Fallen speech of Pericles

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The Fallen Speech of Pericles in a medieval manuscript from Thucydides' historical work (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , Cod. Graec. 430, fol. 53v, 10th / 11th century)

When Pericles' Funeral Oration (also: funeral oration or Epitaphios of Pericles) is it is a leading Athenian statesman Pericles attributed, in winter 431 / 30 v. Chr. Held state speech to the fallen of the first year of the war . It ends in praise of the Greek polis . This speech, handed down by Thucydides in the history of the Peloponnesian War (Thuk. 2, 35–46), has been widely received , beginning with the Renaissance , until today.

authenticity

The Epitaphios was largely freely designed by Thucydides, the contemporaries and perhaps even eye and ear witnesses. Although a historiographical creation, this speech should also express the intention of the protagonist as best as possible. In a certain - so to speak dramatic - sense, it claims to be historically "true".

In any case, the self-image of Attic democracy , as it is reflected in the speech of the fallen, in Athens of the late 5th century BC. Have been widespread. Central terms in Epitaphios are freedom , equality , selflessness , non-partisanship , cosmopolitanism and self-sufficiency as well as the peculiarity of the Attic citizens. Athens is the "school of Hellas" (Thuk. 2, 41).

Philipp von Foltz , "The Fallen Speech of Pericles"

Modern reception

Karl Popper , who in the first part of The Open Society and Its Enemies (first published in 1944 ) cites the antagonism (antagonism) free Athens - unfree Sparta, quoted the speech from the fallen (which he considered to be “practically authentic”) in detail: He refers to Pericles' liberal social theory ; For Popper, the Athens of Pericles is “not only the school of Greece [...], but that of humanity; for millennia that have passed and that may still come. "

The rhetoric of the speeches from the fallen and other speeches by Athenian protagonists in Thucydides is remarkably topical in many ways. Many presidents of the United States took some pithy passages from them and applied them to the United States . For example, some points of the speech can be found in the Gettysburg Address , which Abraham Lincoln gave in 1863 at the inauguration of the cemetery on the battlefield of the same name. Similarly, parallels can be found with speeches by George W. Bush . In all cases, your own liberal understanding of the existing model of society and the state, its attractiveness and attraction in contrast to an unfree opponent (in this case Sparta ) is underlined. Finally - similar to other speeches developed by Thucydides - it ends in the foreign policy premise that in an anarchic world of states only the right to self-help ensures survival and wars are a legitimate means of politics; however, this part is completely absent in Lincoln.

Another example is the - failed - attempt by Giscard d'Estaing to start the preamble of the European Constitution with a reference to the speech from the fallen. The well-known quote from Thuk, which endeavors to achieve this. 2, 37 is abbreviated in the original draft constitution: "The constitution that we have [...] is called democracy because the state is not geared towards a few citizens, but towards the majority."

Excerpt from the speech (beginning)

Most of the previous speakers praise the person to whom we owe the custom of giving a speech like this in the first place. They say that at the grave of the fallen this is a commandment of decency.

For my part, I see it differently. Men who have distinguished themselves through their deeds should also be honored with deeds: a state funeral like this one. But not by making the obituary of so many brave people dependent on the performance of some speaker, on how well or badly he does himself. Because it is difficult to find the right words for events, of which each listener brings his own picture with him! Anyone who has witnessed everything himself will find the speech inadequate compared to what he knows and wants to hear addressed. The rest of them will sense exaggeration - simply out of the natural jealousy we humans experience when others accomplish something we ourselves would not have been able to do. This is how we are knitted: We endure praise for others just as long as we can persuade ourselves that we too could have managed something like that. If we can no longer do that, then envy comes - and with it unbelief.

Whatever. Our forefathers created this custom, and so for better or worse I have to try to meet the different expectations as best I can ...

literature

  • Jochen Bleicken : The Athenian Democracy , 4th, completely revised. u. substantially exp. Ed., Paderborn u. a. 1995, ISBN 3-506-99388-7 .
  • Cornelius Castoriadis , The Greek polis and the creation of democracy, in philosophy, democracy, poiesis. Selected writings Vol. 4, Lich / Essen, Verlag Edition AV, 2011 pp. 17–68. [C. Castoriadis, La polis grecque et la création de la démocratie, in Domaines de l 'homme. Les Carrefours du labyrinthe II Paris, édition du Seuil, 1986, p. 261-306].
  • Thomas Fischer: On the fallen speech of Pericles with Thucydides , in: History, Politics and their Didaktik , Vol. 17 (1989), pp. 103-109, ISSN  0343-4648 .
  • Konrad Gaiser : The state model of Thucydides: On the speech of Pericles for the fallen , Heidelberg 1975.
  • Hartmut Leppin : Thucydides and the constitution of the polis. A contribution to the history of political ideas in the 5th century BC Chr. , Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-05-003458-0 .
  • Christian Meier : Athens. A New Beginning of World History , Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-88680-128-4 .
  • Ulrich Menzel : Between idealism and realism. The doctrine of international relations , Frankfurt / M. 2001, ISBN 3-518-12224-X .
  • Angela Pabst : The Athenian Democracy , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-48008-X .
  • Karl R. Popper : The open society and its enemies , part 1: The magic of Plato (= Uni-Taschenbücher , vol. 472), 6th edition, Tübingen 1980, pp. 137, 248-251 u. 345, note 16, ISBN 3-7720-1274-4 .
  • Peter Spahn : Perikles - Charisma und Demokratie , in: Wilfried Nippel (Hrsg.): Virtuosen der Macht. Dominion and Charisma from Pericles to Mao , Munich 2000, pp. 23–38, ISBN 3-406-46045-3 .
  • Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Classical Athens. Democracy and power politics in the 5th and 4th centuries , Darmstadt 1999, ISBN 3-89678-117-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War . translated. by Georg Peter Landmann, Munich 1991, pp. 139–147, ISBN 3-423-02258-2 .
  2. ↑ K.-W. Weeber: "The constitution that we have is called popular rule" - A millennium text by the democracy teacher Perikles , in: ders. Thank Hellas! What Europe owes the Greeks. Munich 2012. pp. 67–75, here p. 67.