Page 13 - GALIET WE PERIKLES: Thyucidides IV

Galiet & Galiet
always “controlled your liberty”, and always “led you”, yes, I Thucydides affirm: “it was he (Perikles) who led them rather than they who led him” (2.65.1). He shall also remind posterity of my heroic appeals to men’s hearts4: to retaliate, to take charge and to plunge into war with reckless courage to protect our freedom: “To face calamity with a mind, as unclouded as may be, and quickly to react against it, that in a city and in an individual is real strength” (2.64.2), etc., (etc., etc.), so that these aphorisms may resonate fresh, anew, in the winds of the western mind for ever and ever.
I, Perikles (master charlatan) shall go on glorifying the greatness of Athens (without hope of adulation or notion of self-interest, of course) so that, you, my citizens develop loyalty, for without loyalty courage is impossible. I shall mask courage, therefore, (in the manner so proper to theater) with happiness. This is exactly what I shall mean when posterity reads: “make up your minds that happiness depends on being free and freedom depends on being courageous” (2.43.1).
I, Perikles, do want to ensnare you with my subfusc masks (I am blind to my own face). I possess no apparent reason for self-glory (other than the glory of Athens which is also my glory). My council and I determine which masks, based on some speculative votes, are the most apt for controlling and surrendering the audience into the specter of freedom. The beauty of femininity is in “Glory” masked, fraudulently, with the despotic war; well, it shall be the inscrutable appeal and measure of my age 3⁄4 no 3⁄4 rather of all ages, for all shall be drawn to war.
Let me lurk: the eternal, honorable “Age of Perikles” engraved in plaques of gold and bronze; statues carved and erected. I, Perikles, the one who praises the brilliant Athenian civilization. Yes, I shall insist, that although I am willing to suffer the same losses as any citizen when going to war (I am willing to give up
4 Kerd- Heart. From Latin cor (stem cord-), heart. Courage’s root is heart.
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