Notes from Plutarch's Life of Pericles
by Dr. Janice Siegel
Pericles’ father: Xanthippus, defeated King of Persia’s generals at Mycale
Mother: Agariste, grandchild of Cleisthenes, responsible for expelling Athens’ last
tyrants
Pericles’ mother dreamed she would bear a lion days before Pericles was born
His head is disproportionately long – called “Onionhead” by contemporary comic
authors (which is why he insisted on having official portraits with helmet)
P’s teachers: Zeno of Elea, student of Parmenides.
Most influential: Anaxagoras:
Pericles devoted his early politicking to befriending the common man, for he was an
aristocrat by birth and feared ostracism from those who would fear him as a powerseeker.
Known for his oratory skill
Concerning the conduct of a man in power in regard to sexual pursuits: “A general
should not only have pure hands, but pure eyes.”
Pericles used the public treasury to pay for diversions for the people and for juryduty.
Thucydides (not the historian, another one) provided the balance the Athenians
sought to avoid setting up Pericles as an absolute ruler. It became the people
(Pericles) versus the nobility (Thucydides).
Things Pericles did:
- sent out shiploads of men on nautical expeditions to improve their skills, found
colonies (and thereby make Athens look good to her enemies), and rid Athens of
idle men.
-public works – Pericles’ enemies accused him of unrightfully removing the treasury
from Delos and misusing the other cities’ donations to dress up Athens like a vain
woman, prancing about wanting to be gawked at.
Pericles responded: the other cities have nothing to complain about since
Athens is indeed protecting them from the barbarians; the monuments are eternal
proofs of the glory that is Athens; and every sector of the economy is benefiting.
Pericles’ idea that all members of the society thrive equally well: soldiers, mariners,
merchants, craftsmen, artisans, common laborers as well as wagoners,
rope-makers, leather-cutters, - so the wealth of the public treasury was distributed
throughout the different populations of the city.
Phidias – superintendent of all building projects
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Callicrates and Ictinus – rebuilt the Parthenon, destroyed by the Persian sack
of Athens in 480.
Coroebus – began the Temple of Initiation at Eleusis and Metagenes finished
it.
Odeum – music theatre – a roofed structure
Pericles started the tradition of vying for musical prize during the Panathenea
in the Odeum. He paid for the prize and he appointed the judge.
Mnesicles: in five years built the Propylaia, entryway or vestibule to the
Acropolis. (workman injured on the job was visited by Athena in a dream and
he was healed).
When Pericles’ enemies publicly accused him of over-spending, Pericles asked the
people – they agreed. When he said that he would then take the responsibility for the
expenditure and put his own name on the buildings instead of the name of Athens,
the citizens cried out that he should spend as much as he wanted!
After the ostracism of his only real political rival (Cimon), Pericles’ power soared.
Always the people remembered the tyrants (Plutarch tells us that Pericles in his
features rather resembled the Peisistratid family, to the chagrin of his enemies).
Eventually, after a certain number of years (unclear), Pericles’ political enemies
targeted those around him (says Plutarch):
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Phidias is charged with stealing the gold intended for the chryselephantine
statue of Athena. Pericles helps him disprove this charge (they remove and
weigh the gold). Then Phidias is accused of sneaking in likenesses of himself
and of Pericles onto the battle scene with the Amazons on Athena’s shield.
Phidias is sent to jail, where he dies.
Aspasia, Pericles’ courtesan, is accused of impiety for employing women
above the status of slave (acquitted of all charges)
Anaxagoras (natural philosopher tutor to Pericles) tried for disputing the
existence of the gods (Socrates also mentions him – that he suggested that
the sun was not the god Apollo, but a white-hot rock about the size of the
Peloponnesus.) – Pericles feared he would be found guilty, so abetted his
flight from Athens.
The war begins not soon thereafter, and Pericles takes the people within
the walls of the city. The plague hits after that. Plutarch suggests that because
Pericles loses his legitimately born sons to the plague, this is the reason he repeals
the law against bastards becoming citizens – for he feared that he would bequeath
nothing to posterity. Ironically, it was Pericles who originally drew up the law to limit
Athenian citizenship to those whose parents on both sides were already citizens,
causing much hardship at the time.
Plutarch concludes his Life of Pericles by stating that Pericles built no less than nine
memorials to the honour of Athens.