| Popis: |
In Thucydides, Pericles is the paragon of an individual who successfully resists the thrust of natural necessity. Pericles’ political agency is reflected in his distinctive oratorical style: it vividly expresses Pericles’ integration of the intellect with resolute action, and the mind’s capacity to assert itself against the forces that regularly try to overwhelm it, namely irrational passion and hostile external circumstance. Pericles’ oratorical style gives tangible shape to these ideas. Through his oratory, Pericles temporarily impresses the same mentality on the Athenians. Reason-guided action combined with resoluteness emerges as an analogue to the modern notion of freedom. Yet other passages in the History suggest that the mind is more often defeated by the forces opposed to it. Moreover, Thucydides’ presentation suggests that γνώμη, the signal faculty by which Pericles opposes natural necessity, is marked by tragic ambiguity: it plays the role of both an opponent and a facilitator of irrational forces. In the final analysis, Pericles cannot win out against necessity, but he does provide evidence for the rare achievement of containing its destructive effects, at least for a while. |
