Pericles Funeral Oration Essay

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Pericles is chosen to present a speech at a funeral oration because of his intellectual gifts and general reputation. This speech was said at a public funeral for the people who were first to perish in war. Throughout Pericles’ speech he glorifies Athens about how they are better than everyone else and how they impact Greece. He explains that “when you realize [Athens’] greatness, then reflect that what made her great was men with a spirit of adventure, men who knew their duty, men who were ashamed to fall below a certain standard”. Although Pericles talks about everything exceptional in Athens, he does not concentrate on the downsides and tends to bend the truth. The purpose of Pericles’ speech at the funeral oration is to give Athenians confidence for the upcoming wars by speaking poorly of Sparta. Pericles explains to the Athenians that they have natural courage and are above others. He mentions the Spartans have strict military systems and use their allies to prepare them for war. He gives the Athenians courage by explaining to them that “[Athens passes their] lives without all these restrictions, and yet are just as ready to face the same dangers as [the Spartans] …show more content…

He defined that they are a democracy because “power is in the hands of not a minority, but of the whole people.” Pericles illustrates how private and public disputes are handled in Athens. He says that with private disputes, everyone is equal. Although he states that everyone is equal before the law and democracy is equally ruled by everyone, that is not entirely true because not everyone is a citizen. Around 4/5 of Athen’s population were not citizens because they were either women, foreigners, or slaves. With public disputes, the man is not judged by social class, but of his ability. Pericles does not tell the full truth about their democracy in order to make them appear greater than they actually

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