None of these men were enervated by wealth or hesitated to resign the pleasures of life; none of them put off the evil day in the hope, natural to poverty, that a man, though poor, may one day become rich. But, deeming that the punishment of their enemies was sweeter than any of these things, and that they could fall in no nobler cause, they determined at the hazard of their lives to be honorably avenged, and to leave the rest. They resigned to hope their unknown chance of happiness; but in the face of death they resolved to rely upon themselves alone. And when the moment came they were minded to resist and suffer, rather than to fly and save their lives; they ran away from the word of dishonor, but on the battlefield their feet stood fast, and in an instant, at the height of their fortune, they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, but of their glory. . .Pericles, Oration on the Funeral of Fallen Athenians, 431 B.C. (Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (Book 2.34-46), trans. Benjamin Jowett, Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford University).
Wherefore I do not now pity the parents of the dead who stand here; I would rather comfort them. You know that your dead have passed away amid manifold vicissitudes; and that they may be deemed fortunate who have gained their utmost honor, whether an honorable death like theirs, or an honorable sorrow like yours, and whose share of happiness has been so ordered that the term of their happiness is likewise the term of their life. I know how hard it is to make you feel this, when the good fortune of others will too often remind you of the gladness which once lightened your hearts. And sorrow is felt at the want of those blessings, not which a man never knew, but which were a part of his life before they were taken from him. . . I say: "Congratulate yourselves that you have been happy during the greater part of your days; remember that your life of sorrow will not last long, and be comforted by the glory of those who are gone. For the love of honor alone is ever young, and not riches, as some say, but honor is the delight of men when they are old and useless."
Monday, August 15, 2005
To Cindy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
But what if Pericles or Alcibiades or Thrasybulus or Phorimo or Nicias or even Demosthenes ordered those Athenian soldiers into an unwinnable battle for false reasons?
What if Leonidas sent the famous 300 Spartans to Thermopylae in a noble attempt to hold the line against Xerxes, but then when the soldiers got there it turned out that Xerxes wasn't really going to attack Greece, and the Spartans didn't even have the weapons and armor they needed to fight, and once the battle was over Leonidas's merchant friends made trade pacts with Persia and made thousands of talents of silver without ever needing to leave the their home cities while Leonidas changed his reasons for sending them in the first place time and time again?
So if someone was facing the loved ones and children of those soldiers who did not nobly dedicate their lives to something but rather had their lives carelessly sacrificed for them for deceitful reasons, could that person quote these kind of inappropriate sentiments and not feel like a complete ass?
You tell me.
Pericles lied, Hellenes died?
Post a Comment