Pride, arrangement, and sophistry

History:

Like others (including Katie), I found, through Pericles’ speech, a strong sense of Athenian pride. Unlike Katie, though, I don’t feel that it was any more excessive than any other nation. I don’t feel that pride and tradition specifically characterize the Athenians. Pericles talks about the strength and tradition of Athenians and compares it with Spartans. Almost every culture, even today, does that same sort of thing. Think about it: the United States builds itself up and prides itself in its strength and military. The U.S. compares itself with other ‘inferior’ countries all the time. Even within the U.S. there’s competition among states. Texans (and Oregonians) pride themselves in their patriotism, sports, and almost every other aspect of the state. To sum it up, although this speech does make a compelling argument about the pride and tradition, and could very well explain the history of those people, I don’t think it is out of the ordinary for these characteristics to be a part of a community.

Rhetoric: 

I was very interested with the arrangement of Pericles’ speech. To go back to the history that I talked about earlier, pride is a central theme in both the language and in the arrangement. I noticed that although there is some deviation in that theme in the beginning, the theme always goes back to that. Here is a brief overview of the main points (to show the arrangement):

-          Intro of how he got information- personal experience that is credible

-          Shows reverence by suggesting that a speech might not be enough to honor the soldiers (persuasive techniques for arguing against what he is saying?)

-          Praise of the city

-          These men fought for this

-          You should too!

-          Men will be honored and remembered forever

-          So be like them.

-          Find comfort where you can, but stand up and be courageous.

The pride that he invokes and plays with really becomes powerful in encouraging the citizens to participate and be patriotic. It always circles back around to pride. This is a very persuasive technique.

Philosophy: 

I feel like Pericles embodies the sophists in many ways. Not only does he help to create and insight, but he also induces beliefs. Like other sophists, he focuses on the crowds and has an amoral (or relative morality) stance. His speech is long-winded and directed toward the large group. There does seem to be a bit of morality, but I feel that it’s more relative- he praises certain qualities that Athens has, but were other countries to possess those same qualities, they aren’t praised. In fact, it would be a bad thing (in the eyes of the Athenians). 

HPR: How Pericles Rhetoricized

HISTORY
At the end of his oration, Pericles speaks directly to the women in the audience for just a couple of sentences: their greatest glory, he claims, is to not be mentioned by men. That's it! He's done with the women and ends his speech. Women were influential in ancient Greece inasmuch as they were beautiful (e.g., Helen), but weren't they also looked down upon (in the Iliad, wasn't it an insult to call someone a woman)? So perhaps Pericles was misrepresenting Greek culture. Or maybe not, and the Greeks had the same tradition as ancient Hebrews: that to be respectful, one avoids mentioning women.

PHILOSOPHY
In response to Alexander's post: It would appear that Pericles falls in line with the Socratics because he doesn't think that belief should depend on "the goodness or badness of one man's speech." In my opinion, Pericles just makes everyone think that's what he believes, and then goes off about the city of Athens. The speech was supposed to honor the dead, but instead, Pericles totally pulls a Sophist and uses his speech-making powers to persuade everyone that Athens is the best. He talks about how the Athenians search for truth like Socratics do, but the speech itself seems more like Sophist-ry to me.

RHETORIC
As Thomas said, this speech appears to be epideictic. There is definitely the element of "praise"; however, Pericles praises Athens mostly, not the dead. He says that "Praise of other people is tolerable only up to a certain point...where one still believes that one could do oneself some of the things one is hearing about." So he actually uses this occasion to throw in some deliberative rhetoric--to persuade the Athenians to build up their great city. He was definitely considering the future and making sure that the people would follow the examples of the dead with greater motivation to do what was best for Athens.

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.