Isocrates’s Panegyricus advocates a Hellenic confederation under Athenian leadership for the purpose of opposition to the Persians. I think the ideas in this speech are comprehensible to readers of history or political science. Having accessible ideas makes it easier for the intermediate student to focus on the Greek language, which is more of a challenge.
It’s a long speech, but solving the puzzles in the long sentences for this intermediate student is rewarding.
Reading the Panegyricus of Isocrates has been a wonderful experience.
Just imagine: a band of communities struggling for unity against a distant king, who controlled them. Sounds like “Star Wars”, doesn’t it? But it also sounds like the Dutch in their struggle for independence, and of course the Americans of 1776.
I’m a US history guy (retired), and it’s hard for me to believe that the better educated patriots of 1776 did not map their own political self-conception onto the Panegyricus. Every third page, I shouted to my wife, in the next room, “Isocrates is having another Patrick Henry moment!”
I also suspect connections between the Athenian-origins doctrine of Hellenic culture propounded by Isocrates, and the ambition of New England to become the spiritual fons et origo of American national culture. They did pretty well at that: Plymouth Rock, Thanksgiving, the “Old Deluder Satan Act” (schools), Noah Webster and his dictionary, Hawthorne & Friends, and we mustn’t forget “Fair Harvard”.
I wonder also if Isocrates was an influence on other emerging European nationalisms of the 19th centurey.
That’s just the thematic issues. If you want to advance understanding of long complicated sentences, Isocrates is the man to read.