 |
|
||||||||
 |
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
Courses Taught INTELLECTUAL HERITAGE (at Temple
University) Delphi- A Focal Point for IH 51 Texts Subject Study Aids: Aeschylus' Libation Bearers Study Guide Sophocles' Oedipus and the Sphinx Lecture Dr. J's Illustrated Pericles' Funeral Oration Dr. J's Illustrated Pericles and America Dr. J's Illustrated Pericles and Philadelphia Dr. J's Illustrated Aeschylus' Oresteia Dr. J's Curse of the House of Atreus Outline Dr. J's Background Lecture on Greek Philosophy Dr. J's Apology Study Questions Dr. J's Illustrated Plato's Apology Socrates and the Apology Lecture Epic Qualities of the Sundiata Lecture RELIGIOUS FOUNDATIONS OF CLASSICAL GREECE Courses Proposed Religious Foundations of Greek Culture The Intersection of Myth and History The Ancient Greek Cultural Nexus- Art, Archaeology, Literature and Topography |
From 1996-2001 I taught in the Intellectual Heritage Program at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This page is part of my teaching materials for Intellectual Heritage 51, a course covering literature and ideas from Sappho through Shakespeare... Notes from Plutarch's Life of Periclesby Dr. Janice Siegel Pericles’ father:
Xanthippus, defeated
King of Persia’s generals at Mycale Pericles’ mother dreamed she would bear a lion days before Pericles was born His head is disproportionately long – called “Onionhead” by contemporary comic authors (which is why he insisted on having official portraits with helmet) P’s teachers: Zeno of Elea, student of Parmenides Most influential: Anaxagoras: Pericles devoted his early politicking to befriending the common man, for he was an aristocrat by birth and feared ostracism from those who would fear him as a power-seeker. Known for his oratory skill Concerning the conduct of a man in power in regard to sexual pursuits: “A general should not only have pure hands, but pure eyes.” Pericles used the public treasury to pay for diversions for the people and for jury-duty. Thucydides (not the historian, another one) provided the balance the Athenians sought to avoid setting up Pericles as an absolute ruler. It became the people (Pericles) versus the nobility (Thucydides). Things Pericles did: - sent out shiploads of men on nautical expeditions to improve their skills, found colonies (and thereby make Athens look good to her enemies), and rid Athens of idle men. -public works – Pericles’ enemies accused him of unrightfully removing the treasury from Delos and misusing the other cities’ donations to dress up Athens like a vain woman, prancing about wanting to be gawked at. - Pericles responded: the other cities have nothing to complain about since Athens is indeed protecting them from the barbarians; the monuments are eternal proofs of the glory that is Athens; and every sector of the economy is benefiting. Pericles’ idea that all members of the society thrive equally well: soldiers, mariners, merchants, craftsmen, artisans, common laborers as well as wagoners, rope-makers, leather-cutters, - so the wealth of the public treasury was distributed throughout the different populations of the city. Phidias – superintendent of all building projects
When Pericles’ enemies publicly accused him of over-spending, Pericles asked the people – they agreed. When he said that he would then take the responsibility for the expenditure and put his own name on the buildings instead of the name of Athens, the citizens cried out that he should spend as much as he wanted! After the ostracism of his only real political rival (Cimon), Pericles’ power soared. Always the people remembered the tyrants (Plutarch tells us that Pericles in his features rather resembled the Pesistratid family, to the chagrin of his enemies). Eventually, after a certain number of years (unclear), Pericles’ political enemies targeted those around him (says Plutarch):
The war begins not soon thereafter, and Pericles takes the people within the walls of the city. The plague hits after that. Plutarch suggests that because Pericles loses his legitimately born sons to the plague, this is the reason he repeals the law against bastards becoming citizens – for he feared that he would bequeath nothing to posterity. Ironically, it was Pericles who orginally drew up the law to limit Athenian citizenship to those whose parents on both sides were already citizens, causing much hardship at the time. Plutarch concludes his Life of Pericles by stating that Pericles built no less than nine memorials to the honor of Athens.
copyright
2001 Janice
Siegel,
All Rights Reserved
date this page was edited last:
10/25/2005 |
||||||||