Pericles' Funeral Oration

A detailed Summary of Pericles' Funeral Oration

It is imperative for any public speaker to be positive and praising of the land and the populace that he/she represents and presides over. This, then, is also the case with Pericles in his funeral oration. Obviously there are great aspects about Athens and Athenians or history would have forgotten them and we would not still study them and their ways of life. However, it is my opinion that Athenian society was not exactly as Pericles made it out to be in his funeral oration. The purpose of this paper is to cite the good and bad aspects of the speech, and what are and are not exemplary aspects of Athens and Athenians.

Pericles had several good points in his address. One of the best came at the very beginning of his discourse about the greatness of Athens and Athenians. He said that men's deeds should speak for themselves and not be valued depending on who speaks of them. The idea behind this statement is that if a poor, boring, or long-winded speaker were to relate the tales of their bravery, it may take away from the actual deeds. The medium would lessen the message, so to speak. Another good section of the speech i

I feel that Pericles is idealizing Athens to a small degree. He realizes that Athens has many great things about it, however, like in the above examples, he says a few things that do not reflect greatness of any kind.

In section 40, Pericles states "we alone regard a man who takes no in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a useless character". This assertion is put into action in the Melian Dialogue in section 95. The Athenian says to the Melian that if they leave them be, it is a sign of weakness so they must overtaken to show their power. Stated otherwise, Melians are not harmless if they are left alone, but they are very useful to Athens if they are taken over.

After reading the documents of the Corcyran Civil War and the Melian Dialogue it seems that there is more than Pericles mentioned in his oration.

The Melian Dialogue enhances what Pericles states in his address, but that does not mean that it is right. The Athenians that met with the Melian leaders were very confident and knew that their army could vanquish their opponents, just a Pericles stated. He talked about the strength of their army and he w

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Approximate Word count = 766
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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