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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