Download Jennifer Rust HIST 1100 Compare and Contrast The Funeral

Jennifer Rust
HIST 1100
Compare and Contrast The Funeral Oration of Pericles and The Apology of Socrates
The city of Athens, Greece provided western civilization with the foundation of
democracy. Athens left behind a legacy of artistic gifts in terms of sculpture, architecture, and
playwriting celebrating the ethos of freedom and worship of the Gods. Athenians valued the
rights of the individual above all and conceptualized a process by which free men could play a
vital and integral part of their own governance, while also holding religion with equal
importance. Comparing The Funeral Oration of Pericles and The Apology of Socrates offers a
glimpse into the disparities that occurred within the culture of Athens. The Apology of Socrates
offers the more pragmatic perspective of Athenian civilization. Like other free societies that
followed Athens, self-governed states are plagued with the inherent challenges that occur when
the perfect ideal of democracy is implemented by imperfect men.
The Funeral Oration of Pericles is a eulogy that was spoken by Pericles, a renowned
Athenian politician, in honor of the Athenian soldiers who were killed in battle during the first
year of the Peloponnesian War. It was written down by Thucydides (Lualdi,54). Because
Pericles was speaking to families and fellow citizens of the deceased, this speech was intended to
have a patriotic flair and to justify the loss of life as a tribute to the greatness of Athens. Pericles
imparts upon the audience what the true glory of Athens is, specifically referring to the political
institutions, culture, religion and trade, as well as military prowess. He wants the mourners to
feel that Athens, known as the school of Hellas, is so remarkable that it is worth dying for.
Pericles speaks first of Athenian ancestors, asking for “honor to their memory” as it was
through “their valor (that Athens) was handed down as a free land.” The political institutions
“do not emulate the laws of others.” Athens does not copy from anyone but rather “serves as an
example” to others. In this manner, the law respects the wishes of the majority, defining it as a
democracy, and “secures equality to all alike” in private disputes. Athenians by culture are
provided with relaxations, i.e. personal freedoms, in their time spent away from work. In
religious celebration, they have “regular games and sacrifices throughout the year.” Their homes
are “furnished with elegance” as to prevent any depression and enjoy the “goods of other
countries as freely” as their own, referring to the prosperity of their trade endeavors. Pericles
proclaims the superiority of the Athenian army (Lualdi,55). While opponents advance against
Athens with dependence upon their allies, Athenian soldiers fighting on foreign soil, have “little
difficulty in overcoming” their enemies, due to lifelong “laborious exercise to make them brave”
and their innate “courage in action.” Finally, Pericles offers counsel to the mourners to “gaze
day by day on the power of the city until you are filled with the love of her,” and in doing so lies
the best way to honor and emulate the memories of the deceased (Lualdi, 56).
The Apology of Socrates offers an antithetical position to the greatness of Athens.
Socrates was a famous Athenian philosopher who had been accused of impiety, or religious
transgressions, by his fellow citizens. This “apology” was not an expression of guilt or regret but
rather a statement of defense against the charges brought against him, and Socrates is hardly
apologetic. His accusers are threatened by the curious nature in which he questions the life
around him and in the way in which he challenges his students to question.
His student Plato
wrote down this Apologia and arguably suffered the most when Athens put his mentor, the
chosen son of Athens, to death (Lualdi, 57).
Socrates defended himself by imploring witnesses to truly hear what he had to say and
not to heed the accusers’ warnings that they would be hypnotized by his words and cadence, for
he did not think himself a great orator. What he wanted simply was to present his defense. He
referred also to Athenian culture, specifically a satirical playwright, Aristophanes, for whom a
favorite topic was mocking Socrates. He asserts that the beliefs of his accusers and trial
witnesses have been biased by the play “The Cloud” and challenges these perceptions. Finally,
Socrates calls upon a witness, the God of Delphi, the God Apollo. His friend had ventured to
Delphi to ask the oracle whether or not there was a man wiser than Socrates. This oracle
attempts to answer questions before they are asked. “Know thyself” and “Nothing to excess.”
Chaerephon asks the question still and the prophetess answered that “there was no man wiser
(Lualdi, 58).”
Socrates in fact knows himself. He believes he has “no wisdom, small or great (Lualdi,
59).” He did not live a life of excess, rather choosing to “wear the same cheap cloak summer
and winter and went barefoot in all weather (Hunt, et al, 71).” Yet, he believes in the
discernment of Apollo and trusts he “cannot lie.” His only recourse is to take the advice from
the oracle and seek a man wiser than he. Socrates begins his quest with the wisest man he can
think of, a well-known politician, and becomes disappointed when he finds that he is not so. He
continues to challenge reputable politicians, poets, and artisans continuing to become
disillusioned while incurring a wake of enemies. Socrates believes that this process of
questioning Apollo in fact demonstrates his religious piety, faith and devotion to the god. He
worries not about living or dying, but whether or not what he is doing is right or wrong. He
believes an unexamined life is not worth living. As the men of Athens demand a cessation of
Socrates’ teaching to spare his life, he responds “I honor and love you; but I shall obey God
rather than you” as it was God that bestowed upon him the gifts of intellect and inquisitiveness.
He is convinced that he has honored God through challenging the thought processes of his fellow
countrymen, thus encouraging the “improvement of the soul.” Socrates trusts that Athens is
“great, mighty, and wise.” In the end, the choice presented to him is to choose his manner of
death (Lualdi, 59).
Socrates should have been considered to be the best of what Athens had to offer the
world, even in terms of Pericles’ standards. Athens valued the right of the individual above all
and Socrates supported the importance each man carried in examining and valuing his own
morality, honor, and integrity. Socrates enjoyed relaxation as he drank heavily, “strolling in the
agora, and watching young men exercise in gymnasia,” possibly training for the Olympic Games.
He had been a resolute hoplite, dedicated to the same Athenian army that Pericles esteems (Hunt,
et al, 71). Socrates honored and revered the city of Athens, simply exercising a right generally
associated with democracy, his freedom to speak openly and freely.
Yet, in the end, Athenians did not perceive Socrates to be their greatest gift to the world,
but as a threat to their community and prosperous way of life. The accusation against him that
he is sacrilegious or ungodly is clearly untrue or he would have left the advice of the oracle
unheeded. In American democracy, there is an unwritten assumption that citizens have a moral
responsibility to question their elected leaders as a means to ensure their integrity and
commitment both to the Constitution and to the People. Perhaps the threatened Athenians were
not as confident in their system as Pericles declared, for if they were they would not have been
intimidated by the questioning youth, but rather met them head on with confident and assured
responses. It has been reported that Athens soon came to regret the execution of Socrates “as a
tragic mistake and a severe blow to their reputation as fair-minded citizens participating in a
stable democracy (Hunt, et al, 88).” Socrates’ student Plato was devastated upon the sentence of
the court and shifted away from the standard institutions of marriage and public service to devote
his life to searching for the reasons why “an evil fate could befall such a good man as Socrates
(Hunt, et al, 89).”
This question remains today. America seems to perceive itself as Athens once did, as the
pillar and example of democracy to the world. Her leaders believe that American democracy is
so great that it simply requires an occupation of a non-democratic nation to convert it. Yet, in
the homeland, elected representatives continue to discourage and smother the questioning by the
people of their government. The Espionage and Sedition acts of 1917 sought to suppress
challenges to United States’ involvement in World War I, rendering harsh penalties on anything
that could be construed as “remotely unpatriotic (Davidson, et al, 643.)” In the early 1950’s, US
Senator Joseph McCarthy viewed American dissidents as unpatriotic communists and saw to it
that those citizens faced public ridicule as he ruined lives and careers. He was so intense in his
presentations that detractors hesitated before criticizing him. Currently, The Patriot Act allows
the United States Government to intrude into the private lives of American citizens,
circumventing their due process rights. It remains a tragic occurrence that the faultless ideal of
democracy, a government by the people designed to ensure social equality, is necessarily
managed by man, a being inherently imperfect and innately vulnerable to iniquity and insecurity.
SOURCES:
1. Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, et al, Selected Chapters from Experience History, McGrawHill Companies, Boston, 2011
2. http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/apology.html
3. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6444
4. http://www.aclu.org/national-security/usa-patriot-act
5. Hunt, Martin, Rosenwein, et al, The Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures, Volume
1, Bedford/ St. Martin’s, Boston/ New York, 2010
6. Lualdi, Katherine J., Sources of Making of the West, Peoples and Cultures, Volume 1,
Bedford/ St. Martin’s, Boston/ New York, 2010
7. Tignor, Adelman, Brown, et al, Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, W.W. Norton &
Company, New York/ London, 2011