But they, if they meet and defeat a part of our army, are as proud as if they had routed us all, and when defeated they pretend to have been vanquished by us all. If then we prefer to meet danger with a light heart but without laborious training, and with a courage which is gained by habit and not enforced by law, are we not greatly the better for it? Since we do not anticipate the pain, although, when the hour comes, we can be as brave as those who never allow themselves to rest; thus our city is equally admirable in peace and in war.
For we are lovers of the beautiful in our tastes and our strength lies, in our opinion, not in deliberation and discussion, but that knowledge which is gained by discussion preparatory to action. For we have a peculiar power of thinking before we act, and of acting, too, whereas other men are courageous from ignorance but hesitate upon reflection. And they are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense both of the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.
In doing good, again, we are unlike others; we make our friends by conferring, not by receiving favors. Now he who confers a favor is the firmer friend, because he would rather by kindness keep alive the memory of an obligation; but the recipient is colder in his feelings, because he knows that in requiting another's generosity he will not be winning gratitude but only paying a debt.
We alone do good to our neighbors not upon a calculation of interest, but in the confidence of freedom and in a frank and fearless spirit. To sum up: I say that Athens is the school of Hellas, and that the individual Athenian in his own person seems to have the power of adapting himself to the most varied forms of action with the utmost versatility and grace.
This is no passing and idle word, but truth and fact; and the assertion is verified by the position to which these qualities have raised the state. For in the hour of trial Athens alone among her contemporaries is superior to the report of her. No enemy who comes against her is indignant at the reverses which he sustains at the hands of such a city; no subject complains that his masters are unworthy of him. And we shall assuredly not be without witnesses; there are mighty monuments of our power which will make us the wonder of this and of succeeding ages; we shall not need the praises of Homer or of any other panegyrist whose poetry may please for the moment, although his representation of the facts will not bear the light of day.
For we have compelled every land and every sea to open a path for our valor, and have everywhere planted eternal memorials of our friendship and of our enmity. Such is the city for whose sake these men nobly fought and died; they could not bear the thought that she might be taken from them; and every one of us who survive should gladly toil on her behalf.
I have dwelt upon the greatness of Athens because I want to show you that we are contending for a higher prize than those who enjoy none of these privileges, and to establish by manifest proof the merit of these men whom I am now commemorating. Their loftiest praise has been already spoken. For in magnifying the city I have magnified them, and men like them whose virtues made her glorious.
And of how few Hellenes 1 can it be said as of them, that their deeds when weighed in the balance have been found equal to their fame! Ehara o ratou tohu whakamaraharatanga ko nga pou whakairo me nga tuhituhinga korero i roto i o ratou ake whenua noa.
Erangi, kei whenua ke ano hoki nga whakairo whakamaumaharatanga, ehara i nga kohatu anahenahe. As for the idea that a noble death means eternal glory, this contrasts with the depiction of the afterlife in Homer's Odyssey Book XI , where Achilles declares he'd rather be a living wage-labourer than a dead hero.
Understanding the Passage: Key Questions [1] Such was the end of these men; they were worthy of Athens, and the living need not desire to have a more heroic spirit, although they may pray for a less fatal issue. Why should citizens fight to defend their city, in Pericles' view? How does Pericles depict the men who have died?
How should the good citizen feel about death? How does this compare with other Greek views on the subject? Further Reading A. Thucydides project. Facebook Twitter. Undergraduate study Find a course Open days and visits New undergraduate students.
The occasion was at the funeral of the first Athenian soldiers to lose their lives in the Peloponnesian War. This lecture examines the history of this beautiful site, the momentous occasion on which Pericles spoke, and the ways in which his speech, recorded by the historian Thucydides who was present at its delivery, has informed subsequent epoch-making orations from Lincoln at Gettysburg to Kennedy and Obama.
She is a British scholar of classics, specialising in Ancient Greek Literature and cultural history. She has published twenty-five books on ancient Greek and Roman culture and its influence on modernity, including Inventing the Barbarian , The Return of Ulysses , Greek Tragedy: Suffering under the Sun and Introducing the Ancient Greeks All lectures by the Visiting Gresham Professor of Classics can be accessed here.
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