Abstract
The article examines the reason why, according to Pericles’ Funeral Oration, democracy produces individuals qualitatively superior to those in other political regimes and what they are like. And our conclusion is that, as worthy successors of the inheritance of their ancestors, they not only multiplied their inheritance by extending the empire, but also by transforming the autochthony into autarchy and, by it, into freedom. To the conviction that effort was the means to achieve their goals they added the value of responsibility (both in their public life and in their private life, thus uniting personal autonomy and tolerance to public liberty, equality and merit) and the value of hedonism, which they managed to combine with the bravery and rational planning of their ventures. Finally, he regarded as worthy of memory not only successes but also failures, that is, he transferred morality from the outside world to the inner world, which was already ruled by conscience.
Keywords:
Pericles; Athens; Democracy; Individualism; Freedom; Equality; Merit; Values; Action; Conscience