Xythan
19-09-2006, 01:58 PM
Heya, this is my final assignment for Classical Societies and Cultures, just wondering how it reads - if it flows, makes sense and follows the heading or not - if any of you would care to read it and criticise...oh, and if you can kleph, I'd love your input again man, it's most beneficial and greatly appreciated... :rolleyes:
The Significance of Legend and Heroism of Ancient Greece and its continued role in Western Tradition
In the modern world, there is a lingering presence of a time long buried. This presence makes itself known through an entire milieu of structures and conventions within our society, some subtle and others obvious. The ancient city of Athens – the world’s first democratic state in recorded history – represents the era of mankind’s ascent from simple barbarism to something beyond; a noble, dynamic and iconic culture that has inspired man for over two and half thousand years.
The vibrant culture that thrived and built the foundations for almost all Western tradition echoes its powerful impact on the Western mindset through modern art, literature, architecture and through philosophy, politics, values and ideals. These are only a few among a great host of imprints left as legacy to the glory of Athenian culture.
One of the most important inheritances from this time is the art of political rhetoric, delivered in formal speeches, satirical and tragic plays and even the first recognized historical texts. The beginnings of the great society of Athens resides in the moral character of her legendary past, the examples that over time fashioned a mind set man had never seen before. This past was passed on through the generations, using a number of devices in the oral and later written traditions.
The model of heroism cannot be traced to its precise origin; although it is probable to hypothesize that it was the exceptional individuals of any tribe. Those few born with natural talents beyond that of the average man, their skills and power attracting those of lesser stature to them. They are the heroes of the past, and while we do not remember them, we know what they must have been like for since man has passed on history there has always been the story of the hero.
The status of hero has both been idolized and idealized since man learnt to pass on his history, first orally then by physical documentation. We have looked up to the hero, a symbol of the capabilities of man. They set a standard in which to follow, the hero is a leader, a teacher, a guide and a warning. The role in civilization of these few cannot be underestimated, as these exceptional beings have an importance far beyond any single factor in who we are today. They have forged the paths we all walk upon.
The great heroes of the past all have a story, some we do not know and some we know is the greatest in details, and neither have more precedence over the other. The Greeks were the some of, if not the first to write down the oral telling of their past. An age of Heroes, Gods and Monsters, told so many times it became beyond reality and evolved into legend. The most prominent of these stories is the tale of Troy, and many a man put his hand to the task of writing about her downfall at the hands of the Greek armies.
Homer wrote the epic poem Iliad, bringing the oral performance to literary status and set the stage for the playwrights of the 5th Century BCE to craft versions of the legend into political weapons. Political weapons that no doubt the greatest leader of Athens knew intimately. Pericles embodied the Democratic ideal of the Hero, a brilliant speaker, a strong but fair leader and an intelligent and capable statesman.
In Thucydides History is recorded one of the most important speeches in the history of individualism and democratic ideology. Pericles Funeral Oration is a stunning tribute to the fallen Greeks in Athens war against the Peloponnesus, his oratorical talent at its greatest. Formally he is honouring the dead, but it isn’t a simple eulogy, it is a political masterpiece that manipulates the situation from one of grief to one of patriotic inspiration and a potent boost for the morale of a state at war.
“Our ancestors…by their courage and virtues…have handed us a free country. They certainly deserve our praise.” The words speak of pride and honour, while the tone plays a different role, rallying the masses in an almost tribal uniformity to serve. As in modern politics, the speaker wishes them to serve the state. In this piece of Ancient Greece are the beginnings of the political speaker, a new breed of hero, one who the masses will follow unquestioningly without being driven by the whip.
In Sophocles Ajax, Odysseus is the supreme depiction of the Democratic hero. Odysseus forgives Ajax, his enemy, and defends Ajax’s right to an honourable burial with an oral skill of any great Philosopher, Politician or Sophist. Homer’s depiction is much the same of Odysseus when he attempts to persuade Achilles to return to battle against Troy, but Homer didn’t have the same reasoning as Sophocles, intelligence is simply a trait of universal admiration.
The talented orator became a major factor influencing Western civilization and continues until the present day. A great speech needs a great speaker, and when these two things are married with perfect harmony the great masses of the people – the demos – can become a tool for great good and great evil. This has surfaced throughout the Western world for centuries since the fall of the Athenian Democracy and her greatest strength can become her greatest weakness.
This is where the Hero becomes the warning, for while heroes are exceptional individuals they are not immune to the corruptions of power, greed, vanity and hubris. Agamemnon’s theft of Briseis is a prime example of what power and greed can bring to a leader and Achilles refusal to accept Agamemnon’s apology mirrors him with his vanity and hubris. Both men act irrationally and pay the ultimate price for their sins, thus aiding the storyteller Homer in his warning.
But more commonly – from the Free State to the Autocrat State – the Legendary Hero is a representation of an ideal for the citizens within it, the Writer is the refining critic of the ideal and the Speaker is the leader who embodies it. This creates equilibrium within the system, and this is what allowed Greece to become the majestic Legend to which all Western civilization has aspired. In the 1993 Remembrance Day Speech – recited by then Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia – is the line “We have gained a legend…”, he is speaking of November 11th, the Great War and its heroes but it holds true for Greece herself in the Western world.
All of three great persons are necessities of the great state and if the political stance changes to censor one, the loss of brings about an imbalance to the system Greece founded and the flexible strength ebbs away. The Nazis and are the most renowned abusers of the rhetoric established in Greece (and refined in Rome) in the modern era, but this wasn’t the only way the tradition lived on. The new democracies of the Western world (from the 1900’s onwards) returned to the old ideals of Greece and once again connected the freedoms for the individual to the welfare of the state – always an uneasy balancing act that takes remarkable vigilance maintain – in their constitutions and legal systems.
We can see in the Remembrance Day Speech the echoes of Pericles’ Funeral Oration. The method of using the Unknown Soldier as a symbol of patriotic pride is parallel to soldiers the Oration is honouring. The speech refers many times to Australia, speaking of the greatness of this man to have given himself to the country and his King; his carried out duty enriching the freedom which thousands of lives perished to protect. It is more than simply honouring the dead, it is about the State and the protection of Freedom that it represents.
“We do not know…” anything about the Unknown Soldier “…and we never will.” This sentiment echoes throughout the speech. He could be any of us; he is every soldier who died in the Great War; he embodies the ideal. He is the Hero, as is every man who died with him. Symbolism is a powerful force, oration is also a force to be reckoned with and when combined the pen truly is mightier than the sword.
While culture and societies have changed innumerably over the centuries, the cores of the old traditions remain intact. The idea of the hero remains, no matter the virtues and the weaknesses, no matter the ideal represented, the hero is the physical symbol of a concept. In Classical Greece, this ideal was wielded as one of the most important tools of the state and society. It became a way of communicating the grand schemes of the intellectuals to the free people of the demos.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said "A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him." People fight best for ideals, not trinkets or ranks, and when society is a democratic one you have one of the most inspiring things worth fighting for, freedom itself. The thought of its loss is one that would bring a man to die for it. Pericles knew this, and so has every man who understood his speech.
The Significance of Legend and Heroism of Ancient Greece and its continued role in Western Tradition
In the modern world, there is a lingering presence of a time long buried. This presence makes itself known through an entire milieu of structures and conventions within our society, some subtle and others obvious. The ancient city of Athens – the world’s first democratic state in recorded history – represents the era of mankind’s ascent from simple barbarism to something beyond; a noble, dynamic and iconic culture that has inspired man for over two and half thousand years.
The vibrant culture that thrived and built the foundations for almost all Western tradition echoes its powerful impact on the Western mindset through modern art, literature, architecture and through philosophy, politics, values and ideals. These are only a few among a great host of imprints left as legacy to the glory of Athenian culture.
One of the most important inheritances from this time is the art of political rhetoric, delivered in formal speeches, satirical and tragic plays and even the first recognized historical texts. The beginnings of the great society of Athens resides in the moral character of her legendary past, the examples that over time fashioned a mind set man had never seen before. This past was passed on through the generations, using a number of devices in the oral and later written traditions.
The model of heroism cannot be traced to its precise origin; although it is probable to hypothesize that it was the exceptional individuals of any tribe. Those few born with natural talents beyond that of the average man, their skills and power attracting those of lesser stature to them. They are the heroes of the past, and while we do not remember them, we know what they must have been like for since man has passed on history there has always been the story of the hero.
The status of hero has both been idolized and idealized since man learnt to pass on his history, first orally then by physical documentation. We have looked up to the hero, a symbol of the capabilities of man. They set a standard in which to follow, the hero is a leader, a teacher, a guide and a warning. The role in civilization of these few cannot be underestimated, as these exceptional beings have an importance far beyond any single factor in who we are today. They have forged the paths we all walk upon.
The great heroes of the past all have a story, some we do not know and some we know is the greatest in details, and neither have more precedence over the other. The Greeks were the some of, if not the first to write down the oral telling of their past. An age of Heroes, Gods and Monsters, told so many times it became beyond reality and evolved into legend. The most prominent of these stories is the tale of Troy, and many a man put his hand to the task of writing about her downfall at the hands of the Greek armies.
Homer wrote the epic poem Iliad, bringing the oral performance to literary status and set the stage for the playwrights of the 5th Century BCE to craft versions of the legend into political weapons. Political weapons that no doubt the greatest leader of Athens knew intimately. Pericles embodied the Democratic ideal of the Hero, a brilliant speaker, a strong but fair leader and an intelligent and capable statesman.
In Thucydides History is recorded one of the most important speeches in the history of individualism and democratic ideology. Pericles Funeral Oration is a stunning tribute to the fallen Greeks in Athens war against the Peloponnesus, his oratorical talent at its greatest. Formally he is honouring the dead, but it isn’t a simple eulogy, it is a political masterpiece that manipulates the situation from one of grief to one of patriotic inspiration and a potent boost for the morale of a state at war.
“Our ancestors…by their courage and virtues…have handed us a free country. They certainly deserve our praise.” The words speak of pride and honour, while the tone plays a different role, rallying the masses in an almost tribal uniformity to serve. As in modern politics, the speaker wishes them to serve the state. In this piece of Ancient Greece are the beginnings of the political speaker, a new breed of hero, one who the masses will follow unquestioningly without being driven by the whip.
In Sophocles Ajax, Odysseus is the supreme depiction of the Democratic hero. Odysseus forgives Ajax, his enemy, and defends Ajax’s right to an honourable burial with an oral skill of any great Philosopher, Politician or Sophist. Homer’s depiction is much the same of Odysseus when he attempts to persuade Achilles to return to battle against Troy, but Homer didn’t have the same reasoning as Sophocles, intelligence is simply a trait of universal admiration.
The talented orator became a major factor influencing Western civilization and continues until the present day. A great speech needs a great speaker, and when these two things are married with perfect harmony the great masses of the people – the demos – can become a tool for great good and great evil. This has surfaced throughout the Western world for centuries since the fall of the Athenian Democracy and her greatest strength can become her greatest weakness.
This is where the Hero becomes the warning, for while heroes are exceptional individuals they are not immune to the corruptions of power, greed, vanity and hubris. Agamemnon’s theft of Briseis is a prime example of what power and greed can bring to a leader and Achilles refusal to accept Agamemnon’s apology mirrors him with his vanity and hubris. Both men act irrationally and pay the ultimate price for their sins, thus aiding the storyteller Homer in his warning.
But more commonly – from the Free State to the Autocrat State – the Legendary Hero is a representation of an ideal for the citizens within it, the Writer is the refining critic of the ideal and the Speaker is the leader who embodies it. This creates equilibrium within the system, and this is what allowed Greece to become the majestic Legend to which all Western civilization has aspired. In the 1993 Remembrance Day Speech – recited by then Prime Minister Paul Keating of Australia – is the line “We have gained a legend…”, he is speaking of November 11th, the Great War and its heroes but it holds true for Greece herself in the Western world.
All of three great persons are necessities of the great state and if the political stance changes to censor one, the loss of brings about an imbalance to the system Greece founded and the flexible strength ebbs away. The Nazis and are the most renowned abusers of the rhetoric established in Greece (and refined in Rome) in the modern era, but this wasn’t the only way the tradition lived on. The new democracies of the Western world (from the 1900’s onwards) returned to the old ideals of Greece and once again connected the freedoms for the individual to the welfare of the state – always an uneasy balancing act that takes remarkable vigilance maintain – in their constitutions and legal systems.
We can see in the Remembrance Day Speech the echoes of Pericles’ Funeral Oration. The method of using the Unknown Soldier as a symbol of patriotic pride is parallel to soldiers the Oration is honouring. The speech refers many times to Australia, speaking of the greatness of this man to have given himself to the country and his King; his carried out duty enriching the freedom which thousands of lives perished to protect. It is more than simply honouring the dead, it is about the State and the protection of Freedom that it represents.
“We do not know…” anything about the Unknown Soldier “…and we never will.” This sentiment echoes throughout the speech. He could be any of us; he is every soldier who died in the Great War; he embodies the ideal. He is the Hero, as is every man who died with him. Symbolism is a powerful force, oration is also a force to be reckoned with and when combined the pen truly is mightier than the sword.
While culture and societies have changed innumerably over the centuries, the cores of the old traditions remain intact. The idea of the hero remains, no matter the virtues and the weaknesses, no matter the ideal represented, the hero is the physical symbol of a concept. In Classical Greece, this ideal was wielded as one of the most important tools of the state and society. It became a way of communicating the grand schemes of the intellectuals to the free people of the demos.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said "A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him." People fight best for ideals, not trinkets or ranks, and when society is a democratic one you have one of the most inspiring things worth fighting for, freedom itself. The thought of its loss is one that would bring a man to die for it. Pericles knew this, and so has every man who understood his speech.