Thucydides: Pericles' Funeral Oration - Reading through the Human Lens Sophia Colbert
Even though Burrow's book dries out your eyeballs while you're reading it, it does bring up some good points about the parallels of history. Pericles' speech is a lot like Lincoln's Gettysburg address. Both men have to address their country after decisive battle in a civil war. The Gettysburg address is certainly more familiar to us than Pericles' speech, but they have similar beginnings. They both begin with a shout out to their ancestors who founded their great country, a country that was worth dying for in the eyes of the soldiers. In addition, both speakers make a call for the listeners to pick up where the soldiers left off and continue to make their country beautiful and just. The survivors have an even greater responsibility to the country now that men have spilled their blood to preserve its freedoms.
Also, I found it interesting that Thucydides was the first historian to recognize the importance of learning from history. As I was reading about the complicated web of alliances of the Greeks, I couldn't help but think about the similarities to the European countries of WWI. Lo and behold, the next paragraph in the book was about the alliances of the European countries of WWI. We humans, we think we're so clever. In reality, from an individual scale to entire periods of history, we just keep making the same mistakes. Let's face it, we are incredible overall, but we are also fools to think we are better than past generations. Who is wiser: the one who learns from their own mistakes, or the one learns from other's mistakes? Perhaps the first is wiser for not repeating the mistake, or perhaps the second is wiser for not even attempting it. What if there was a third party who thought the first person was just doing it wrong? Don't deny it, we all have a bit of the third party in us. It's just human nature.
P.S. I commented on Josh and Zelda's posts.
Also, I found it interesting that Thucydides was the first historian to recognize the importance of learning from history. As I was reading about the complicated web of alliances of the Greeks, I couldn't help but think about the similarities to the European countries of WWI. Lo and behold, the next paragraph in the book was about the alliances of the European countries of WWI. We humans, we think we're so clever. In reality, from an individual scale to entire periods of history, we just keep making the same mistakes. Let's face it, we are incredible overall, but we are also fools to think we are better than past generations. Who is wiser: the one who learns from their own mistakes, or the one learns from other's mistakes? Perhaps the first is wiser for not repeating the mistake, or perhaps the second is wiser for not even attempting it. What if there was a third party who thought the first person was just doing it wrong? Don't deny it, we all have a bit of the third party in us. It's just human nature.
P.S. I commented on Josh and Zelda's posts.
He who learns from the past becomes master of the undiscovered territory that is the future. History is literally a lesson that constantly repeats the same lecture until we realize the problem and adapt to overcome it. Thucydides gives us the initial standard to learn who we are, where, we come from, and where we are going if we do not change.
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