Similarities Between The Gettysburg Address And Pericles

Although the Pericles’ Funeral Oration and the Gettysburg Address are hundreds of years apart, many have taken note of the similarities between these two memoirs for fallen soldiers of war. A powerful funeral oration from Athenian culture inspired Abraham Lincoln’s address to the Union during the Civil War. Both the Athenians and the Union were in the midst of fighting another power at the time. The value placed on liberty and democracy amongst these two groups was strong. Although citizens were

similar documents. Written in drastically different time periods, you would not think Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Pericles’s Epitaph would really have much in common. The two funeral orations do share their fair share of similarities in addition to their differences, though. To understand how the two documents compare we must first look at the context of both the Epitaph and the Gettysburg Address. Pericles’s Epitaph was written roughly 2,000 years ago during the beginning of the Peloponnesian

Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and Pericles “Funeral Oration” are both speeches that clearly portray similar and diverse components. To begin, Lincoln and Pericles both express tone in similar ways. In order to encourage his frazzled and hopeless soldiers and families, in addition to emphasizing the deceased, Lincoln needed to state his tone in an explicit and benevolent approach in the “Gettysburg Address”. To do this, Lincoln begins his speech with “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers

length and many other characteristics both Pericles's Funeral Oration, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address share their similarities. Both nations are Democratic, and both speakers are very proud of that fact, mentioning it in both speeches. Something I noticed was the mentioning of religion. Lincoln mentioned God in his speech, yet Pericles did not mention anything about religion, he kept it purely political. While Pericles had a lengthier speech, Lincoln's speech was short, sweet and right to the point