Similarly, in Book Seven, the Athenians were defeated by the Syracusans near Sicily. The Athenian response to the defeat is similar to their response to the plague; "in reaction to the enormity of their terrible situation, [the Athenians] did not even think to ask permission to take up their dead," but instead chose to leave the corpses without a burial (7.72). The plague really is a mirror image of the defeat at Sicily in terms of death, burial rites, and "lawlessness" (which I take to mean as a failure to uphold the standard of honor associated with a dead person's burial rites).
Also, I forgot to say in class today, if anyone doesn't have Microsoft Word and plans on buying it, DO NOT! There's a free download for university students for Microsoft Office that lets you keep it for four years, or until your college email expires.
This is the link:
https://portal.office.com/
You make a very interesting point, Catherine! Looking at the two passages, I feel that the plague and the battle the Athenians lose in Book 7 relate to each other to the extent that the enormity of the situation shocks the people. There are so many deaths and the loss of life is so immense that they simply draw back in fear. They lose their sense of honor, I think, in both situations. During the plaque, they are afraid to bury their people for obvious reasons. However, after the battle they lose to the Syracusans, the Athenians actually retreat without collecting any bodies, and Thucydides reports that they "no longer believed they could win" (7.72).
ReplyDeleteI agree that the sense of lawlessness in Book Three trumps all other books in Thucydides records because the "calamity of defeat" (3.Intro) kept being brought up. A parallel between the plague and the invasion of Sicily was that the sight of "everyone dying with no difference"(2.53) When the" Athenians were losing the war, they tend to "damage the [power of] the city regarding the war"(2.65) and ring "every possible outcry...wrung from a great army in great danger."(7.71) Another pattern between the two losses is that the crowd begins to discredit the source of their law - their leader - when victory is not in sight. Perikles was blamed for his passive approach in military strategy and Nikias's advice was neglected when the siege on Sicily was not progressing as expected.
ReplyDeleteWhen going back over these sections, I was left to wonder if the parallels between these two incidents was part of the reason Thucydides talked about the plague in the first place. We discussed that when describing the plague, he was able to use his artistic license in order to paint a picture of the distress and lawlessness happening in Athens. He may have also included the passage about the plague not just as a way to demonstrate a flaw in the Athenian people, as Aaron mentioned, but as a way to foreshadow events to come in the war, such as the Athenians defeat Catherine brings up in book VII.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the point that the plague could have been used to foreshadow events that would come later in the war/book. What is the effect that this gives to the reader? Is there any way we can know that this is could be some kind of foreshadowing before we get to the Athenian's defeat? Or can one only think of this connection by the time they reach that point? This leads me to wonder if Thucydides means to foreshadow to a later point, why does he do this? Could it be that he just wanted to write a better story, something more interesting than what actually happened?
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that Thucydides meant to foreshadow the Athenian defeat with the inclusion of the plague, or at least draw a parallel between the two events. When we talked about it in class, I remember someone brought up the randomness of the plague, and how it seemed unrelated to the war-like aspects of the book. This may have been Thucydides' intention; to have his readers confused about the plague, then later able to make the connection back to it and realize its importance. Without the plague, the defeat would have been the first time that the Athenians were defeated at something, and the first time that they showed a dishonorable side. With the plague, we, the readers, are able to see how the Athenians handle a tragedy like plague, and how they behave under duress. It sets a doubtful tone about their sense of honor (i.e. mass graves, disgraceful burial rites) and allows the readers to observe a trend in their behavior once they are defeated.
ReplyDelete