Pericles: A Sourcebook and Reader
Stephen Tracy
Abstract
Pericles, Greece's greatest statesman and the leader of its Golden Age, created the Parthenon and championed democracy in Athens and beyond. Centuries of praise have endowed him with the powers of a demigod, but what did his friends, associates, and fellow citizens think of him? This book visits the fifth century B.C. to find out. It compiles and translates the scattered, elusive primary sources relating to Pericles. It brings Athens' political atmosphere to life with archaeological evidence and the accounts of those close to Pericles, including Thucydides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Protagoras, ... More
Pericles, Greece's greatest statesman and the leader of its Golden Age, created the Parthenon and championed democracy in Athens and beyond. Centuries of praise have endowed him with the powers of a demigod, but what did his friends, associates, and fellow citizens think of him? This book visits the fifth century B.C. to find out. It compiles and translates the scattered, elusive primary sources relating to Pericles. It brings Athens' political atmosphere to life with archaeological evidence and the accounts of those close to Pericles, including Thucydides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Protagoras, Sophocles, Lysias, Xenophon, Plato, and Plutarch. Readers will discover Pericles as a formidable politician, a persuasive and inspiring orator, and a man full of human contradictions. Pericles was first citizen at Athens when tragedy, comedy, architecture, rhetoric, philosophy, historiography, graphic arts, democracy, and empire were taking on forms that one way or another shape analogous undertakings today.
Keywords:
Pericles,
Greece,
statesman,
Golden Age,
Parthenon,
democracy,
Athens
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2009 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520256033 |
Published to California Scholarship Online: March 2012 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520256033.001.0001 |