Sophism has changed religion and caused a great deal of confusion for those that strongly believed in the gods, omens and oracles. This caused a great deal of questions to be asked and arguments to occur. People did not want to hear the reason that the sophist would put forth. They didn’t want to believe that the gods were not answering their prayers. The scientific explanations didn’t make sense to them, especially since they were brought up believing in gods and oracles. Trusting that if they put their faith in the gods, things would work out for them. The religious were said to have a lack of experience when it came to dealing with the scientific points of views

Pericles and Alcibiades were two well known men that had the advantage of receiving sophist teachings. Pericles was a wealthy man that had a well known family and he had plenty of power. It appears that Pericles has had three men that in some way taught him and that he admired. Damon was a sophist that taught Pericles poetry and other subjects. He was also the one that prepared him for the political debates that he would eventually encounter. Zeno was also one of Pericles teacher. He taught him how to cross-examine someone by using the question and answer method. Zeno was said to be the one who perfected this method. (Plut.Pericles, pg.168) The teacher that Pericles really seemed to look up to was Anaxagoras. He was Pericles inspiration. This caused Pericles to be a calm and a self-respecting character. This showed by the movements he made when he was out in public. (Plut.Pericles, pg.169)

The negative side of the sophist teachings was that every time Pericles had a victory he became somewhat of a show off. (Plut.Pericles, pg.194) Pericles was criticized when he felt that when he sent a small fleet over to help Corcyreans. When it came time for the Athenians to fight the Spartans, Pericles wanted to be calm about it and everyone did not feel that way. He did not pay them any attention and people eventually started to get angry. When people in Athens started getting the plague, they wanted to destroy Pericles. His enemies tried to persuade them too also. The Athenians blamed Pericles for the things that went wrong. They started treating him badly and appointed others to fulfill the duties of Pericles. When they realized that their was no one that could supply them with the leadership that they needed, they begged for Pericles to forgive them and asked that he come back. If Pericles did not have the sophist teachings instilled in him he probably would not have been successful in entering the political system, rising to power and he would not have accomplished saving the state in which he lived.

When it came to making political decisions the sophist would use their speech skills to talk or persuade their audience to see things their way. Speech was well known among those who were sophist. They gave many speeches and at times people didn’t even know what they were talking about, they would just applaud. Some people would just follow along with what the others did or they would hear the speech given say one thing and they would agree with the speaker, especially if the speaker was well known among the people.

Aristocrats needed sophism to help them to stay at the top of the social class. Not saying that if they didn’t have these teachings they would be at the bottom, but it made them more superior to the peasants. The peasants were usually the ones that put their faith in the gods so when it came to the sophist teachings they didn’t want to hear reason. They thought that it was just another way the aristocrats used to bring them down. The peasants really didn’t have much to say anyway because most of the sophist talks were among aristocrats.

Speech making was popular among the leaders of Athens. Even the ones that didn’t necessarily like to give speeches were very good at it. Speech making was not always the best decision, because that was the time when you would talk to large audiences, what you said determined how they would react. It was either you get the people to cheer you on or the people got angry and started to dislike you. Speech making can cause your power and respect to drop with one wrong statement. Speech making also went unheard by many. They would just come, but not pay attention to the things that are being said by the speaker. Speech making is good because it is a way for the leaders to gain the peoples trust, respect and persuading them to do the things that they want them to do.

on why things happened the way they did. The religious feared the gods so much that they did not want to bel

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