How Did The Acropolis Destroyed Athenian Society

What qualities of Athenian life does Pericles mention? How do these contrast with those that Archidamus points out for Sparta? The qualities of the Athenian life that Pericles mentions are that they are far from practicing a jealous surveillance over each other because they do not feel like they should be angry with there neighbors for doing what they like, but all there private relations does not make them lawless as citizens. He also say’s that they provide plenty of means for there mind to refresh itself from the business, that they celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round. On the other hand Sparta is war-like, because they have self control and they honor bravery. They are also educated with the laws and with a self-control to

Pericles's speech first gave praise to the ancestors, for which they are the people who built the city from the ground up and fought for democracy. He speaks of the ancestors with great honor and valor and that it was them who gave birth to Athens. He perceives Athens as a city with virtue, modesty, and modernization. It is a city who doesn't isolate itself from other governing states. Pericles announce that they aren't afraid to show their culture to the world and any foreigners may come and learn or observe from them. He suggests Athens is a country that welcomes foreigners and they

In his funeral oration, Pericles praises Athens and the city's focus on balance between personal care and care for the state. He compared it to Sparta, where personal comfort was overlooked to benefit the state and said that the personal comfort allowed to Athenians is what makes the war worth fighting.16 By praising Athens, he showed his love and loyalty to his city. Alcibiades had no such loyalty. When he fled to Sparta he was asked if he did not trust his country, his answer was with everything other than his life.17 When in Sparta he gave military advice that caused more "ruin and destruction to his city" than anything else.18 After

Pericles was born in 495 B.C. E in Cholargos north of Athens. Pericles was an influential orator, leader and general during Athens golden age between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. Pericles popularized arts and literature and was the main reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. During Pericles rule, Athens developed its Acropolis, the elevated citadel that held the most important buildings and temples. These building where so architecturally

Pericles (C. 495-429 BC) was a very influential politician and general in Athens. He is said to have brought about a very important time in Athenian history known as ‘The Golden Age of Athens’ where he brought about or placed focus on certain things like art, which gave Athens the reputation as the cultural and educational centre of Ancient Greece, architecture, where he created a project to beautify the city and provide work for Athenians with most of its products like the Parthenon still surviving and giving us an idea of the glory of Athens. He also made valuable contributions to drama, the bringing about of democracy and the establishment of the Greek empire.

It left the population time to live in crime as they awaited death. The once valued Athenian morals also ceased to existed in that period. The population did not bother to accomplish any of the morally accepted laws. Meaning that since no one would ever be there to acknowledge it or they could ever gain benefits for it, it was normal for some not to complete any. For them, it was considered a waste of time to be morally just because they all would perish.

Between 449 BC and 431 BC, the Golden Age of Athens flourished mainly under the rule of Pericles. Pericles funded the cultural projects in Athens, including building new city landmarks like Parthenon and the Acropolis. He also influenced writers, promoting literature, arts, and writing. A center of numerous fine arts including education and democracy grew because of the willpower of Pericles. He came from a wealthy and prestigious family that improved his education. This pushed him to advance philosophy in

Pericles’ profound rhetorical skills were displayed within his Funeral Oration honoring Athenian soldiers who demonstrated extraordinary valor. Although the subject of his speech was in honor of the fallen soldiers who died gloriously defending Athens, he primarily praised Athens and everything it stood for. Within his speech, Pericles focuses on acting for the greater good of the city, which included sacrificing oneself much like the modeled sacrifice the dead had displayed through their valor. Through praising Athens and the fallen soldiers Pericles idealized the dead, showing their modeled behavior as honorable and glorious, which further appealed the sacrifice of dying for Athens. Pericles idealized motives continuously praised Athens: the dead, ancestors, and the city. Theses motives were intended to explain why Athenians should love their city and willingly sacrifice to ensure continued happiness and freedom.

Purposefully, he was constantly ‘beautifying’ Athens. As stated by Plutarch, Pericles “constantly provided public pageants, banquets, and processions in the city, entertaining the people like children with elegant pleasures.” He made sure he kept the public happy. Along with elaborate public displays, Pericles, expanded territories. According to Plutarch, “he dispatched 1,000 settlers to the Chersonese, 500 to Naxos, 250 to Andros, 1,000 to Thrace to make their homes with the Bisaltae, and others to the new colony named Thurii.” This expansion allowed the city to rid itself of ‘idlers’ and ‘agitators’ and “raise the standards of the poorest classes”.

Athens is a major Greek city-state in European history. It was a great center of cultural and intellectual development, and thus home to philosophers. Socrates and Pericles, two of these philosophers, had polarizing opinions about the city-state and its citizens. While Pericles chooses to praise the Athenian citizen, Socrates criticizes Athens’ people. Pericles gave his opinion at a funeral during the first battles of the Peloponnesian War, while Socrates gave his during the trial that ultimately led to his death. The Athenian city-state has become a model for today’s systems of government and a hearth for western philosophy, so Pericles’ opinion seems to be the one that is more accurate.

Pericles was great as a leader, and he used all his skills as a logical man in order to occupy Athenians who weren’t involved in the army and who were unskilled. Because he did not want them to just get benefited from national income for doing nothing, he proposed to them different plans for public works and buildings where all kinds of industries could be involved. Since he didn’t have money of his own he was spending public money for building, and that is what he was accused of by Thucydides and other members of his party. Using the knowledge of psychology of people, Pericles knew how to persuade people in the Assembly. He didn’t have his own money, but still made the Athenians believe as though he did; and his reply to the accusation was as follows:

Furthermore, in the mind of Pericles, any citizen who did not take some part in the realm of politics was not just missing the core of Athenian democracy, but was essentially useless. This is so because Athenian democracy stood on the idea that people would take an active role in the government that represented them in order to protect their freedoms, and anyone who shunned that responsibility was a detriment to society. The arguments that Pericles puts forth are persuasive in the sense that theoretically in order for a democracy to survive as intended (which is self-representation and majority rule) then people must take politics sincerely.

The Parthenon sits at the peak of the Athenian acropolis and was certainly a symbol of Athenian might. It represented not only the democracy of Athens, but especially the imperial prowess of the short-lived Athenian Empire. It was initially a temple devoted to the gods, built by Pericles and his ambitious building program. The building, although it made the acropolis much more grandeur than the acropolis burnt down by the Persians years earlier, represented something much more than just spirituality—it had a function. It was to hold the treasury of the Delian League, the league that was created, which Athens led, to thwart the Persian threat. However, overtime the Delian League became a league for Athenian

Pericles was often referred to as the ‘Patron of the Arts’ due to his immense dedication and passion towards it. His passion led to Athens experiencing their peak of culture with a burst of art and literature surfacing. Pericles directed projects to advance Athens culturally, such as lowering admission prices for plays to allow the lower class entry (History.com Staff, 2009) and was responsible for the world’s most recognised Acropolis, which is a citadel or complex that has been built on a high hill. Acropolis was originally designed to be a single temple to honour Greek goddess, Athena, however, Pericles made the decision to expand the project after the first temple, Parthenon, was completed. The other temples that Pericles made plans to build, Erechtheum and

The case study of New Acropolis Museum in Athens is design by Bermand Tschumi and Michael Photiadis architects and opens to the public on 21 June 2009, with Demetrios Pandermalis as a director of the project and the museum. The new building replaces the first museum which builds in 1874, as a project it took over 60 years to be realized. The New Acropolis Museum is a contemporary symbol in the city which shows the culture and the civilization. It’s a project which aims to show, in a sense the re-introducing of the Parthenon to the 21st century and preserving the remains for the centuries to come.