Delian League And Pericles Funeral Speech

Pericles gave his Funeral Speech to honor the Athenian soldiers who were felled by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War. The ideals affirmed in his Funeral Speech are very similar to modern American ideals. Both Pericles’ values and modern American values promote democracy and patriotism to one’s nation. Also, the United States of America resembles the Delian League because the United States used to be completely sovereign states that were separate from each other and the Delian League used to be separate Greek city-states. Then the separate American states joined up to be the United States of America and the separate city-states made an alliance and became the Delian League. Many values are shared by both Pericles and

Americans also exalt the beauty of their nation, proven by the patriotic song “America the Beautiful”. In addition to this, America spends tax money to beautify and maintain public areas like fountains, parks, and lakes. America is all about individualism. It is the land of opportunities for the individual. It encourages its people to improve themselves and work hard for themselves and be self-sufficient so that they can be competitive in the workforce. Pericles “links” individualism to humanism in his Funeral Speech, according to Gloria K. Fiero (41). America is also an advocate of humanism, because of the numerous charities and nonprofits it holds. Some Americans also volunteer locally in their free time. Many extracurricular high school clubs require a minimum number of volunteering hours, and a lot of scholarships require volunteering hours as well. These requirements shape the American youth to be upstanding citizens who can cooperate with and help out their fellow Americans. Pericles also emphasized that the Athenian citizen is superior and that Athens is great. This is a similar mindset of Americans. Ask American citizens what the best country on earth is and most of them will reply that the