Pericles, Funeral Oration

Thucydides’s “Funeral Oration of Pericles” comes from The History of the Peloponnesian War. Although Thucydides was an eyewitness to the war, he promised never to report anything without interviewing multiple witnesses. He died with his treatise incomplete—stopping mid-sentence—yet every historian of ancient Greece who succeeded him began where his narrative stopped. The best-known and most-quoted portion of his work is the funeral oration given by the military leader Pericles in 431 BCE, after the first year of the war; it commemorated the Athenians who died in battle that year, giving them an equal burial at the expense of the state. Thucydides notes that none of the speeches is recorded verbatim.

This guide uses the text from the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University. All quotes from this text are cited based on the traditional divisions of the work: book, chapter, and section.

Just before the funeral oration begins, Thucydides explains the customs associated with this memorial celebration. The dead were cremated on the battlefield and brought back to Athens to be interred in one of 10 coffins representing each of the tribes, or demes. There is an 11th coffin for those missing in action. For three days, friends and family are allowed to make offerings to the fallen. On the third day, after a procession and an official burial of the 11 coffins, one man is chosen by the elected officials to make a speech.

Pericles begins with a tone of humility. He claims that since the men are being honored for their deeds, then the ceremony of offerings and the procession are the best memorial, since these are also deeds. He knows he will not satisfy everyone, but he acknowledges that it is his duty to speak. He states that he will do his best.

While traditional funeral orations begin with a long acknowledgment of the ancestors’ military deeds, Pericles mentions them only briefly; he states that their history is well known to his listeners. Instead, he wants to discuss the patriotism of Athens itself. He starts with the constitution, which serves as a model for other city-states: Athens “does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves” (2.37.1). Pericles reminds his audience of the great benefits of living under a democracy; they live without jealousy, with the benefit of community celebrations, and with luxuries both from home and from far away. He praises the willingness to not only live under the law but to also act as judges when necessary. He claims that only in Athens can a person expect “equal justice” without reference to wealth or social class, since “our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters” (2.40.2).

Pericles also dwells on Athenians’ educational, military, and artistic excellence:

We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it (2.40.1).

He claims that Athenians could teach their fellow Greeks much about the use of resources, as he doubts the world “can produce a man [...] equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility as the Athenian” (2.41.1). He lauds the people’s generosity, claiming that an Athenian is happier to give favors than to receive them.

Pericles claims that he speaks about these Athenian attributes so much because he wants his audience to understand that the men who are being celebrated died for a much greater cause than that of the non-Athenians involved in the war. With ringing patriotism, he moves on to praise those who chose to “to die resisting, rather than to live submitting” (2.42.4). According to Pericles, dying for such a wondrous state as Athens is better than submitting to the whims of fortune for a longer life. He claims there is nothing greater than this death, since it will cover any personal imperfections in the cloak of patriotic redemption.

Finally, he acknowledges the grief of those present, “for grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed” (2.44.2). He wants the survivors to know and accept that they, too, may be called upon to defend Athens, but they may hope for life instead of death. Pericles asks the parents of the dead, if they are still young enough, to produce more children to ease the pain of their loss and give Athens a new generation that will be as celebrated as the men who died. Those who are too old to have more children should be happy they have little life left in which to mourn. Pericles asks the sons and brothers of the dead to carry on the struggle and to hope that they can equal—or even exceed—the greatness of those they lost. Widows of the dead are encouraged to avoid “falling short of [their] natural character” and to avoid attracting notice; it is best to be “least talked of among the men whether for good or for bad” (2.45.2).

Pericles concludes with a reminder that dying for Athens provides for one’s family. The state not only pays for the funerals of those who died in war, but it will also support their children to adulthood, as “the rewards for merit are greatest, [where] are found the best citizens” (2.46.1). Then, he dismisses the gathering.