HIS 101 and 111
Pericles Paragraph Assignment
The Erechtheon was a temple on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens dedicated to both Erechtheus, a king of Greek myth and the legendary founder of the city of Athens, and also the god Poseidon. The temple was built circa 421 to 407 bce, near the end of Pericles's Golden Age and his massive building program that transformed the city of Athens. In the courtyard outside the temple grew the city's sacred olive tree. The porch on the north side of the temple, as seen here, is considered by many to be one of the best examples of columns of the ionic order. The porch on the south side was supported by six maiden figures (the six caryatids). In the nineteenth century Lord Elgin--of the Elgin Marbles infamy--carted off one of the caryatids to his home in Scotland and destroyed another one in the process. Thus, only four remain in the Acropolis Museum. (See below for the Porch of the Maidens. Some of the caryatids are reproductions.) Photos credit C. Wayne and Dorothy Miller.
Citing specific evidence from the Funeral Oration (not the textbook), what were the main features of Athenian democracy according to Pericles?
Your paragraph should be about one-half page in length, double-spaced with one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12; it should contain a concise topic sentence that directly responds to the assigned question (no need to define terms or cite a dictionary) and use direct, quoted material to support your points. You may consider submitting a draft of your assignment to your instructor for feedback before submitting the assignment for a grade. Please send some specific questions that you would like answered about your draft. The questions can be general (Is my thesis/first sentence clear?) or specific (Is the phrase, "Chardin was jeweller," written correctly?).
- The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization is an excellent site that accompanies the PBS series. See, for example, the page on Pericles.
- See the extra credit assignment with material on Thucydides.
- Dr. J's Illustrated Pericles' Funeral Oration by Janice Siegel, Illinois State University, is a rather interesting take on Pericles.
