Thucydides, Whitey Tightey's

Pericles starts out his speech with strong ethos by immediately letting the audience know about his intentions. He informs them that he will be describing and speaking about what he has experienced in war. I see it kind of as a, "been there, done that" approach. He makes sure that he keeps himself in check by sneaking this credibility in the back door. Later on in the speech, he continues to include himself as part of the great civilization he goes on to describe. By using the word "we" and "our" instead of "you", "your", or just "The Athenians", he is simultaneously lifting himself and the audience.

(We're all on the same team here, guys)

The body of the speech has intense pathos. Over and over, Pericles reminds the audience of how great Athens is and was. He starts out by bringing up the ancestors, "founding fathers of Athens" if you will, and their critical role in establishing this great civilization of theirs. He then talks about how they have set the standard and have been great at pretty much everything. Using evidences in politics, war, and the people as a whole, the decorum at this point is geared specifically to evoke strong emotion. "Athens, alone of the states we know, comes to her testing time in a greatness that surpasses what was imagined of her." This is a good transition point to call for action. At this point he starts to slowly use more and more action words.

A lot of people from the class have agreed that this speech is both epideictic and deliberative. Chloe S did a great job at explaining how, through words, Pericles is able to persuade the audience that words aren't enough. He didn't even want to give a speech, but these great men deserve our action. His delivery was executed in a way that both delivered sympathy, appealing to emotion, and hope for change, appealing to reason for action in the future. At the end of the speech, especially, he called for action. These great men who died deserve the action of the people to live up to their reputation.

Just because something has been done, or is being done currently, does not mean it has to happen in the future. It wasn't until this last part that I realized the impact of the first section in which he disagrees with the way the grieving has gone. This is another logical appeal and example of change.