Thucydides Essay

Shams 1

Jack S.

Mrs. Mitchell

Ancients World History Period 4

4 February 2015

                                          Human Nature is the Worst Nature

In Ancient Greece a man named Thucydides would record events in a non biased way Thucydides wrote about many events but two very insightful events he wrote about were "The Plague" and "The Civil War at Corcyra". In these pieces we see Thucydides shes his own perspective on human nature in times of struggle. Societies and humans themselves begin to break down and become dysfunctional. For example, we see lawlessness, loss of religion, and loss of hope and incentive to live. One major point one can take away from his writing is that Thucydides demonstrates through his writing that in times of struggle humans are not as admirable as one would think.

In Thucydides writing he exhibits that when communities being to struggle people disregard the law. Thucydides writes, "For the catastrophe was so overwhelming that men, not knowing what would happen to them next, became indifferent to every rule of religion or of law" (Thucydides, page 155, section 52, lines 10-12). This shows that people did not care for law anymore. People were so overwhelmed with the sadness and negativity around them that they did not care for rules any longer.  Thucydides believes that the plague brought a new sad and unruly way of life. He writes, "In other respects also Athens owed to the plague a state of unprecedented lawlessness" (Thucydides, page 155, section 53, line 1) The plague brought a negative new way of living. This new way of life has no laws which motivated people to act however they pleased. With how deadly the plague was, people were dying very rapidly and did not expect to live long whatsoever. Because of this people did many illegal things because they would not live long enough to be brought to trial. Thucydides writes, "As for offenses against human law, no one expected to live long enough to be brought to trial and punished" (Thucydides, page 155, section 53, lines 17-18). This quote shows that people were so sure that they were going to die in the near future that they would commit crimes because they were not worried about being brought to trial in time to be punished. When people are constantly struggling and they begin to not care about restraints such as the law, their natural human nature of greed and selfishness are exposed.

Thucydides makes it apparent in his writing that with a loss of law also came a loss of religion. With so many people already dead the living did not take the time to burry them. Thucydides shows that people did not take the time to bury the dead and did not mourn for them or pray for their well being in the after life (Thucydides, page 155, section 52, lines 12-20). People became so scared with the idea of them dying in the coming months that they now began to disregard things that they used to take very seriously and just focus on themselves. Religion would hold people down and Thucydides shows this by writing, "No fear of God or law of man had a restraining influence" (Thucydides, page 155, section 53, line 14). The use of the word "God" represents religion in this quote and helps support the idea that people were not afraid to break the rules of the law or religion. While the importance of religious virtues faded, the importance of religious places faded as well. Thucydides writes, "Men were dragged from the temples or butchered on the very altars" (Thucydides, page 241, section 81, lines 26-27). People had completely lost respect for holy places such as temples and altars and began to use them for the most unholy purposes. For example, men would slaughter others inside of the temples or on the altars themselves. As certain things such as law become less important to people religion did as well. Both law and religion are used as ways to control people and when they lose their power to control people they become useless and unimportant. When people realize this, true unrespectful human nature begins to show. 

With so much sadness and loss in Ancient Greece during this time of everyday struggle people began to lose incentive to live or even treat themselves properly. We see Thucydides voice this when he writes, "As for what is called honour, no one showed himself willing to abide by its laws" (Thucydides, page 155, section 53, lines 9-10). Thucydides is saying that the plague  was so destructive to people mentally and physically that no one had enough incentive in their life to even respect themselves anymore. Thucydides shows in his writing that when people found out they had the plague they fell into an attitude of utter hopelessness (Thucydides, page 154, section 51, lines 12-14). When people discovered they have the plague it would not only take a large physical toll but also quite a big mental one as well. The plague was such a terrible burden that was placed upon the people of Greece that words could not even describe it. Thucydides shows this by writing, "Words indeed fail one when one tries to give a general picture of this disease" (Thucydides, page 153, section 50, line 1). This quote describes the complete and utter power of the plague by showing that people did not even feel the need to describe their suffering, but would rather just give up. As humans are surrounded by more and more negativity and loss they begin to not care for anyone or anything including themselves. 

Throughout "The Plague" and "The Civil War at Corcyra" Thucydides demonstrates that in times of struggle humans are not as admirable as one would think. True human nature is not as beautiful as one might think and it can only be exposed by very few things and one of those things is everyday struggle. Struggle can expose things such as lawlessness, loss of religion, and loss of incentive to live. None of these aspects are admirable or positive which leads one to realize that human nature is not completely flawless. These three particular facets lead to much bigger things such as revolt or a countless loss of lives which is seen throughout today's world. For example, in the 60's the people of Iran overthrew the Shaw. It was complete and total chaos because there was absolutely no law. People were killed in the streets and exiled every day. The people of Iran wanted a new leader not only for political reasons, but also for religious reasons. Ayatollah Khomeini was brought to power and implemented a completely new government and religion. All of this was started with the breakdown of law and loss of religion. 

Video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0ixG94cHE

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Works Cited 

Thucydides, , Rex Warner, and M I. Finley. History of the Peloponnesian War. Harmondsworth, Eng: Penguin Books, 1972. Print. 

Lawlessness- http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01174/naidu_1174981f.jpg

Religion- http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01174/naidu_1174981f.jpg

Loss of incentive to live- http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01174/naidu_1174981f.jpg

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kY0ixG94cHE