Notes from first half of Book 2
We had a good call last Saturday with:
– Jean Bolgatz
– Kelly Magill (our newest member)
– Rob Schmults
– Andre Stipanovic
– Pat Wictor
Unfortunately, the conference call service erred and never made the recording (frustrating – we even hung up and called back in again but to no avail).
I’d like my colleagues to add to my brief notes below.
We focused the call on Pericles’ Funeral Oration (a historically famous speech given after the first year of the war) and Pericles’ second speech of Book 2 where he demands Athenians, who are losing faith because of the plague and the Spartan invations into Attica, to remain true to the cause and original strategy of the war.
The highlight of the call for me was when we decided to compare
– Pericles’ Funeral Oration (starts page 111 of the Landmark Thucydides)
with
– Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
We did it live but we discovered that the Gettysburg Address, while much shorter, clearly had Pericles’ “fingerprints” all over it. Lincoln must have read Thucydides and it cannot be doubted that it had an impact on him.
I encourage everyone in the reading group to try this comparison and see what you think.
Phil
04. April 2006 by Arrian
Categories: Commentary, Thucydides |
Tags: Thucydides |
Comments Off on Notes from first half of Book 2
Notes from first half of Book 2
We had a good call last Saturday with:
– Jean Bolgatz
– Kelly Magill (our newest member)
– Rob Schmults
– Andre Stipanovic
– Pat Wictor
Unfortunately, the conference call service erred and never made the recording (frustrating – we even hung up and called back in again but to no avail).
I’d like my colleagues to add to my brief notes below.
We focused the call on Pericles’ Funeral Oration (a historically famous speech given after the first year of the war) and Pericles’ second speech of Book 2 where he demands Athenians, who are losing faith because of the plague and the Spartan invations into Attica, to remain true to the cause and original strategy of the war.
The highlight of the call for me was when we decided to compare
– Pericles’ Funeral Oration (starts page 111 of the Landmark Thucydides)
with
– Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
We did it live but we discovered that the Gettysburg Address, while much shorter, clearly had Pericles’ “fingerprints” all over it. Lincoln must have read Thucydides and it cannot be doubted that it had an impact on him.
I encourage everyone in the reading group to try this comparison and see what you think.
Phil
04. April 2006 by Arrian
Categories: Commentary, Thucydides | Tags: Thucydides | Comments Off on Notes from first half of Book 2