Pericles Funeral Oration Response

Pericles performed the Funeral Oration as a response to the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War. His speech was a celebration of not only those who died in combat, but of the city of Athens itself. It was the first of its kind, as the known history of Athens shows no other speech breaking away from the traditional formula of the funeral oration prior to this one. He chooses not to focus on the achievements of the past, reveling in hours of Athenian history, but to instead praise and glorify a then-modern-day Athens. This was unheard of.
The speech is renowned for its focus on the successes of Athenian democracy and glorification of Athens as a city that the war dead would willingly die for, with honor. Pericles relies heavily on pathos to persuade the people that Athens is, in fact, the greatest city; this speech is heavily emotionally driven and praises the honorable deaths those men earned in combat.

The speech also deceptively employs several instances of logos; they are not true, unbiased facts, but Pericles lists several instances in which he attempts to convince the audience using logical entreaties.

"Then, again, our military training is in many respects superior to that of our adversaries. Our city is thrown open to the world, though and we never expel a foreigner and prevent him from seeing or learning anything of which the secret if revealed to an enemy might profit him." -Pericles

This appears to be a logical statement that, realistically, Athens is a better military system than the others, although there is nothing beyond a mere speculation to back up this claim.

I discovered that the most challenging aspect of imitating this speech was avoiding slipping into parody. Staying true to the original motivations of the speech was a little difficult than I'd originally expected; I chose to draw a parallel between the Athenian dead and the music industry. I found myself slipping into scolding modern artists rather than praising them, since I slipped into mourning a dead music industry without finding comfort in the strengths of the modern artists, which strayed from the original intention of the speech. It's a lot harder than I'd originally expected to avoid slipping my own thoughts and feelings into the actual framework of the speech. Pericles originally intended the speech to be a praise, since it was given for the respect of those who died at a funeral. My final product slipped into criticism.

This does give me newfound respect for the ancient rhetors, however. Reading Pericles Funeral Oration, allows the reader to understand a proud people who praised, wholeheartedly, their government and relied entirely on nationalism to motivate. They respected an honest exchange of ideas and criticism, and however fleeting this system was for Athens, it's easy to see why they reigned supreme for so long. Athens laid the framework for an original democracy, and influenced the system from which our government is based, however our modern rhetoricians fail to deliver such hearty praise. Pericles felt it acceptable to break from a formulaic norm--a bold move that I do not feel would be so readily executed today. Modern rhetoricians have not delivered something so motivational since perhaps Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Modern day speaking has managed to lose many of the elements of honesty and charm that Pericles employed in his oration. Additionally, he succeeded in rousing inspiration and life out of something so morbid as death--this is a rare thing for modern politicians, as a dedication to fluff often results in their saying nothing at all. However, they do succeed in rousing a crowd, by celebrating an "American spirit," and that is in many ways similar to how Pericles motivates here.