What Is The Funeral Oration In Thucydides's Funeral Oration?

Pericles in 430 / 431 BCE recited his famous Funeral Oration at the annual public funeral for Athenian war casualties. This speech which is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful works of oratory/literature in history was recorded by Thucydides. By his recording of the Funeral Oration, we must question his motives – what would cause Thucydides to preserve this speech through writing? One answer could be that Thucydides noticed Athens was at a cusp (a point of inflection) in Athenian history / society. By 430 BCE the 30 Years Peace with Sparta had been broken and it was the start of the Second Peloponnesian War. Athens now needed its citizens to be strong and fight for their way of life. By recording the Funeral Oration Thucydides

However, the speech itself is of a persuasive nature; whereby Socles of Corinth is presenting his defense for the Athenian democracy. One must also question the reason for Herodotus to record this speech, which was subsequently published in 440 BCE and conveniently positioned five years after the end of the first Peloponnesian war. Taking this into consideration it would be safe to reason that Herodotus’ agenda for the recording of this speech was to show the Athenian society yet another victory for their democracy. By Herodotus being an Athenian we can also reason that he wrote down this speech for an Athenian audience. Five years after the first Peloponnesian war the democracy was still in a fragile state. This speech now written down and preserved would be able to remind any Athenian (who could read) that their democracy is worth fighting

Spoken at the public funeral of the fallen Athenian soldiers, Pericles gave his words of remembrance in a largely indirect manner by referencing Athens. Through the assistance of Thucydides, we have a written record of the words that Pericles may have spoken over 2,400 years ago. Similar to the work from Herodotus, Pericles’ Funeral Oration is a commemoration speech by Pericles and historical documentation / journalism by Thucydides. Pericles’ indirect commemoration of the fallen is best demonstrated at 2.42: “I have dwelt upon the greatness of Athens … [it is] a higher prize … and to establish by manifest proof the merit of these men whom I am now commemorating”. Here Thucydides writes that Athens was the “higher prize” meaning that the democracy and their freedom was worth fighting for. Pericles spoke that “these men nobly fought and died; they could not bear the thought that [Athens] might be taken from them” (Thucydides, 2.41). Pericles after saying this then urges the living citizens of Athens to “toil” on the behalf of their democracy which their fallen valiantly paid for with their lives. Pericles then wraps back around to explain why speaking about Athens commemorates the fallen best – “Their loftiest praise has been already spoken. For in magnifying the city I have magnified them, and men like them whose virtues made her glorious” (Thucydides, 2.42). Therefore, by speaking of