, Greek or foreign." 

A careful reading will show that Pericles is not even the theme of his own funeral! From pages 3-6, the entire block of text is an explanation of the glory of Athens, with a mere footnote explaining the relationship between the city and the deceased. Like us, the Athenians used their funerals as a way to point toward their object of worship: not the gods of mythology, rather, the city and culture they had created. 

A funeral is an excellent pulpit. By mixing the ethos in as an endorsement of whatever doctrine the speaker wished to uphold, the irrational side of man takes the steering wheel.