Pericles Funeral Oration Of The Athens Analysis

Government is a form of political structure that rules over a group of specific people and while stability is important, in most societies government is fluid in its form and changes over time. As different forms of government take power, typically one demographic is favored over another. While the Athenian democracy favored the masses, oligarchic sympathizers like Pseudo-Xenophon, displayed their discontent with it. In his negative critique of Athenian democracy titled “The Constitution of the Athenians,” Pseudo-Xenophon supports the oligarchic system over the democratic one, yet still maintains a respect for the Athenian’s democracy as he comments on its longevity and stability. His commentary contrasts with the funeral oration that Pericles

During his time as a public figure, he made several speeches in front of the Athenian people. One of his more famous speeches is the Funeral Oration, in which Pericles “praises Athens in terms that do great created to the city and to himself.” Because he is a famous general, Pericles aligns himself with the Athenian people and promotes both their government and culture, unlike the alienation that the Old Oligarch portrays in his style of writing. Pericles orated the Funeral Oration during a public funeral that was meant to honor “the soldiers and sailors who had lost their lives in various minor actions of the war.” The speech is uplifting and comments on the perseverance of the Athenian culture and peoples despite the devastating effects the war has had on the community of Athens. Overall, because Pericles plays a major role within the Athenian political sphere and because his speech is public, he needs to convey an inspirational speech telling the population how great Athens is, unlike the Old Oligarch who could write down his feelings without fear of public backlash since “it is not even certain that the work was ever ‘published’ in the sense of being given more than the most limited circulation in the fifth

This blatant disagreement with the government leaves no room for debate regarding the Old Oligarch’s true feelings of the democracy. He states that he cannot praise the Athenian democracy because “they preferred that the masses should do better than the respectable citizens.” This is a fundamental belief in democracy, since, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of a democracy is a “government by the people; rule of the majority.” The Old Oligarch recognizes the benefits of the rule of the people and agrees that “all should share in public office by lot and by election, and that any citizen who wishes should be able to speak in the Assembly.” He does not think limiting the people’s voice is the correct way to fix the democracy, since he encourages that the mass should be able to speak their opinion’s freely. However, he does believe that most of, many of people that make up the ‘masses’ “display extreme ignorance, indiscipline, and wickedness.” He does not view democracy as a platform where everyone can equally share their beliefs, but instead as a chance where the common people can infect the government with their ignorance. He views it as a major disadvantage to the respectable citizen because the mass is only interested in