Core 102History and the Modern World
The Idea of Democracy
Roger Williams University
Section 01 LLC T, TH   09:30AM-10:50 AM GHH 205
Section 04 ELI  T, TH   12:30PM- 02:00 PM  GHH 106
Spring  Semester, 2016
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office: GHH 215
Hours: M, W, F, 12:00-1:30
Or By Appointment
Phone:  ext 3230
E-mail:  mswanson@rwu.edu
The Parthenon, built in the age of Pericles.  Click the image to learn its history and significance.  For the story of its ruin in war and current attempts to rebuild, Click here.
For Tuesday, January 26
For Thursday, January 28
Download, read, and mark up, from the Core Canon
Pericles' Funeral Oration.


Is Democracy the best?  Why?
First, listen to the video on the left to receive some context for the Pericles Funeral Oration which you'll read and mark up for today's class.  The Oration had a context, as the title "funeral oration" indicates.  Probably the closest thing we have to it in our area (in the United States, at least) are the ceremonies we hold on "Memorial Day".  The video on the right is the ceremony from Arlington National Cemetery last year.  You might listen to it last.
Here's what I want you to do when you mark up your copy of the Pericles Funeral Oration. 
Download, read, and mark up, from the Core Canon
The Suppliants, by Euripides.
The Melian Dialogue:  The Fate of Meles.
For this day we're going to take a look at two documents which "look" the same, but are very different.  The Suppliants is an excerpt from a play.  Perhaps I'll call on a couple of would-be actors in class to enact it for us, the audience.  As one can understand, the playwright, Euripides, has a point of view here.  One of the persons in the dialogue favors democracy, the other doesn't.  I want you to two three things here

Be Warned!  The Melian Dialogue isn't an easy read.  The translation is old, and the language complicated.  You can do it, but leave yourself time to do it.  While this looks very much like a play script, it is more history by Thucydides, who wrote what we read as Pericles Funeral Oration.  This does not mean that he copied what was said word for word.  But he has a reputation for being as accurate as possible.  I don't want to give away the plot, so I won't.   You'll know what happened to whom and the excuses for it by the time you've read your way through it.

On one side of the bargaining Table sit the Melian representatives and on the other side, the Athenian representatives.  Note one thing:  ALL this happens out of sight and mind from the ordinary population of Meles.

After you've read the dialogue, watch the dramatic presentation of it in the video to the left. 
The video on the right presents a contemporary analysis of the video by a young man who looks to be a recent college graduate--perhaps he's still in college.  He gives you his take on the the dispute between Meles and Athens..
Analyze this the same way you've analyzed The Suppliants.  Here are a couple of other things to think about.
Then Comes Part II, the Melian Dialogue
Once you've completed the assignments, add them to your drop box.  Don't forget to hit the submit button.