Frases de Pericles
Pericles
Fecha de nacimiento: 494 a.C.
Fecha de muerte: 429 a.C.
Pericles fue un importante e influyente político y orador ateniense en los momentos de la edad de oro de la ciudad . Hijo de Jantipo, artífice de la victoria helena sobre los persas en la batalla de Micala , y de Agaristé, sobrina del prestigioso legislador ateniense Clístenes y miembro de la familia aristocrática de los alcmeónidas. Fue el principal estratega de Grecia. Gran dirigente, hombre honesto y virtuoso. Llamado el Olímpico, por su imponente voz y por sus excepcionales dotes de orador.
Pericles tuvo tanta influencia en la sociedad ateniense que Tucídides, un historiador coetáneo, lo denominó como «el primer ciudadano de Atenas». Pericles convirtió a la Confederación de Delos en el Imperio ateniense, y dirigió a sus compatriotas durante los primeros dos años de la Guerra del Peloponeso. El periodo en el que Pericles gobernó Atenas a veces es conocido como el Siglo de Pericles, aunque ese período a veces puede abarcar fechas tan recientes como las Guerras Médicas o tan tardías como el siglo siguiente.
Pericles promocionó las artes y la literatura. Por esta razón Atenas tiene la reputación de haber sido el centro educacional y cultural de la Antigua Grecia. Comenzó un ambicioso proyecto que llevó a la construcción de la mayoría de las estructuras supervivientes en la Acrópolis de Atenas, incluyendo el Partenón, así como de otros monumentos como los Propileos. Su programa embelleció la ciudad y sirvió para exhibir su gloria, a la vez que dio empleo a muchos ciudadanos. Además, Pericles defendió hasta tal punto la democracia griega que algunos de sus críticos le consideran populista.
Rival de Cimón en 459 a. C. y jefe del partido democrático. Después de la muerte de Cimón, condenó a Tucídides al ostracismo. Fundó en sólidas bases la potencia naval y colonial de Atenas, sometió la isla de Eubea en 446 a. C., la de Samos en 440 a. C. e hizo tomar parte a Atenas en la Guerra del Peloponeso.
Discípulo de Anaxágoras de Clazómenes y de Zenón de Elea, fue amigo de Fidias y atrajo a Atenas al arquitecto Hipodamo de Mileto, al filósofo Protágoras, y al historiador Heródoto. En su época brillaron Sófocles y Eurípides —máximas figuras del teatro griego— y se destacó el círculo de Aspasia.
Frases Pericles
„Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now.“
— Pericles
Context: Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now. We do not need the praises of a Homer, or of anyone else whose words may delight us for the moment, but the estimation of facts will fall short of what is really true.
As quoted in Eternal Greece (1961) by Rex Warner, p. 34
„They gave her their lives, to her and to all of us, and for their own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchers — not the sepulchre in which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men's minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action. For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial: it is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out; no, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people's hearts, their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them. Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.“
— Pericles
Context: I could tell you a long story (and you know it as well as I do) about what is to be gained by beating the enemy back. What I would prefer is that you should fix your eyes every day on the greatness of Athens as she realty is, and should fall in love with her. When you realize her greatness, then reflect that what made her great was men with a spirit of adventure, men who knew their duty, men who were ashamed to fall below a certain standard. If they ever failed in an enterprise, they made up their minds that at any rate the city should not find their courage lacking to her, and they gave to her the best contribution that they could. They gave her their lives, to her and to all of us, and for their own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchers — not the sepulchre in which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men's minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action. For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial: it is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out; no, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people's hearts, their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them. Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.
Book 2, chapter 44: Funeral oration, as translated at [http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/pericles_in-defense-of-democracy.html "In Defense of Democracy"]
Verse 4 is sometimes freely translated as The secret to happiness is freedom. And the secret to freedom is courage.
„Nor is it any longer possible for you to give up this empire … Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.“
— Pericles
On the eve of war <!-- Translator info would be helpful here. -->
„What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.“
— Pericles
As quoted in Flicker to Flame : Living with Purpose, Meaning, and Happiness (2006) by Jeffrey Thompson Parker, p. 118
This quotation is likely a modern paraphrasing of a longer passage from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, II.43.3.
„The whole Earth is the Sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on Stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives.“
— Pericles
As quoted in A Brief and True Report concerning Williamsburg in Virginia by Rutherford Goodwin (1941), p. 125
