Gettysburg Address vs. Pericles Funeral Oration

I. Introduction: The thought of patriotism, honor, pride, and glory walk hand in hand with the idea of dying for your country and with a cause.

A. President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address to the American people in November of 1863.

1. He addressed the people on the brave soldiers who fought and died there on that battlefield and how those men died for a reason, to preserve the United States and give freedom to all.

2. He also addresses how those men should be remembered as and to carry out their work. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_address)

B. The Athenian general Pericles, delivered an oration at the funeral commemoration of the Athenian men who had fought and died for Athens in the Peloponnesian Wars.

1. It was given in the late fifth century at the end of the first Peloponnesian War.

2. He tells of the great men who have died for Athens in order to protect her and allow her great legacy to live on. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericles'_Funeral_Oration)

C. Thesis: These two great speeches have many similarities to each other in their content.

II. Both of these speeches have a greta appeal to the patriotism of the men in the armies who fought for what they believed in.

A. Such is the Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer in her cause." (Pericles). http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pericles-funeralspeech.html